The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

1. (1) Administrative review--A process under which an application may be approved without a formal hearing.

2. (2) Affected person--means:

   1. (A) a public utility affected by an action of a regulatory authority;
   2. (B) a person whose utility service or rates are affected by a proceeding before a regulatory authority; or

   3. (C) a person who:

      1. (i) is a competitor of a public utility with respect to a service performed by the utility; or
      2. (ii) wants to enter into competition with a public utility.

3. (3) Affiliate--means:

   1. (A) a person who directly or indirectly owns or holds at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
   2. (B) a person in a chain of successive ownership of at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
   3. (C) a corporation that has at least 5.0% of its voting securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a public utility;

   4. (D) a corporation that has at least 5.0% of its voting securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by:

      1. (i) a person who directly or indirectly owns or controls at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility; or
      2. (ii) a person in a chain of successive ownership of at least 5.0% of the voting securities of a public utility;
   5. (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
   6. (F) a person determined to be an affiliate under Public Utility Regulatory Act §11.006.
4. (4) Ancillary service--A service necessary to support the transmission of energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of transmission service providers' transmission systems in accordance with good utility practice.
5. (5) Ancillary service provider--An electric or municipally owned utility that provides an ancillary service.
6. (6) Base rate--Generally, a rate designed to recover the costs of electricity other than costs recovered through a fuel factor, power cost recovery factor, or surcharge.
7. (7) Commission--The Public Utility Commission of Texas.

8. (8) 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:

   1. (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);
   2. (B) maintain, within the limits of good utility practice, scheduled interchange with other control areas;
   3. (C) maintain the frequency of the electric power system(s) within reasonable limits in accordance with good utility practice; and
   4. (D) obtain sufficient generating capacity to maintain operating reserves in accordance with good utility practice.

9. (9) Cooperative corporation--

   1. (A) An electric cooperative corporation organized and operating under the Electric Cooperative Corporation Act, Texas Utilities Code Annotated, Chapter 161, or a predecessor statute to Chapter 161 and operating under that chapter; or
   2. (B) A telephone cooperative corporation organized under the Telephone Cooperative Act, Texas Utilities Code, Chapter 162, or a predecessor statute to Chapter 162 and operating under that chapter.
10. (10) 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, except as expressly provided by the Public Utility Regulatory Act.
11. (11) Customer class--A group of customers with similar electric usage 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.
12. (12) Demand-side management--Activities that affect the magnitude and/or timing of customer electricity usage to produce desirable changes in the utility's load shape.
13. (13) Demand-side resource or demand-side management resource--Activities that result in reductions in electric generation, transmission, or distribution capacity needs or reductions in energy usage or both.
14. (14) Distribution line--A power line operated below 60,000 volts, when measured phase-to-phase.
15. (15) 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 (60,000 volts and below), that provides advantages to the system, such as deferring the need for upgrading local distribution facilities.
16. (16) Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)--Refers to the organization and, in a geographic sense, refers to the area served by electric utilities that are not synchronously interconnected with electric utilities outside of the State of Texas.

17. (17) Electric utility--

    1. (A) 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:

       1. (i) a municipal corporation;
       2. (ii) a qualifying facility;
       3. (iii) an exempt wholesale generator;
       4. (iv) a power marketer;
       5. (v) a corporation described by Public Utility Regulatory Act §32.053 to the extent the corporation sells electricity exclusively at wholesale and not to the ultimate consumer; or

       6. (vi) a person not otherwise an electric utility who:

