16 Tex. Admin. Code § 25.5 - Definitions
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.
(39) Electricity product--A specific type of
retail electricity service developed and identified by a REP, the specific
terms and conditions of which are summarized in an electricity facts label that
is specific to that electricity product.
(40) Electric Reliability Council of Texas
(ERCOT)--Refers to the independent organization and, in a geographic sense,
refers to the area served by electric utilities, municipally owned utilities,
and electric cooperatives that are not synchronously interconnected with
electric utilities outside of the State of Texas.
(41) Electric service identifier (ESI
ID)--The basic identifier assigned to each point of delivery used in the
registration system and settlement system managed by ERCOT or another
independent organization.
(42)
Electric utility--Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, an electric
utility is a person or river authority that owns or operates for compensation
in this state equipment or facilities to produce, generate, transmit,
distribute, sell, or furnish electricity in this state. The term includes a
lessee, trustee, or receiver of an electric utility and a recreational vehicle
park owner who does not comply with Texas Utilities Code, subchapter C, chapter
184, with regard to the metered sale of electricity at the recreational vehicle
park. The term does not include:
(A) a
municipal corporation;
(B) a
qualifying facility;
(C) a power
generation company;
(D) an exempt
wholesale generator;
(E) a power
marketer;
(F) a corporation
described by PURA §32.053 to the extent the corporation sells electricity
exclusively at wholesale and not to the ultimate consumer;
(G) an electric cooperative;
(H) a retail electric provider;
(I) the state of Texas or an agency of the
state; or
(J) a person not
otherwise an electric utility who:
(i)
furnishes an electric service or commodity only to itself, its employees, or
its tenants as an incident of employment or tenancy, if that service or
commodity is not resold to or used by others;
(ii) owns or operates in this state equipment
or facilities to produce, generate, transmit, distribute, sell or furnish
electric energy to an electric utility, if the equipment or facilities are used
primarily to produce and generate electric energy for consumption by that
person;
(iii) owns or operates in
this state a recreational vehicle park that provides metered electric service
in accordance with Texas Utilities Code, subchapter C, chapter 184;
(iv) is an electric generation equipment
lessor or operator; or
(v) owns or
operates in this state equipment used solely to provide electricity charging
service for consumption by an alternatively fueled vehicle, as defined by
section
502.004 of the
Transportation Code.
(43) Energy efficiency--Programs that are
aimed at reducing the rate at which electric energy is used by equipment or
processes. Reduction in the rate of energy used may be obtained by substituting
technically more advanced equipment to produce the same level of end-use
services with less electricity; adoption of technologies and processes that
reduce heat or other energy losses; or reorganization of processes to make use
of waste heat. Efficient use of energy by customer-owned end-use devices
implies that existing comfort levels, convenience, and productivity are
maintained or improved at a lower customer cost.
(44) Energy efficiency measures--Equipment,
materials, and practices that when installed and used at a customer site result
in a measurable and verifiable reduction in either purchased electric energy
consumption, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), or peak demand, measured in kW,
or both.
(45) Energy efficiency
project--An energy efficiency measure or combination of measures installed
under a standard offer contract or a market transformation contract that
results in both a reduction in customers' electric energy consumption and peak
demand, and energy costs.
(46)
Energy efficiency service provider (EESP)--A person who installs energy
efficiency measures or performs other energy efficiency services. An energy
efficiency service provider may be a retail electric provider or large
commercial customer, if the person has executed a standard offer
contract.
(47) Energy savings--A
quantifiable reduction in a customer's consumption of energy.
(48) ERCOT protocols--Body of procedures
developed by ERCOT to maintain the reliability of the regional electric network
and account for the production and delivery of electricity among resources and
market participants.
(49) ERCOT
region--The geographic area under the jurisdiction of the commission that is
served by transmission service providers that are not synchronously
interconnected with transmission service providers outside of the state of
Texas.
