023-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-3 - Definitions

(a) The following definitions shall apply to Chapters 2 and 3:

(i) Advertising: the commercial use, by an electric or gas utility, of any media, including but not limited to newspaper, printed matter, radio, television, and internet in order to transmit a message to a substantial number of members of the public or to such utility's consumers;

(ii) ANSI: American National Standards Institute;

(iii) Appearances before the Wyoming Public Service Commission:

(A) Individuals may appear on their own behalf;

(B) A partnership may appear by a partner;

(C) A corporation or a limited liability company may appear by an officer or full-time employee;

(D) A municipality or a municipal council may appear by an officer, council member or full-time employee;

(E) An unincorporated association may appear by any bona fide general officer or full-time employee;

(F) Any party to a proceeding may appear and be represented by an attorney at law admitted to practice in Wyoming and an active member of the Wyoming State Bar. Other attorneys shall comply with the Uniform Rules for District Courts of the State of Wyoming Rule 104 prior to entry of an appearance;

(iv) Applicant: any public utility or person seeking the whole or part of any Commission permit, certificate approval, registration or similar approval, the grant or denial of which is required by law to be determined by the Commission;

(v) ASME: American Society of Mechanical Engineers;

(vi) Authorized person: an individual possessing the legal power to commit a person or municipality, including, but not limited to, a binding agreement, payment authority, revenue authority, spending authority or indebtedness authority. This includes any authority delegated by an authoritative body (such as a board of directors) to organizational positions (such as president, managing director or manager), appointing them as agents of the organization for general or specific purposes;

(vii) AWWA: American Water Works Association;

(viii) Baseline standards for electric reliability: means the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), and the Momentary Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI):

(1) specific to each utility; and

(2) including major events and without major events.

(ix) Case: means any matter docketed by the Commission from the time of the initial filing or action instituting the case through the final order, future ordered action and the appeal process;

(x) CBA: Commodity Balancing Account;

(xi) Class 1 Location: any location that has 10 or fewer buildings intended for human occupancy within 660 feet of the pipeline in a running mile;

(xii) Class rate: a rate which applies on any one or more of various articles according to the class rating to which they are assigned in a classification or tariff of exceptions thereto or in the class rate tariff;

(xiii) Classification: a publication containing a list of articles or commodities and the class ratings to which they are assigned for the purpose of applying class rates, together with governing rules and regulations;

(xiv) Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility: One or more units of an electric generation facility located within the State of Wyoming that is owned or operated in whole or in part by a public utility other than a cooperative electric utility and that uses coal as its primary fuel source.

(xv) Commencing construction: any excavation or physical placement of fixed facilities, but does not mean work done for the purpose of studying or testing possible facility locations;

(xvi) Commission and Commissioner: the Public Service Commission of Wyoming or a member thereof respectively;

(xvii) Commission's Authorized Interest Rate: a rate that will be computed from the arithmetic mean of the following:

(1) the bank prime loan rate at the close of business on the last business day of September, also as published by the Federal Reserve economic data and

(2) the arithmetic mean of the twelve monthly one-year U.S. Treasury constant maturity rates for the previous twelve-month period ending on the last business day of September, as published by the Federal Reserve economic data. The Commission will provide notice of the assigned interest rate by November 30th of each year. The Commission's Authorized Interest Rate shall be in effect for the following calendar year, beginning January 1st and ending December 31st;

(xviii) Complainant: any party as defined in (a)(xlii) below complaining to the Commission of anything, actual or proposed, done or omitted to be done in violation of the Wyoming Public Utilities Act or of an order, rule or regulation of or authorized by the Commission;

(xix) DEQ: Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality;

(xx) Eligible Retail Customer: A customer who (1) is located in the existing service territory of that utility; (2) has more than one megawatt average demand at each individual meter; and (3) takes service at a primary or transmission voltage level.

(xxi) Electric reliability: means the following standards established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Std 1366:

(1) the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI);

(2) the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI); and

(3) the Momentary Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI).

