(a) Upon complaint or upon its own motion and upon reasonable notice and after a hearing, the Arkansas Public Service Commission shall have the power to:
(1) Find and fix just, reasonable, and sufficient rates to be thereafter observed, enforced, and demanded by any public utility;
(2) Determine the reasonable, safe, adequate, and sufficient service to be observed, furnished, enforced, or employed by any public utility and to fix this service by its order, or rule;
(3) Ascertain and fix adequate and reasonable standards, classifications, rules, practices, and services to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by any or all public utilities;
(4) Ascertain and fix adequate and reasonable standards for the measurement of quantity, quality, pressure, initial voltage, or other conditions pertaining to the supply of all products, commodities, or services furnished or rendered by any and all public utilities;
(5) Prescribe reasonable rules for the examination and testing of the production, commodity, or service, and, for the measurement thereof, establish or approve reasonable rules, specifications, and standards to secure the accuracy of all meters or appliances for measurement;
(6) Provide for the examination and testing of any and all appliances used for the measurement of any product, commodity, or service of any public utility;
(7)
(A) Ascertain and fix the value of the whole or any part of the property of any public utility insofar as this value is material to the exercise of the jurisdiction of the commission.
(B) The commission may make revaluations of the whole or any part of the property from time to time and may ascertain the value of any new construction, extension, and addition to or retirement from the property of every public utility;
(8)
(A) Require any or all public utilities to carry a proper and adequate depreciation account in accordance with such rules and forms of account as the commission may prescribe.
(B) The commission may ascertain, determine, and by order fix the proper and adequate rates of depreciation of the several classes of property of each public utility.
(C) Each public utility shall conform its depreciation accounts to the rates so ascertained, determined, and fixed by the commission;
(9) Assure that retail customers should have access to safe, reliable, and affordable electricity, including protection against service disconnections in extreme weather or in cases of medical emergency or nonpayment for unrelated services;
(10)
(A) Assure that electric utility bills, usage, and payment records should be treated as confidential unless the retail customer consents to their release or the information is provided only in the aggregate.
(B) Notwithstanding subdivision (a)(10)(A) of this section, release of such information may be made pursuant to subpoena, court order, or other applicable statute or rule; and
(11)
(A)
(i) Propose, develop, solicit, approve, require, implement, and monitor financial assistance programs for utility customers who are sixty-five (65) years of age or older or who meet the income eligibility qualifications of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program administered by the Arkansas Energy Office of the Division of Environmental Quality.
(ii) After notice and a hearing, the commission may approve and order a financial assistance program for utility customers if the commission determines that the financial assistance program is beneficial to the ratepayers of a public utility and the public utility.
(B) The commission shall not fix rates, charges, or surcharges that recover, directly or indirectly, any portion of the cost of programs authorized under subdivision (a)(11)(A) of this section from a ratepayer that is not in the customer class of ratepayers eligible to participate in the programs.
(b) Because of competitive and technological changes relating to the services provided by telephone public utilities, the commission, upon petition by the telephone public utility, after notice and hearing and a finding that it is in the public interest, may deviate from the rate-base rate of return method of regulation in establishing rates and charges for services provided by the telephone public utility.
(c) In the discharge of its duties under this act, the commission may cooperate with regulatory commissions of other states and of the United States. It may also hold joint hearings and make joint investigations with such commissions.