(50) Exempt wholesale
generator--A person who is engaged directly or indirectly through one or more
affiliates exclusively in the business of owning or operating all or part of a
facility for generating electric energy and selling electric energy at
wholesale who does not own a facility for the transmission of electricity,
other than an essential interconnecting transmission facility necessary to
effect a sale of electric energy at wholesale.
(51) Existing purchased power contract--A
purchased power contract in effect on January 1, 1999, including any amendments
and revisions to that contract resulting from litigation initiated before
January 1, 1999.
(52)
Facilities--All the plant and equipment of an electric utility, including all
tangible and intangible property, without limitation, owned, operated, leased,
licensed, used, controlled, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the
business of an electric utility.
(53) Financing order--An order of the
commission adopted under PURA §39.201 or §39.262 approving the
issuance of transition bonds and the creation of transition charges for the
recovery of qualified costs.
(54)
Freeze period--The period beginning on January 1, 1999, and ending on December
31, 2001.
(55) Generation
assets--All assets associated with the production of electricity, including
generation plants, electrical interconnections of the generation plant to the
transmission system, fuel contracts, fuel transportation contracts, water
contracts, lands, surface or subsurface water rights, emissions-related
allowances, and gas pipeline interconnections.
(56) Generation service--The production and
purchase of electricity for retail customers and the production, purchase, and
sale of electricity in the wholesale power market.
(57) Good utility practice--Any of the
practices, methods, or acts engaged in or approved by a significant portion of
the electric utility industry during the relevant time period, or any of the
practices, methods, or acts that, in the exercise of reasonable judgment in
light of the facts known at the time the decision was made, could have been
expected to accomplish the desired result at a reasonable cost consistent with
good business practices, reliability, safety, and expedition. Good utility
practice is not intended to be limited to the optimum practice, method, or act,
to the exclusion of all others, but rather is intended to include acceptable
practices, methods, and acts generally accepted in the region.
(58) Hearing--Any proceeding at which
evidence is taken on the merits of the matters at issue, not including
prehearing conferences.
(59)
Independent organization--An independent system operator or other person that
is sufficiently independent of any producer or seller of electricity that its
decisions will not be unduly influenced by any producer or seller.
(60) Independent system operator--An entity
supervising the collective transmission facilities of a power region that is
charged with non-discriminatory coordination of market transactions, systemwide
transmission planning, and network reliability.
(61) Installed generation capacity--All
potentially marketable electric generation capacity, including the capacity of:
(A) generating facilities that are connected
with a transmission or distribution system;
(B) generating facilities used to generate
electricity for consumption by the person owning or controlling the facility;
and
(C) generating facilities that
will be connected with a transmission or distribution system and operating
within 12 months.
(62)
Interconnection agreement--The standard form of agreement that has been
approved by the commission. The interconnection agreement sets forth the
contractual conditions under which a company and a customer agree that one or
more facilities may be interconnected with the company's utility
system.
(63) Licensing--The
commission process for granting, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension,
annulment, withdrawal, or amendment of a license.
(64) Load factor--The ratio of average load
to peak load during a specific period of time, expressed as a percent. The load
factor indicates to what degree energy has been consumed compared to maximum
demand or utilization of units relative to total system capability.
(65) Low-income customer--An electric
customer who receives assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) from Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) or
medical assistance from a state agency administering a part of the medical
assistance program.
(66) Low-Income
List Administrator (LILA)--A third-party administrator contracted by the
commission to administer aspects of the low-income customer identification
process established under PURA §17.007.
(67) Market power mitigation plan--A written
proposal by an electric utility or a power generation company for reducing its
ownership and control of installed generation capacity as required by PURA
§39.154.
(68) Market
value--For nonnuclear assets and certain nuclear assets, the value the assets
would have if bought and sold in a bona fide third-party transaction or
transactions on the open market under PURA §39.262(h) or, for certain
nuclear assets, as described by PURA §39.262(i), the value determined
under the method provided by that subsection.
(69) Master meter--A meter used to measure,
for billing purposes, all electric usage of an apartment house or mobile home
park, including common areas, common facilities, and dwelling units.