(xxii) EPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency;

(xxiii) FCC: United States Federal Communications Commission;

(xxiv) FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;

(xxv) Financial condition: includes the following information and, where practical, may be presented in the manner prescribed in the Uniform System of Accounts for the FERC, FCC, RUS, NARUC or in such manner as may hereafter be prescribed by the Commission:

(A) The amount and class of stock authorized by the certificate of incorporation and by any other authority;

(B) The amount and classes of stock issued and outstanding;

(C) The terms of preference of all preferred stock;

(D) A brief description of each mortgage upon any property of the applicant, giving date of execution, name of mortgagor, the name of the mortgagee or trustee, the amount of indebtedness authorized to be secured thereby, the amount of indebtedness actually accrued, the amount of principal outstanding, the amount of interest due and unpaid and a brief description of the mortgaged property;

(E) The number and amount of bonds authorized and issued, giving the name of the issuing company, describing each class separately, giving the date of issue, par value, rate of interest, date of maturity and how said bonds are secured. If convertible debentures are authorized or outstanding, the date when the conversion privilege accrues and expires and the securities into which, and the rates at which conversion may be made, shall be given;

(F) Other indebtedness, giving name of classes and describing security, if any;

(G) The amount of interest paid during the previous calendar year and the rate thereof. If different rates were paid, give the amount paid at each rate;

(H) The rate and amount of dividends paid upon each class of stock during the previous five years; and,

(J) A detailed income statement and balance sheet for the latest calendar year.

(xxvi) Good utility practice: any of the practices, methods and acts engaged in or generally approved by the utility industry during the relevant time period, or any of the practices, methods and acts which, 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 and safety. Good utility practice is not intended to be limited to the optimum practice, method, or act to the exclusion of all others, but rather to be acceptable practices, methods, or acts generally accepted in the industry.

(xxvii) IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers;

(xxviii) IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission;

(xxix) Incremental cost: As used in W.S. §§ 37-18-101 and 102, the net difference between a utility's cost to comply with the reliable and dispatchable low-carbon energy standard and the reasonable and prudent costs that the utility would have incurred but for the reliable and dispatchable low-carbon energy standard, as determined prior, but close in time to the investment decision.

(xxx) Independent Evaluator: an independent, experienced and knowledgeable person engaged by a public utility to assist the Commission in reviewing the utility's plan and oversee the process for soliciting buyers of an otherwise retiring Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility. The Independent Evaluator will assist the Commission by reviewing offers from prospective buyers of an otherwise retiring Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility, assessing the utility's efforts to sell the Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility, and assessing the technical, financial and managerial ability of the proposed purchaser to own and operate the facility, and to decommission and retire the facility and remediate the site.

(xxxi) Institutional advertising: any advertising solely intended to enhance the customer's image of the utility;

(xxxii) Intermittent availability: as used in the definition of "reliable" at W.S. § 37-18-101(a)(iv), an electric generation facility has "intermittent availability" if, under standard operating conditions, it is incapable of generating electricity under each of the following requirements:

(1) carrying spinning reserves in compliance with NERC standards;

(2) providing inertial response to disturbances on the interconnected electric transmission system;

(3) providing continuous electrical current to the interconnected bulk transmission system at a nominal 60Hz, excluding periods of normal maintenance and repair; and

(4) maintaining voltage within Western Electricity Coordinating Council standards.

(xxxiii) Intervenor: any person or entity affected by any application, petition, formal complaint or motion filed with the Commission, who files an intervention petition in Commission proceedings involving the same, when admitted by the Commission, and means the Office of Consumer Advocate, upon filing a Notice of Intervention;

(xxxiv) ISO: International Organization for Standardization;

(xxxv) IRP: Integrated Resource Plan;

(xxxvi) Joint rate: a rate that applies over the lines of two or more carriers made pursuant to arrangement or agreement between such carriers and evidenced by concurrence or power of attorney;

(xxxvii) Local rate: a rate that applies over the lines of one carrier only;

(xxxviii) Main: a distribution line that serves as a common source of supply for more than one telecommunications service line;

(xxxix) Maintenance power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility during scheduled outages of the qualifying facility;

(xl) Major event: an event that exceeds reasonable design or operational limits of the electric power system as defined by IEEE Std 1366;

(xli) Major utility facility:

(A) An electric generating plant and associated facilities, utilizing any source of energy;

