56-576 - Definitions.
§ 56-576. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
"Affiliate" means any person that controls, is controlled by, or is undercommon control with an electric utility.
"Aggregator" means a person that, as an agent or intermediary, (i) offersto purchase, or purchases, electric energy or (ii) offers to arrange for, orarranges for, the purchase of electric energy, for sale to, or on behalf of,two or more retail customers not controlled by or under common control withsuch person. The following activities shall not, in and of themselves, make aperson an aggregator under this chapter: (i) furnishing legal services to twoor more retail customers, suppliers or aggregators; (ii) furnishingeducational, informational, or analytical services to two or more retailcustomers, unless direct or indirect compensation for such services is paidby an aggregator or supplier of electric energy; (iii) furnishingeducational, informational, or analytical services to two or more suppliersor aggregators; (iv) providing default service under § 56-585; (v) engagingin activities of a retail electric energy supplier, licensed pursuant to §56-587, which are authorized by such supplier's license; and (vi) engaging inactions of a retail customer, in common with one or more other such retailcustomers, to issue a request for proposal or to negotiate a purchase ofelectric energy for consumption by such retail customers.
"Combined heat and power" means a method of using waste heat fromelectrical generation to offset traditional processes, space heating, airconditioning, or refrigeration.
"Commission" means the State Corporation Commission.
"Cooperative" means a utility formed under or subject to Chapter 9.1 (§56-231.15 et seq.) of this title.
"Covered entity" means a provider in the Commonwealth of an electricservice not subject to competition but shall not include default serviceproviders.
"Covered transaction" means an acquisition, merger, or consolidation of, orother transaction involving stock, securities, voting interests or assets bywhich one or more persons obtains control of a covered entity.
"Curtailment" means inducing retail customers to reduce load during timesof peak demand so as to ease the burden on the electrical grid.
"Customer choice" means the opportunity for a retail customer in theCommonwealth to purchase electric energy from any supplier licensed andseeking to sell electric energy to that customer.
"Demand response" means measures aimed at shifting time of use ofelectricity from peak-use periods to times of lower demand by inducing retailcustomers to curtail electricity usage during periods of congestion andhigher prices in the electrical grid.
"Distribute," "distributing," or "distribution of" electric energymeans the transfer of electric energy through a retail distribution system toa retail customer.
"Distributor" means a person owning, controlling, or operating a retaildistribution system to provide electric energy directly to retail customers.
"Electric utility" means any person that generates, transmits, ordistributes electric energy for use by retail customers in the Commonwealth,including any investor-owned electric utility, cooperative electric utility,or electric utility owned or operated by a municipality.
"Energy efficiency program" means a program that reduces the total amountof electricity that is required for the same process or activity implementedafter the expiration of capped rates. Energy efficiency programs includeequipment, physical, or program change designed to produce measured andverified reductions in the amount of electricity required to perform the samefunction and produce the same or a similar outcome. Energy efficiencyprograms may include, but are not limited to, (i) programs that result inimprovements in lighting design, heating, ventilation, and air conditioningsystems, appliances, building envelopes, and industrial and commercialprocesses; and (ii) measures, such as but not limited to the installation ofadvanced meters, implemented or installed by utilities, that reduce fuel useor losses of electricity and otherwise improve internal operating efficiencyin generation, transmission, and distribution systems. Energy efficiencyprograms include demand response, combined heat and power and waste heatrecovery, curtailment, or other programs that are designed to reduceelectricity consumption so long as they reduce the total amount ofelectricity that is required for the same process or activity. Utilitiesshall be authorized to install and operate such advanced metering technologyand equipment on a customer's premises; however, nothing in this chapterestablishes a requirement that an energy efficiency program be implemented ona customer's premises and be connected to a customer's wiring on thecustomer's side of the inter-connection without the customer's expressedconsent.
"Generate," "generating," or "generation of" electric energy means theproduction of electric energy.
"Generator" means a person owning, controlling, or operating a facilitythat produces electric energy for sale.
"Incumbent electric utility" means each electric utility in theCommonwealth that, prior to July 1, 1999, supplied electric energy to retailcustomers located in an exclusive service territory established by theCommission.
"Independent system operator" means a person that may receive or hasreceived, by transfer pursuant to this chapter, any ownership or control of,or any responsibility to operate, all or part of the transmission systems inthe Commonwealth.
"Measured and verified" means a process determined pursuant to methodsaccepted for use by utilities and industries to measure, verify, and validateenergy savings and peak demand savings. This may include the protocolestablished by the United States Department of Energy, Office of FederalEnergy Management Programs, Measurement and Verification Guidance for FederalEnergy Projects, measurement and verification standards developed by theAmerican Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers(ASHRAE), or engineering-based estimates of energy and demand savingsassociated with specific energy efficiency measures, as determined by theCommission.
"Municipality" means a city, county, town, authority, or other politicalsubdivision of the Commonwealth.
"Peak-shaving" means measures aimed solely at shifting time of use ofelectricity from peak-use periods to times of lower demand by inducing retailcustomers to curtail electricity usage during periods of congestion andhigher prices in the electrical grid.
"Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, association,company, business, trust, joint venture, or other private legal entity, andthe Commonwealth or any municipality.
"Renewable energy" means energy derived from sunlight, wind, falling water,biomass, sustainable or otherwise, (the definitions of which shall beliberally construed), energy from waste, municipal solid waste, wave motion,tides, and geothermal power, and does not include energy derived from coal,oil, natural gas or nuclear power. Renewable energy shall also include theproportion of the thermal or electric energy from a facility that resultsfrom the co-firing of biomass.
"Retail customer" means any person that purchases retail electric energyfor its own consumption at one or more metering points or nonmetered pointsof delivery located in the Commonwealth.
"Retail electric energy" means electric energy sold for ultimateconsumption to a retail customer.
"Revenue reductions related to energy efficiency programs" means reductionsin the collection of total non-fuel revenues, previously authorized by theCommission to be recovered from customers by a utility, that occur due tomeasured and verified decreased consumption of electricity caused by energyefficiency programs approved by the Commission and implemented by theutility, less the amount by which such non-fuel reductions in total revenueshave been mitigated through other program-related factors, includingreductions in variable operating expenses.
"Supplier" means any generator, distributor, aggregator, broker, marketer,or other person who offers to sell or sells electric energy to retailcustomers and is licensed by the Commission to do so, but it does not mean agenerator that produces electric energy exclusively for its own consumptionor the consumption of an affiliate.
"Supply" or "supplying" electric energy means the sale of or the offer tosell electric energy to a retail customer.
"Transmission of," "transmit," or "transmitting" electric energy meansthe transfer of electric energy through the Commonwealth's interconnectedtransmission grid from a generator to either a distributor or a retailcustomer.
"Transmission system" means those facilities and equipment that arerequired to provide for the transmission of electric energy.
(1999, c. 411; 2000, c. 991; 2001, c. 421; 2007, cc. 888, 933; 2008, cc. 272,883; 2009, cc. 748, 824.)