(70) Municipality--A city, incorporated
village, or town, existing, created, or organized under the general, home rule,
or special laws of the state.
(71)
Municipally-owned utility (MOU)--Any utility owned, operated, and controlled by
a municipality or by a nonprofit corporation whose directors are appointed by
one or more municipalities.
(72)
Nameplate rating--The full-load continuous rating of a generator under
specified conditions as designated by the manufacturer.
(73) Native load customer--A wholesale or
retail customer on whose behalf an electric utility, electric cooperative, or
municipally-owned utility, by statute, franchise, regulatory requirement, or
contract, has an obligation to construct and operate its system to meet in a
reliable manner the electric needs of the customer.
(74) Natural gas energy credit (NGEC)--A
tradable instrument representing each megawatt of new generating capacity
fueled by natural gas, as authorized by PURA §39.9044 and implemented
under §
25.172 of this title (relating to
Goal for Natural Gas).
(75) Net
book value--The original cost of an asset less accumulated
depreciation.
(76) Net dependable
capability--The maximum load in megawatts, net of station use, that a
generating unit or generating station can carry under specified conditions for
a given period of time without exceeding approved limits of temperature and
stress.
(77) New on-site
generation--Electric generation with capacity greater than ten megawatts
capable of being lawfully delivered to the site without use of utility
distribution or transmission facilities, which was not, on or before December
31, 1999, either:
(A) A fully operational
facility; or
(B) A project
supported by substantially complete filings for all necessary site-specific
environmental permits under the rules of the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission (TNRCC) in effect at the time of filing.
(78) Off-grid renewable
generation--The generation of renewable energy in an application that is not
interconnected to a utility transmission or distribution system.
(79) Other generation sources--A competitive
retailer's or affiliated retail electric provider's supply of generated
electricity that is not accounted for by a direct supply contract with an owner
of generation assets.
(80)
Person--Includes an individual, a partnership of two or more persons having a
joint or common interest, a mutual or cooperative association, and a
corporation, but does not include an electric cooperative.
(81) Power cost recovery factor (PCRF)--A
charge or credit that reflects an increase or decrease in purchased power costs
not in base rates.
(82) Power
generation company (PGC)--A person that:
(A)
generates electricity that is intended to be sold at wholesale, including the
owner or operator of electric energy storage equipment or facilities to which
the Public Utility Regulatory Act, chapter 35, subchapter E applies;
(B) does not own a transmission or
distribution facility in this state, other than an essential interconnecting
facility, a facility not dedicated to public use, or a facility otherwise
excluded from the definition of "electric utility" under this section;
and
(C) does not have a
certificated service area, although its affiliated electric utility or
transmission and distribution utility may have a certificated service
area.
(83) Power
marketer--A person who becomes an owner of electric energy in this state for
the purpose of selling the electric energy at wholesale; does not own
generation, transmission, or distribution facilities in this state and does not
have a certificated service area.
(84) Power region--A contiguous geographical
area that is a distinct region of the North American Electric Reliability
Council.
(85) Pre-interconnection
study--A study or studies that may be undertaken by a utility in response to
its receipt of a completed application for interconnection and parallel
operation with the utility system at distribution voltage. Pre-interconnection
studies may include, but are not limited to, service studies, coordination
studies, and utility system impact studies.
(86) Premises--A tract of land or real estate
or related commonly used tracts including buildings and other appurtenances
thereon.
(87) Price to beat
(PTB)--A price for electricity, as determined under PURA §39.202, charged
by an affiliated retail electric provider to eligible residential and small
commercial customers in its service area.
(88) Proceeding--A hearing, investigation,
inquiry, or other procedure for finding facts or making a decision, including
adopting, amending, or repealing a rule or setting a rate. The term includes a
denial of relief or dismissal of a complaint.