(B) An electric transmission line or an electric distribution line of more than three miles, designed for operation at 69 kV or above;

(C) An electric substation or a switching station designed to operate at 69 kV or above;

(D) A natural or manufactured gas transmission pipeline, a natural or manufactured gas processing plant, a natural or manufactured gas compressor station or a natural or manufactured gas storage system, any part of which is designed for or capable of transporting or storing natural or manufactured gas at pressures in excess of 125 pounds per square inch gauge for a distance of greater than three miles in length in Class 1 Locations not designated as a High Consequence Area or one mile in length in all other locations;

(E) A crude oil trunk transmission line, a liquid petroleum or refined products trunk transmission line or associated processing or pumping facilities, any part of which is designed for or capable of processing or transporting crude oil, liquid petroleum or refined products, excluding well head facilities;

(F) A coal gasification plant and associated facilities or a plant and associated facilities for in situ utilization of coal for gas;

(G) A major water transmission line, water pumping station, water storage facilities or water diversion facilities, not including construction accomplished in the regular course of business.

(xlii) NARUC: National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners;

(xliii) NEC: National Electric Code;

(xliv) NERC: North American Electric Reliability Corporation;

(xlv) NESC: National Electrical Safety Code;

(xlvi) NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology;

(xlvii) Party: each public utility, person, agency, partnership, corporation, other legally recognized business entity, unincorporated association, group, the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Wyoming Attorney General or his representative, or Commission staff member assigned by the Commission to assert or have an adversary position, named or admitted as an applicant, complainant, intervenor, defendant or respondent in any proceeding before the Commission or any person or entity properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party. However, nothing in these Rules shall prevent the Commission, upon its own motion for good cause shown, from allowing any interested person or entity to appear in any proceedings before the Commission, whether or not such a person or entity shall have been granted permission to intervene;

(xlviii) Person: includes individuals, associations of individuals, firms, partnerships, companies, corporations, their lessees, trustees, or receivers, appointed by any court whatsoever in the singular number, as well as the plural;

(xlix) PHMSA: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration;

(l) Point of delivery: the outlet point where the utility's service facilities are connected with the customer's facilities, unless otherwise altered by service contract. If the utility's facilities are connected with the customer's facilities at more than one point, each connecting point shall be considered a separate point of delivery, unless the additional connecting points are made by the utility for its sole convenience in supplying service. Additional service of a different type supplied by the utility shall also be considered a separate point of delivery;

(li) Political advertising: any advertising for the purpose of influencing public opinion with respect to legislative, administrative or electoral matters, or with respect to any controversial issue of public importance;

(lii) Power quality: suitability of the power delivered to customers for its intended purpose as measured by comparison to accepted industry standards applicable to (1) the quality of steady-state power, including voltage magnitude and balance, voltage and current distortion, and repetitive voltage fluctuations; and (2) the quality of power during disturbances, including infrequent voltage fluctuations, voltage sags and swells caused by short circuits and voltage transients.

(liii) Presiding officer: the presiding member of the Commission or Commission employee designated by the Commission to conduct a specific public hearing in matters before the Commission;

(liv) Promotional advertising: any advertising for the purpose of encouraging any person to select or use the service or additional service of an electric or gas utility or the selection or installation of any appliance or equipment designed to use such utility's service;

(lv) Proportional rate: a rate published to apply only on traffic originating beyond the point from which such rate applies, destined beyond the point to which such rate applies or originating and destined beyond the points from and to which contain proportional rates;

(lvi) Protestant or Proponent: any person or entity objecting to or supporting an application or petition which the Commission may have under consideration. Protestants or proponents may file written comments or make oral presentations in a contested case which will alert the Commission to issues to be considered. However, such action will not serve to make the protestant or proponent an intervenor. Any protestant or proponent desiring to be an intervenor shall petition to intervene. Protestants or proponents shall be subject to cross-examination as provided in the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act;

(lvii) PURPA: Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, as amended;

(lviii) Real gas law: P = pressure, in psia; V = volume; T = temperature, degrees Rankine; Z = gas compressibility factor;

