In this chapter, the following definitions apply unless the
context indicates otherwise:
(1) Above-market purchased power costs--Wholesale demand
and energy costs that a utility is obligated to pay under an existing
purchased power contract to the extent the costs are greater than
the purchased power market value.
(2) Affected person--means:
(A) a public utility or electric cooperative affected
by an action of a regulatory authority;
(B) a person whose utility service or rates are affected
by a proceeding before a regulatory authority; or
(C) a person who:
(i) is a competitor of a public utility with respect
to a service performed by the utility; or
(ii) wants to enter into competition with a public
utility.
(3) Affiliate--means:
(A) a person who directly or indirectly owns or holds
at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
(B) a person in a chain of successive ownership of
at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
(C) a corporation that has at least 5.0% of its voting
securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a public
utility;
(D) a corporation that has at least 5.0% of its voting
securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by:
(i) a person who directly or indirectly owns or controls
at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility; or
(ii) a person in a chain of successive ownership of
at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
(E) a person who is an officer or director of a public
utility or of a corporation in a chain of successive ownership of
at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility; or
(F) a person determined to be an affiliate under Public
Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §11.006.
(4) Affiliated electric utility--The electric utility
from which an affiliated retail electric provider was unbundled in
accordance with PURA §39.051.
(5) Affiliated power generation company (APGC)--A power
generation company that is affiliated with or the successor in interest
of an electric utility certificated to serve an area.
(6) Affiliated retail electric provider (AREP)--A retail
electric provider that is affiliated with or the successor in interest
of an electric utility certificated to serve an area.
(7) Aggregation--Includes the following:
(A) the purchase of electricity from a retail electric
provider, a municipally owned utility, or an electric cooperative
by an electricity customer for its own use in multiple locations,
provided that an electricity customer may not avoid any non-bypassable
charges or fees as a result of aggregating its load; or
(B) the purchase of electricity by an electricity customer
as part of a voluntary association of electricity customers, provided
that an electricity customer may not avoid any non-bypassable charges
or fees as a result of aggregating its load.
(8) Aggregator--A person joining two or more customers,
other than municipalities and political subdivision corporations,
into a single purchasing unit to negotiate the purchase of electricity
from retail electric providers. Aggregators may not sell or take title
to electricity. Retail electric providers are not aggregators.
(9) Ancillary service--A service necessary to facilitate
the transmission of electric energy including load following, standby
power, backup power, reactive power, and any other services the commission
may determine by rule.
(10) Base rate--Generally, a rate designed to recover
the cost of service other than certain costs separately identified
and recovered through a rider, rate schedule, or other schedule. For
bundled utilities, these separately identified costs may include items
such as a fuel factor, power cost recovery factor, and surcharge.
Distribution service providers may have separately identified costs
such as transition costs, the excess mitigation charge, transmission
cost recovery factors, and the competition transition charge.
(11) Bundled Municipally Owned Utilities/Electric Cooperatives
(MOU/COOP)--A municipally owned utility/electric cooperative that
is conducting both transmission and distribution activities and competitive
energy-related activities on a bundled basis without structural or
functional separation of transmission and distribution functions from
competitive energy-related activities and that makes a written declaration
of its status as a bundled municipally owned utility/electric cooperative
pursuant to §25.275(o)(3)(A) of this title (relating to Code
of Conduct for Municipally Owned Utilities and Electric Cooperatives
Engaged in Competitive Activities).
(12) Calendar year--January 1 through December 31.
(13) Commission--The Public Utility Commission of Texas.
(14) Competition transition charge (CTC)--Any non-bypassable
charge that recovers the positive excess of the net book value of
generation assets over the market value of the assets, taking into
account all of the electric utility's generation assets, any above
market purchased power costs, and any deferred debit related to a
utility's discontinuance of the application of Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards Number 71 ("Accounting for the Effects of Certain
Types of Regulation") for generation-related assets if required by
the provisions of PURA chapter 39. For purposes of PURA §39.262,
book value shall be established as of December 31, 2001, or the date
a market value is established through a market valuation method under
PURA §39.262(h), whichever is earlier, and shall include stranded
costs incurred under PURA §39.263. Competition transition charges
also include the transition charges established pursuant to PURA §39.302(7)
unless the context indicates otherwise.
(15) Competitive affiliate--An affiliate of a utility
that provides services or sells products in a competitive energy-related
market in this state, including telecommunications services, to the
extent those services are energy-related.
(16) Competitive energy efficiency services--Energy
efficiency services that are defined as competitive energy services
under §25.341 of this title (relating to Definitions).
(17) Competitive retailer--A retail electric provider;
or a municipally owned utility or electric cooperative, that has the
right to offer electric energy and related services at unregulated
prices directly to retail customers who have customer choice, without
regard to geographic location.
(18) Congestion zone--An area of the transmission network
that is bounded by commercially significant transmission constraints
or otherwise identified as a zone that is subject to transmission
constraints, as defined by an independent organization.