(89) Proprietary customer information--Any
information obtained by a retail electric provider, an electric utility, or a
transmission and distribution business unit, as defined in §
25.275(c)(16) of
this title, on a customer in the course of providing electric service or by an
aggregator on a customer in the course of aggregating electric service that
makes possible the identification of any individual customer by matching such
information with the customer's name, address, account number, type or
classification of service, historical electricity usage, expected patterns of
use, types of facilities used in providing service, individual contract terms
and conditions, price, current charges, billing records, or any information
that the customer has expressly requested not be disclosed. Information that is
redacted or organized in such a way as to make it impossible to identify the
customer to whom the information relates does not constitute proprietary
customer information.
(90) Provider
of last resort (POLR)--A retail electric provider (REP) certified in Texas that
has been designated by the commission to provide a basic, standard retail
service package in accordance with §
25.43 of this title (relating to
Provider of Last Resort (POLR)).
(91) Public retail customer--A retail
customer that is an agency of this state, a state institution of higher
education, a public school district, or a political subdivision of this
state.
(92) Public utility or
utility--An electric utility as that term is defined in this section, or a
public utility or utility as those terms are defined in PURA
§51.002.
(93) Public Utility
Regulatory Act (PURA)--The enabling statute for the Public Utility Commission
of Texas, located in the Texas Utilities Code Annotated, §§11.001 et.
seq.
(94) Purchased power market
value--The value of demand and energy bought and sold in a bona fide
third-party transaction or transactions on the open market and determined by
using the weighted average costs of the highest three offers from the market
for purchase of the demand and energy available under the existing purchased
power contracts.
(95) Qualified
scheduling entity--A market participant that is qualified by ERCOT in
accordance with section 16, Registration and Qualification of Market
Participants of ERCOT's protocols, to submit balanced schedules and ancillary
services bids and settle payments with ERCOT.
(96) Qualifying cogenerator--As defined by
16 U.S.C. §
796 (18)(C). A qualifying cogenerator that
provides electricity to the purchaser of the cogenerator's thermal output is
not for that reason considered to be a retail electric provider or a power
generation company.
(97) Qualifying
facility--A qualifying cogenerator or qualifying small power
producer.
(98) Qualifying small
power producer--As defined by
16 U.S.C. §
796 (17)(D).
(99) Rate--A compensation, tariff, charge,
fare, toll, rental, or classification that is directly or indirectly demanded,
observed, charged, or collected by an electric utility for a service, product,
or commodity described in the definition of electric utility in this section
and a rule, practice, or contract affecting the compensation, tariff, charge,
fare, toll, rental, or classification that must be approved by a regulatory
authority.
(100) Rate class--A
group of customers taking electric service under the same rate
schedule.
(101) Rate year--The
12-month period beginning with the first date that rates become effective. The
first date that rates become effective may include, but is not limited to, the
effective date for bonded rates or the effective date for interim or temporary
rates.
(102) Ratemaking
proceeding--A proceeding in which a rate may be changed.
(103) Registration agent--Entity designated
by the commission to administer registration and settlement, premise data, and
other processes concerning a customer's choice of retail electric provider in
the competitive electric market in Texas.
(104) Regulatory authority--In accordance
with the context where it is found, either the commission or the governing body
of a municipality.
(105) Renewable
demand side management (DSM) technologies--Equipment that uses a renewable
energy resource (renewable resource) as defined in this section, that, when
installed at a customer site, reduces the customer's net purchases of energy
(kWh), electrical demand (kW), or both.
(106) Renewable energy--Energy derived from
renewable energy technologies.
(107) Renewable energy credit (REC)--A
tradable instrument representing the generation attributes of one MWh of
electricity from renewable energy sources, as authorized by the PURA
§39.904 and implemented under §
25.173(e) of
this title (relating to Goal for Renewable Energy).
(108) Renewable energy credit account (REC
account)--An account maintained by the renewable energy credits trading program
administrator for the purpose of tracking the production, sale, transfer,
purchase, and retirement of RECs by a program participant.
(109) Renewable energy resource (renewable
resource)--A resource that produces energy derived from renewable energy
technologies.