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(lix) Respondent: any person subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission to whom an order or notice is issued by the Commission; and any person subject to the laws, rules, regulations and orders administered or promulgated by the Commission against whom any complaint is filed;

(lx) RUS: Rural Utilities Service;

(lxi) Service line: a distribution line that transports gas from a common source of supply to the connection to a customer's piping, where it first enters the building wall or to the building wall or roof top or other exterior connection;

(lxii) SIRT: Service Interruption Reporting Telephone

(lxiii) Through rate: the total rate from point of origin to destination. It may be a local rate, a joint rate or a combination of separately established rates;

(lxiv) TIER: Times interest earned ratio;

(lxv) Utility: a public utility as defined by W.S. § 37-1-101(a)(vi);

(lxvi) WAPA: Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act (W.S. §§ 16-3-101 through 16-3-115). All references therein to the "court" shall be deemed to refer to the Commission;

(lxvii) WECC: Western Electricity Coordinating Council; and

(lxviii) W.R.C.P.: Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure. All references therein to the "court" shall be deemed to refer to the Commission.

(b) PURPA Definitions: Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. Terms defined in PURPA shall have the same meaning for purposes of these Rules as they have under PURPA and the Rules of the FERC issued in Docket No. RM79-55:

(i) Avoided costs: the incremental costs to an electric utility of electric energy or capacity or both which, but for the purchase from the qualifying facility or qualifying facilities, such utility would generate itself or purchase from another source;

(ii) Back-up power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility to replace energy ordinarily generated by a facility's own generation equipment during an unscheduled outage of the facility;

(iii) Interconnection costs: the reasonable costs of connection, switching, metering, transmission, distribution, safety provisions and administrative costs incurred by the electric utility directly related to the installation and maintenance of the physical facilities necessary to permit interconnected operations with a qualifying facility, to the extent such costs are in excess of the corresponding costs which the electric utility would have incurred if it had not engaged in interconnected operations but instead generated an equivalent amount of electric energy itself or purchased an equivalent amount of electric energy or capacity from other sources. Interconnection costs do not include any costs included in the calculation of avoided costs;

(iv) Interruptible power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility subject to interruption by the electric utility under specified conditions;

(v) Maintenance power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility during scheduled outages of the qualifying facility;

(vi) Purchase: the purchase of electric energy or capacity or both from a qualifying facility by an electric utility;

(vii) Qualifying cogeneration facility: a facility which produces electrical or other forms of useful thermal energy for industrial, commercial, heating or cooling purposes through the sequential use of energy. In order for such facility to qualify, such facility must meet the efficiency criteria as set forth in section 201 of PURPA, and no more than 50% equity interest therein can be held by an electric utility or its affiliates. Such facility may not be diesel powered. A qualifying facility may not be owned by a person or entity engaged primarily in the generation or sale of electrical power;

(viii) Qualifying facility: any qualifying small power facility or cogeneration facility as defined in section 201 of PURPA and the FERC regulation in Docket No. RM79-54;

(ix) Qualifying small power production facility:

(A) A facility whose power production capacity is owned by one person or entity at one location;

(B) A facility whose production capacity is less than 80 megawatts; and

(C) A facility which derives more than 50% of its energy input from biomass, wastes, renewable resources or any combination thereof, but with less than 25% of its total energy being derived from oil, natural gas and/or coal;

(x) Rate: any price, rate, charge or classification made, demanded, observed or received with respect to the sale or purchase of electric energy or capacity, or any rule, regulation or practice respecting any such rate, charge or classification, and any contract pertaining to the sale or purchase of electric energy or capacity;

(xi) Sale: the sale of electric energy or capacity or both by an electric utility to a qualifying facility;

(xii) Supplementary power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility, regularly used by a qualifying facility in addition to that which the facility generates itself;

(xiii) System emergency: a condition on a utility's system which is likely to result in imminent significant disruption of service to customers or is imminently likely to endanger life or property;

Notes

023-1 Wyo. Code R. §§ 1-3

Adopted, Eff. 3/21/2016. Amended, Eff. 4/8/2019. Amended, Eff. 5/21/2020. Amended, Eff. 1/26/2021. Amended, Eff. 1/3/2022. Amended, Eff. 11/8/2024.