Section R14-2-1601. Definitions

In this Article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1.        “Affected Utilities” means the following public service corporations providing electric service:

Tucson Electric  Power Company, Arizona Public Service Company, Citizens Utilities Company, Ari- zona Electric Power Cooperative, Trico Electric Cooperative, Duncan Valley Electric Cooperative, Graham County Electric Cooperative, Mohave Elec- tric Cooperative, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, Navopache Electric Cooperative, Ajo Improvement Company, and Morenci Water and Electric Company.

2.        “Aggregation” means the combination and consolidation of loads of multiple customers.

3.        “Aggregator” means an Electric Service Provider that, as part of its business, combines retail electric customers into a purchasing group.

4.        “Ancillary Services” means those services designated as ancillary services in Federal Energy Regulatory Commis- sion Order 888, including the services necessary to sup- port the transmission of electricity from resource to load while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system in accordance with good utility practice.

5.        “Bundled Service” means electric service provided as a package to the consumer including all generation, trans- mission, distribution, ancillary and other services neces- sary to deliver and measure useful electric energy and power to consumers.

6.        “Competition Transition Charge” (CTC) is a means of recovering Stranded Costs.

7.        “Competitive Services” means all aspects of retail elec- tric service except those services specifically defined as “Noncompetitive Services” pursuant to R14-2-1601(29)

Corporation Commission – Fixed Utilities

or  noncompetitive   services  as  defined  by  the  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

8.        “Consumer Education” is the provision of impartial infor- mation to consumers about competition or Competitive and Noncompetitive Services and is distinct from adver- tising and marketing.

9.        “Control Area Operator” is the operator of an electric sys- tem or systems, bounded by interconnection metering and telemetry, capable of controlling generation to maintain its interchange schedule with other such systems and con- tributing to frequency regulation of the interconnection.

10.     “Current Transformer” (CT) is an electrical device used in conjunction with an electric meter to provide a mea- surement of energy consumption for metering purposes.

11.     “Delinquent Accounts” means customer accounts with outstanding past-due payment obligations that remain unpaid after the due date.

12.     “Direct Access Service Request” (DASR) means a form that contains all necessary billing and metering informa- tion to allow customers to switch electric service provid- ers. This form must be submitted to the Utility Distribution Company by the customer’s Electric Service Provider.

13.     “Distribution Primary Voltage” is voltage as defined under the Affected Utility’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Open Access Transmission Tariff, except for Meter Service Providers, for which Distribu- tion Primary Voltage is voltage at or above 600 volts (600V) through and including 25 kilovolts (25 kV).

14.     “Distribution Service” means the delivery of electricity to a retail consumer through wires, transformers, and other devices that are not classified as transmission services subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regula- tory Commission; Distribution Service excludes Meter- ing Services, Meter Reading Services, and billing and collection services, as those terms are used herein.

15.     “Electric Service Provider” (ESP) means a company sup- plying, marketing, or brokering at retail any Competitive Services pursuant to a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity.

16.     “Electric Service Provider Service Acquisition Agree- ment” or “Service Acquisition Agreement” means a con- tract between an Electric Service Provider and a Utility Distribution Company to deliver power to retail end users or between an Electric Service Provider and a Scheduling Coordinator to schedule transmission service.

17.     “Electronic Data Interchange” (EDI) is the computer-to- computer electronic exchange of business documents using standard formats which are recognized both nation- ally and internationally.

18.     “Generation” means the production of electric power or contract rights to the receipt of wholesale electric power.

19.     “Green Pricing” means a program offered by an Electric Service Provider where customers elect to pay a rate pre- mium for renewable generated electricity.

20.     “Independent Scheduling Administrator” (ISA) is an entity, independent of transmission-owning organiza- tions, intended to facilitate nondiscriminatory retail direct access using the transmission system in Arizona.

21.     “Independent System Operator” (ISO) is an independent organization whose objective is to provide nondiscrimi- natory and open transmission access to the interconnected transmission grid under its jurisdiction, in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission princi- ples of independent system operation.

22.     “Load Profiling” is a process of estimating a customer’s hourly energy consumption based on measurements of similar customers.

23.     “Load-Serving Entity” means an Electric Service Pro- vider, Affected Utility, or Utility Distribution Company, excluding a Meter Service Provider, and Meter Reading Service Provider.

24.     “Meter Reading Service” means all functions related to the collection and storage of consumption data.

25.     “Meter Reading Service Provider” (MRSP)  means an entity providing Meter Reading Service, as that term is defined herein and that reads meters, performs validation, editing, and estimation on raw meter data to create bill- ing-ready meter data; translates billing-ready data to an approved format; posts this data to a server for retrieval by billing agents; manages the server; exchanges data with market participants; and stores meter data for prob- lem resolution.

26.     “Meter Service Provider” (MSP) means an entity provid- ing Metering Service, as that term is defined herein.

27.     “Metering and Metering Service” means all functions related to measuring electricity consumption.

28.     “Must-Run Generating Units” are those local generating units that are required to run to maintain distribution sys- tem reliability and to meet load requirements in times of congestion on certain portions of the interconnected transmission grid.

29.     “Net Metering” or “Net Billing” is a method by which customers can use electricity from customer-sited solar electric generators to offset electricity purchased from an Electric Service Provider. The customer only pays for the “Net” electricity purchased.

