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:
(3) Affiliate--means:
(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:
(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:
(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--
(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:
(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...