          1. (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;
          2. (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; or
          3. (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.
    2. (B) With respect to transmission service and ancillary service, the term includes municipally owned utilities and river authorities that are not otherwise subject to the commission's ratesetting authority.
18. (18) Eligible ancillary service customer--Any person that is an eligible transmission service customer.
19. (19) Eligible transmission service customer--A transmission service provider (for all uses of its transmission system) or any electric utility, municipally owned utility, federal power marketing agency, exempt wholesale generator, qualifying facility, power marketer, or other person whom the commission has determined to be an eligible transmission service customer.
20. (20) Energy efficiency--Management of energy resources through efficacy in the utilization of electrical energy through: end-user conservation (a single device, measure, or practice, or a grouping thereof, to reduce energy or demand and that can be measured at the customer meter); utility-controlled options such as optimization of existing and planned generation, transmission, and distribution facilities through direct load management (reduction in peak demand on an electric utility system by direct control of electric devices), cogeneration (reduction in additions to electric utility planned generation expansion as a result of using firm and reliable capacity from an industrial company), peak shaving (reduction in peak demand on an electric utility system by the storage of energy produced during an off-peak period and then utilizing it to serve loads during the peak period), small power production (reduction in additions to electric utility planned generation additions by the installation of dependable, long-life generating plants utilizing direct conversion of renewable resources of electric energy), power plant productivity improvement (reduction in additions to electric utility planned generation expansion as a result of improvements in the productivity of existing or new generating units), and power plant efficiency improvement (reduction in the utilization of natural resources in their conversion to electrical energy as a result of improvements in the efficiency of existing and new generating units); and optimal conversion of renewable resources to electrical energy.
21. (21) 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, and who is in compliance with the registration requirements of §23.19 of this title (relating to Registration of Power Marketers and Exempt Wholesale Generators).
22. (22) Facilities--All the plant and equipment of an electric utility, including all tangible and intangible real and personal property without limitation, and any and all means and instrumentalities in any manner owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, controlled, furnished, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of any electric utility, including any construction work in progress allowed by the commission.
23. (23) Good utility practice--Any of the practices, methods, and 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, and 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.
24. (24) Hearing--Any proceeding at which evidence is taken on the merits of the matters at issue, not including prehearing conferences.
25. (25) License--The whole or part of any commission permit, certificate, approval, registration, or similar form of permission required by law.
26. (26) Licensing--The commission process respecting the granting, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension, annulment, withdrawal, or amendment of a license.
27. (27) Municipality--A city, incorporated village, or town, existing, created, or organized under the general, home rule, or special laws of the state.
28. (28) Municipally owned utility--Any utility owned, operated, and controlled by a municipality or by a nonprofit corporation whose directors are appointed by one or more municipalities.
29. (29) Native load customer--A wholesale or retail customer on whose behalf an electric 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.
30. (30) Person--Any natural person, partnership, municipal corporation, cooperative corporation, corporation, association, governmental subdivision, or public or private organization of any character other than an agency.
31. (31) Planned resources--Generation resources owned, controlled, or purchased by a transmission customer, and designated as planned resources for the purpose of serving load.
32. (32) Planned transmission service--Use by a transmission service customer of a transmission service provider's transmission system for the delivery of power from planned resources to the customer's loads.
33. (33) Pleading--A written document submitted by a party, or a person seeking to participate in a proceeding, setting forth allegations of fact, claims, requests for relief, legal argument, and/or other matters relating to a proceeding.
34. (34) Power cost recovery factor--A charge or credit that reflects an increase or decrease in purchased power costs not in base rates.
35. (35) 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; does not have a certificated service area; and who is in compliance with the registration requirements of §23.19 of this title (relating to Registration of Power Marketers and Exempt Wholesale Generators).
36. (36) Pre-existing transmission contract--A contract for transmission or wheeling services that took effect prior to March 4, 1996.
37. (37) Premises--A tract of land or real estate including buildings and other appurtenances thereon.
38. (38) Proceeding--A hearing, investigation, inquiry, or other procedure for finding facts or making a decision. The term includes a denial of relief or dismissal of a complaint. It may be rulemaking or nonrulemaking; rate setting or non-rate setting.

39. (39) Public utility or utility--A person or river authority that owns or operates for compensation in this state equipment or facilities to convey, transmit, or receive communications over a telephone system as a dominant carrier. The term includes a lessee, trustee, or receiver of any of those entities, or a combination of those entities. The term does not include a municipal corporation. A person is not a public utility solely because the person:

    1. (A) furnishes or furnishes and maintains a private system;
    2. (B) manufactures, distributes, installs, or maintains customer premise communications equipment and accessories; or
    3. (C) furnishes a telecommunications 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.
40. (40) Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA)--The enabling statute for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, located in the Texas Utilities Code Annotated, §§11.001-63.063 (Vernon 1998).
41. (41) Qualifying cogenerator--The meaning as assigned this term by 16 U.S.C. §796(18)(C).
42. (42) Qualifying facility--A qualifying cogenerator or qualifying small power producer.
43. (43) Qualifying small power producer--The meaning as assigned this term by 16 U.S.C. §796(17)(D).