30.     “Noncompetitive Services” means Distribution Service, Standard Offer Service, transmission, and any ancillary services deemed to be non-competitive by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Must-Run Generating Units services, provision of customer demand and energy data by an Affected Utility or Utility Distribution Com- pany to Electric Service Providers, and those aspects of Metering Service set forth in R14-2-1612(K).

31.     “OASIS” is Open Access Same-Time Information Sys- tem, which is an electronic bulletin board where trans- mission-related information is posted for all interested parties to  access  via the Internet to enable parties to engage in transmission transactions.

32.     “Operating Reserve” means the generation capability above firm system demand used to provide for regulation, load forecasting error, equipment forced and scheduled outages, and local area protection to provide system reli- ability.

33.     “Potential Transformer (PT)/Voltage Transformer (VT)” is an electrical device used to step down primary voltages to 120V for metering purposes.

34.     “Provider of Last Resort” means a provider of Standard Offer Service to customers within the provider’s certifi- cated area whose annual usage is 100,000 kWh or less and who are not buying Competitive Services.

35.     “Public Power Entity” incorporates by reference the defi- nition set forth in A.R.S. § 30-801.16.

36.     “Retail Electric Customer” means the person or entity in whose name service is rendered.

37.     “Scheduling Coordinator” means an entity that provides schedules for power transactions over transmission or distribution systems to the party responsible for the oper- ation and control of the transmission grid, such as a Con-

Corporation Commission – Fixed Utilities

trol  Area  Operator,  Arizona  Independent   Scheduling Administrator, or Independent System Operator.

38.     “Self-Aggregation” is the action of a retail electric cus- tomer that combines its own metered loads into a single purchase block.

39.     “Standard Offer Service” means Bundled Service offered by the Affected Utility or Utility Distribution Company to all consumers in the Affected Utility’s or Utility Distri- bution Company’s service territory at regulated rates including metering, meter reading, billing and collection services, demand side management services including but not limited to time-of-use, and consumer information ser- vices. All components of Standard Offer Service shall be deemed noncompetitive as long as those components are provided in a bundled transaction under R14-2-1606(A).

40.     “Stranded Cost” includes:

a.         The verifiable net difference between:

i.         The net original cost of all the prudent jurisdic- tional assets and obligations necessary to fur- nish electricity (such as generating plants, purchased power contracts, fuel contracts, and regulatory assets), acquired or entered into prior to December 26, 1996, under traditional regulation of Affected Utilities; and

ii.        The market value of those assets and obliga- tions directly attributable to the introduction of competition under this Article;

b.        Reasonable costs necessarily incurred by an Affected Utility to effectuate divestiture of its gener- ation assets;

c.         Reasonable employee severance and retraining costs necessitated by electric competition, where not oth- erwise provided; and

d.        Other transition and restructuring costs as approved by the Commission as part of the Affected Utility’s Stranded Cost determination under R14-2-1607.

41.     “System Benefits” means Commission-approved utility low income, demand side management, Consumer Edu- cation, environmental, renewables, long-term public ben- efit research and development, and nuclear fuel disposal and nuclear power plant decommissioning programs, and other programs that may be approved by the Commission from time to time.

42.     “Transmission Primary Voltage” is voltage above 25 kV as it relates to metering transformers.

43.     “Transmission Service” refers to the transmission of elec- tricity to retail electric customers or to electric distribu- tion facilities and that is so classified by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or, to the extent permit- ted by law, so classified by the Arizona Corporation Commission.

44.     “Unbundled Service” means electric service elements provided and priced separately, including, but not limited to, such service elements as generation, transmission, dis- tribution, Must Run Generation, metering, meter reading, billing and collection, and ancillary services. Unbundled Service may be sold to consumers or to other Electric Service Providers.

45.     “Universal Node Identifier” is a unique, permanent, iden- tification number assigned to each service delivery point.

46.     “Utility Distribution Company” (UDC) means the elec- tric utility entity regulated by the Commission that oper- ates, constructs, and maintains the distribution system for the delivery of power to the end user point of delivery on the distribution system.

47.     “Utility Industry Group” (UIG) refers to a utility industry association that establishes national standards for data formats.

Historical Note

Adopted effective December 26, 1996, under an exemp- tion as determined by the Arizona Corporation Commis- sion (Supp. 96-4). Amended by an emergency action effective August 10, 1998, pursuant to A.R.S. § 41-1026, in effect for a maximum of 180 days (Supp. 98-3). Emer- gency amendment replaced by exempt permanent amend- ment effective December 31, 1998 (Supp. 98-4).

Amended by exempt rulemaking at 5 A.A.R. 3933, effec- tive September 24, 1999 (Supp. 99-3). Amended by exempt rulemaking at 6 A.A.R. 4180, effective October 13, 2000 (Supp. 00-4). Amended by exempt rulemaking

at 7 A.A.R. 1661, effective March 30, 2001 (Supp. 01-1).

Note

Editor’s Note: The Arizona Corporation Commission has determined that the following Section is exempt from the Attorney General approval provisions of the Arizona Administrative Proce- dure Act (A.R.S. § 41-1041) by a court order (State ex. rel. Corbin

v. Arizona Corporation Commission, 174 Ariz. 216 848 P.2d 301 (App. 1992)).