(110) Renewable
energy technology--Any technology that exclusively relies on an energy source
that is naturally regenerated over a short time and derived directly from the
sun, indirectly from the sun, or from moving water or other natural movements
and mechanisms of the environment. Renewable energy technologies include those
that rely on energy derived directly from the sun, on wind, geothermal,
hydroelectric, wave, or tidal energy, or on biomass or biomass-based waste
products, including landfill gas. A renewable energy technology does not rely
on energy resources derived from fossil fuels, waste products from fossil
fuels, or waste products from inorganic sources.
(111) Repowering--Modernizing or upgrading an
existing facility in order to increase its capacity or efficiency.
(112) Residential customer--Retail customers
classified as residential by the applicable bundled utility tariff, unbundled
transmission and distribution utility tariff or, in the absence of
classification under a residential rate class, those retail customers that are
primarily end users consuming electricity at the customer's place of residence
for personal, family or household purposes and who are not resellers of
electricity.
(113) Retail
customer--The separately metered end-use customer who purchases and ultimately
consumes electricity.
(114) Retail
electric provider (REP)--A person that sells electric energy to retail
customers in this state. A retail electric provider may not own or operate
generation assets. The term does not include a person not otherwise a retail
electric provider who owns or operates equipment used solely to provide
electricity charging service for consumption by an alternatively fueled
vehicle, as defined by Section
502.004,
Transportation Code.
(115) Retail
electric provider (REP) of record--The REP assigned to the electric service
identifier (ESI ID) in ERCOT's database. There can be no more than one REP of
record assigned to an ESI ID at any specific point in time.
(116) Retail stranded costs--That part of net
stranded cost associated with the provision of retail service.
(117) Retrofit--The installation of control
technology on an electric generating facility to reduce the emissions of
nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, or both.
(118) River authority--A conservation and
reclamation district created under the Texas Constitution, article 16, section
59, including any nonprofit corporation created by such a district pursuant to
the Texas Water Code, chapter 152, that is an electric utility.
(119) Rule--A statement of general
applicability that implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy, or
describes the procedure or practice requirements of the commission. The term
includes the amendment or repeal of a prior rule, but does not include
statements concerning only the internal management or organization of the
commission and not affecting private rights or procedures.
(120) Separately metered--Metered by an
individual meter that is used to measure electric energy consumption by a
retail customer and for which the customer is directly billed by a utility,
retail electric provider, electric cooperative, or municipally owned
utility.
(121) Service--Has its
broadest and most inclusive meaning. The term includes any act performed,
anything supplied, and any facilities used or supplied by an electric utility
in the performance of its duties under PURA to its patrons, employees, other
public utilities or electric utilities, an electric cooperative, and the
public. The term also includes the interchange of facilities between two or
more public utilities or electric utilities.
(122) Spanish-speaking person--A person who
speaks any dialect of the Spanish language exclusively or as their primary
language.
(123) Standard meter--The
minimum metering device necessary to obtain the billing determinants required
by the transmission and distribution utility's tariff schedule to determine an
end-use customer's charges for transmission and distribution service.
(124) Stranded cost--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 Effect 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.
(125)
Submetering--Metering of electricity consumption on the customer side of the
point at which the electric utility measures electricity consumption for
billing purposes.
(126) Summer net
dependable capability--The net capability of a generating unit in megawatts
(MW) for daily planning and operational purposes during the summer peak season,
as determined in accordance with requirements of the reliability council or
independent organization in which the unit operates.
(127) Supply-side resource--A resource,
including a storage device, that provides electricity from fuels or renewable
resources.
(128) System
emergency--A condition on a utility's system that is likely to result in
imminent, significant disruption of service to customers or is imminently
likely to endanger life or property.
(129) Tariff--The schedule of a utility,
municipally-owned utility, or electric cooperative containing all rates and
charges stated separately by type of service, the rules and regulations of the
utility, and any contracts that affect rates, charges, terms or conditions of
service.
(130) Termination of
service--The cancellation or expiration of a sales agreement or contract by a
retail electric provider by notification to the customer and the registration
agent.