(19) Control area--An electric power system or combination
of electric power systems to which a common automatic generation control
scheme is applied in order to:
(A) match, at all times, the power output of the generators
within the electric power system(s) and capacity and energy purchased
from entities outside the electric power system(s), with the load
within the electric power system(s);
(B) maintain, within the limits of good utility practice,
scheduled interchange with other control areas;
(C) maintain the frequency of the electric power system(s)
within reasonable limits in accordance with good utility practice;
and
(D) obtain sufficient generating capacity to maintain
operating reserves in accordance with good utility practice.
(20) Corporation--A domestic or foreign corporation,
joint-stock company, or association, and each lessee, assignee, trustee,
receiver, or other successor in interest of the corporation, company,
or association, that has any of the powers or privileges of a corporation
not possessed by an individual or partnership. The term does not include
a municipal corporation or electric cooperative, except as expressly
provided by PURA.
(21) Critical loads--Loads for which electric service
is considered crucial for the protection or maintenance of public
health and safety; including but not limited to hospitals, police
stations, fire stations, critical water and wastewater facilities,
and customers with special in-house life-sustaining equipment.
(22) Customer choice--The freedom of a retail customer
to purchase electric services, either individually or through voluntary
aggregation with other retail customers, from the provider or providers
of the customer's choice and to choose among various fuel types, energy
efficiency programs, and renewable power suppliers.
(23) Customer class--A group of customers with similar
electric-service characteristics (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial,
sales for resale) taking service under one or more rate schedules.
Qualified businesses as defined by the Texas Enterprise Zone Act,
Texas Government Code, title 10, chapter 2303 may be considered to
be a separate customer class of electric utilities.
(24) Day-ahead--The day preceding the operating day.
(25) Deemed savings--A pre-determined, validated estimate
of energy and peak demand savings attributable to an energy efficiency
measure in a particular type of application that a utility may use
instead of energy and peak demand savings determined through measurement
and verification activities.
(26) Demand--The rate at which electric energy is delivered
to or by a system at a given instant, or averaged over a designated
period, usually expressed in kilowatts (kW) or megawatts (MW).
(27) Demand savings--A quantifiable reduction in the
rate at which energy is delivered to or by a system at a given instance,
or averaged over a designated period, usually expressed in kilowatts
(kW) or megawatts (MW).
(28) Demand-side management (DSM)--Activities that
affect the magnitude or timing of customer electrical usage, or both.
(29) Demand-side resource or demand-side management--Equipment,
materials, and activities that result in reductions in electric generation,
transmission, or distribution capacity needs or reductions in energy
usage or both.
(30) Disconnection of service--Interruption of a customer's
supply of electric service at the customer's point of delivery by
an electric utility, a transmission and distribution utility, a municipally
owned utility or an electric cooperative.
(31) Distribution line--A power line operated below
60,000 volts, when measured phase-to-phase, that is owned by an electric
utility, transmission and distribution utility, municipally owned
utility, or electric cooperative.
(32) Distributed resource--A generation, energy storage,
or targeted demand-side resource, generally between one kilowatt and
ten megawatts, located at a customer's site or near a load center,
which may be connected at the distribution voltage level (below 60,000
volts), that provides advantages to the system, such as deferring
the need for upgrading local distribution facilities.
(33) Distribution service provider (DSP)--An electric
utility, municipally-owned utility, or electric cooperative that owns
or operates for compensation in this state equipment or facilities
that are used for the distribution of electricity to retail customers
including retail customers served at transmission voltage levels.
(34) Economically distressed geographic area--Zip-code
area in which the average household income is less than or equal to
60% of the statewide median income as reported in the most recently
available United States Census data.
(35) Electric cooperative--
(A) a corporation organized under the Texas Utilities
Code, Chapter 161 or a predecessor statute to Chapter 161 and operating
under that chapter;
(B) a corporation organized as an electric cooperative
in a state other than Texas that has obtained a certificate of authority
to conduct affairs in the State of Texas; or
(C) a successor to an electric cooperative created
before June 1, 1999, in accordance with a conversion plan approved
by a vote of the members of the electric cooperative, regardless of
whether the successor later purchases, acquires, merges with, or consolidates
with other electric cooperatives.
(36) Electric generating facility--A facility that
generates electric energy for compensation and that is owned or operated
by a person in this state, including a municipal corporation, electric
cooperative, or river authority.
(37) Electric generation equipment lessor or operator--A
person who rents to, or operates for compensation on behalf of, a
third party electric generation equipment that:
(A) is used on a site of the third party until the
third party is able to obtain sufficient electricity service;
(B) produces electricity on site to be consumed by
the third party and not resold; and
(C) does not interconnect with the electric transmission
or distribution system.
(38) Electricity facts label--Information in a standardized
format, as described in §25.475(f) of this title (relating to
Information Disclosures to Residential and Small Commercial Customers),
that summarizes the price, contract terms, fuel sources, and environmental
impact associated with an electricity product.
Cont'd... |