44. (44) Rate--Includes:

    1. (A) any compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification that is directly or indirectly demanded, observed, charged, or collected by a public utility for a service, product, or commodity described in the definition of utility in the Public Utility Regulatory Act, §31.002; and
    2. (B) a rule, practice, or contract affecting the compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification.
45. (45) Rate class--A group of customers taking electric service under the same rate schedule.
46. (46) 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.
47. (47) Regulatory authority--In accordance with the context where it is found, either the commission or the governing body of a municipality.
48. (48) Renewable energy technology--Any technology that exclusively relies on an energy source that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and derived directly from the sun (solar-thermal, photochemical, and photoelectric), indirectly from the sun (wind, hydropower, and biomass), or from other natural movements and mechanisms of the environment (geothermal and tidal energy). 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.
49. (49) Renewable resources--A resource that relies on renewable energy technology.
50. (50) 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.
51. (51) Rulemaking proceeding--A proceeding conducted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, Texas Government Code, §§2001.021-2001.037 to adopt, amend, or repeal a commission rule.
52. (52) Service--Has its broadest and most inclusive meaning. The term includes any act performed, anything supplied, and any facilities used or supplied by a public utility or an electric utility in the performance of its duties under the Public Utility Regulatory Act to its patrons, employees, other public utilities or electric utilities and the public. The term also includes the interchange of facilities between two or more public utilities or electric utilities.
53. (53) Spanish speaking person--A person who speaks any dialect of the Spanish language exclusively or as their primary language.
54. (54) Submetering--Metering of electricity consumption on the customer side of the point at which the electric utility meters electricity consumption for billing purposes.
55. (55) Supply-side resource--A resource, including a storage device, that provides electricity from fuels or renewable resources.
56. (56) Tariff--The schedule of a utility containing all rates and charges stated separately by type of service and the rules and regulations of the utility.
57. (57) 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.
58. (58) Test year--The most recent 12 months for which operating data for an electric utility are available and shall commence with a calendar quarter or a fiscal year quarter.
59. (59) Transmission facilities study--An engineering study conducted by a transmission service provider subsequent to a system security study to determine the required modifications to its transmission system, including the detailed costs and scheduled completion date for such modifications, that will be required to provide a requested transmission service.
60. (60) Transmission interconnection agreement--An agreement that sets forth requirements for physical connection or other terms relating to electrical connection between an eligible transmission service customer and a transmission service provider, including contracts or tariffs for transmission service that include provisions for interconnection. Transmission service providers must have such an agreement with all transmission service providers to whom they are physically connected.
61. (61) Transmission line--A power line that is operated at 60,000 volts or above, when measured phase-to-phase.
62. (62) Transmission losses--Energy losses resulting from the transmission of power.
63. (63) Transmission service--Service that allows a transmission service customer to use the transmission and distribution facilities of electric and municipally owned utilities to efficiently and economically utilize generation resources to reliably serve its loads and to deliver power to another transmission customer.
64. (64) Transmission service customer--An eligible transmission customer receiving transmission service. Where consistent with the context, "transmission service customer" includes an eligible transmission service customer seeking transmission service.
65. (65) Transmission service provider--An electric or municipally owned utility that owns or operates facilities used for the transmission of electricity and provides transmission service.
66. (66) Transmission system--The transmission facilities at or above 60 kilovolts owned, controlled, operated, or supported by a transmission provider or transmission customer that are used to provide transmission service.
67. (67) Transmission system security study--An assessment by a transmission service provider of the adequacy of the transmission system to accommodate a request for transmission service and whether any costs are anticipated in order to provide transmission service.
68. (68) Transmission upgrade--A modification or addition to transmission facilities owned or operated by a transmission service provider.
69. (69) Unplanned resources--Generation resources owned, controlled or purchased by the transmission customer that have not been designated as planned resources.
70. (70) Unplanned transmission service--Use by a transmission service customer of a transmission service provider's transmission system for the delivery of power from resources that the customer has not designated as planned resources to the customer's loads.

Source Note:The provisions of this §25.5 adopted to be effective September 16, 1998, 23 TexReg 9310; amended to be effective May 23, 1999, 24 TexReg 3708.