(131) Tenant--A person who
is entitled to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and who is
obligated to pay for the occupancy under a written or oral rental
agreement.
(132) Test year--The
most recent 12 months for which operating data for an electric utility,
electric cooperative, or municipally-owned utility are available and shall
commence with a calendar quarter or a fiscal year quarter.
(133) Texas jurisdictional installed
generation capacity--The amount of an affiliated power generation company's
installed generation capacity properly allocable to the Texas jurisdiction.
Such allocation shall be calculated pursuant to an existing commission-approved
allocation study, or other such commission-approved methodology, and may be
adjusted as approved by the commission to reflect the effects of divestiture or
the installation of new generation facilities.
(134) Transition bonds--Bonds, debentures,
notes, certificates, of participation or of beneficial interest, or other
evidences of indebtedness or ownership that are issued by an electric utility,
its successors, or an assignee under a financing order, that have a term not
longer than 15 years, and that are secured or payable from transition
property.
(135) Transition
charges--Non-bypassable amounts to be charged for the use or availability of
electric services, approved by the commission under a financing order to
recover qualified costs, that shall be collected by an electric utility, its
successors, an assignee, or other collection agents as provided for in a
financing order.
(136) Transmission
and distribution business unit (TDBU)--The business unit of a municipally owned
utility/electric cooperative, whether structurally unbundled as a separate
legal entity or functionally unbundled as a division, that owns or operates for
compensation in this state equipment or facilities to transmit or distribute
electricity at retail, except for facilities necessary to interconnect a
generation facility with the transmission or distribution network, a facility
not dedicated to public use, or a facility otherwise excluded from the
definition of electric utility in a qualifying power region certified under
PURA §39.152. Transmission and distribution business unit does not include
a municipally owned utility/electric cooperative that owns, controls, or is an
affiliate of the transmission and distribution business unit if the
transmission and distribution business unit is organized as a separate
corporation or other legally distinct entity. Except as specifically authorized
by statute, a transmission and distribution business unit shall not provide
competitive energy-related activities.
(137) Transmission and distribution utility
(TDU)--A person or river authority that owns, or operates for compensation in
this state equipment or facilities to transmit or distribute electricity,
except for facilities necessary to interconnect a generation facility with the
transmission or distribution network, a facility not dedicated to public use,
or a facility otherwise excluded from the definition of "electric utility", in
a qualifying power region certified under PURA §39.152, but does not
include a municipally owned utility or an electric cooperative. The TDU may be
a single utility or may be separate transmission and distribution
utilities.
(138) Transmission
line--A power line that is operated at 60 kilovolts (kV) or above, when
measured phase-to-phase.
(139)
Transmission service--Service that allows a transmission service customer to
use the transmission and distribution facilities of electric utilities,
electric cooperatives and municipally owned utilities to efficiently and
economically utilize generation resources to reliably serve its loads and to
deliver power to another transmission service customer. Includes construction
or enlargement of facilities, transmission over distribution facilities,
control area services, scheduling resources, regulation services, reactive
power support, voltage control, provision of operating reserves, and any other
associated electrical service the commission determines appropriate, except
that, on and after the implementation of customer choice in any portion of the
ERCOT region, control area services, scheduling resources, regulation services,
provision of operating reserves, and reactive power support, voltage control
and other services provided by generation resources are not transmission
service.
(140) Transmission service
customer--A transmission service provider, distribution service provider, river
authority, municipally-owned utility, electric cooperative, power generation
company, retail electric provider, federal power marketing agency, exempt
wholesale generator, qualifying facility, power marketer, or other person whom
the commission has determined to be eligible to be a transmission service
customer. A retail customer, as defined in this section, may not be a
transmission service customer.
(141) Transmission service provider (TSP)--An
electric utility, municipally-owned utility, or electric cooperative that owns
or operates facilities used for the transmission of electricity.
(142) Transmission system--The transmission
facilities at or above 60 kilovolts (kV) owned, controlled, operated, or
supported by a transmission service provider or transmission service customer
that are used to provide transmission service.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.