Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 18.2 > Chapter 5 > Article 5 - Trespass to Realty

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Affiliate: means any person that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with an electric utility. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Aggregator: means a person that, as an agent or intermediary, (i) offers to purchase, or purchases, electric energy or (ii) offers to arrange for, or arranges for, the purchase of electric energy, for sale to, or on behalf of, two or more retail customers not controlled by or under common control with such person. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Allowed distribution revenue: means the average annual, weather-normalized, nongas commodity revenue per customer associated with the rates in effect as adopted in the applicable utility's last Commission-approved rate case or performance-based regulation plan, multiplied by the average number of customers served. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Commercial motor vehicle: means , except for those vehicles specifically excluded in this definition, every motor vehicle, vehicle or combination of vehicles used to transport passengers or property which either: (i) has a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds; (ii) has a gross combination weight rating of 26,001 or more pounds inclusive of a towed vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds; (iii) is designed to transport 16 or more passengers including the driver; or (iv) is of any size and is used in the transportation of hazardous materials as defined in this section. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 56-1
• company: includes all corporations created by acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, or under the general incorporation laws of this Commonwealth, or doing business therein, and shall exclude all municipal corporations, other political subdivisions, and public institutions owned or controlled by the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan: means a plan filed by a natural gas utility pursuant to this chapter that includes a decoupling mechanism. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: means an unvacated adjudication of guilt, or a determination that a person has violated or failed to comply with the law in a court of original jurisdiction, an unvacated forfeiture of bond, bail, or collateral deposited to secure the person's appearance in court, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court, the payment of a fine or court costs in lieu of trial, a violation of a condition of release without bail, regardless of whether the penalty is rebated, suspended, or probated, or, for the purposes of alcohol or drug-related offenses involving the operation of a motor vehicle, a civil or an administrative determination of a violation. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Cooperative: means a utility formed under or subject to Chapter 9. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cost-effective conservation and energy efficiency program: means a program approved by the Commission that is designed to decrease the average customer's annual, weather-normalized consumption of energy, for gas and nongas elements combined, or avoid energy costs or consumption the customer may otherwise have incurred, and is determined by the Commission to be cost-effective if the net present value of the benefits exceeds the net present value of the costs at the portfolio level as determined by not less than any three of the following four tests: the Total Resource Cost Test, the Program Administrator Test (also referred to as the Utility Cost Test), the Participant Test, and the Ratepayer Impact Measure Test. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Covered entity: means a provider in the Commonwealth of an electric service not subject to competition but does not include default service providers. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Covered transaction: means an acquisition, merger, or consolidation of, or other transaction involving stock, securities, voting interests or assets by which one or more persons obtains control of a covered entity. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decoupling mechanism: means a rate, tariff design or mechanism that decouples the recovery of a utility's allowed distribution revenue from the level of consumption of natural gas by its customers, including (i) a mechanism that adjusts actual nongas distribution revenues per customer to allowed distribution revenues per customer, such as a sales adjustment clause, (ii) rate design changes that substantially align the percentage of fixed charge revenue recovery with the percentage of the utility's fixed costs, such as straight fixed variable rates, provided such mechanism includes a substantial demand component based on a customer's peak usage, or (iii) a combination of clauses (i) and (ii) that substantially decreases the relative amount of nongas distribution revenue affected by changes in per customer consumption of gas. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Demand response: means measures aimed at shifting time of use of electricity from peak-use periods to times of lower demand by inducing retail customers to curtail electricity usage during periods of congestion and higher prices in the electrical grid. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Disqualification: means a prohibition against driving, operating, or being in physical control of a commercial motor vehicle for a specified period of time, imposed by a court or a magistrate, or by an authorized administrative or law-enforcement official or body. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Distributor: means a person owning, controlling, or operating a retail distribution system to provide electric energy directly to retail customers. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Electric utility: means any person that generates, transmits, or distributes electric energy for use by retail customers in the Commonwealth, including any investor-owned electric utility, cooperative electric utility, or electric utility owned or operated by a municipality. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Electric utility: means any investor-owned public utility that provides electric energy for use by retail customers, except investor-owned utilities subject to the provisions of § 56-585. See Virginia Code 56-597
• Employee: means a payroll employee or person employed under lease or contract, or a person who has applied for employment and whose employment is contingent upon obtaining a commercial driver's license. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Employer: means a person who owns or leases commercial motor vehicles and assigns employees to drive such vehicles. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Energy efficiency program: means a program that reduces the total amount of electricity that is required for the same process or activity implemented after the expiration of capped rates. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• Fixed costs: means any and all of the utility's nongas costs of service, together with an authorized return thereon, that are not associated with the cost of the natural gas commodity flowing through and measured by the customer's meter. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Generator: means a person owning, controlling, or operating a facility that produces electric energy for sale. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Incumbent electric utility: means each electric utility in the Commonwealth that, prior to July 1, 1999, supplied electric energy to retail customers located in an exclusive service territory established by the Commission. See Virginia Code 56-576
• IRP: means a document developed by an electric utility that provides a forecast of its load obligations and a plan to meet those obligations by supply side and demand side resources over the ensuing 15 years to promote reasonable prices, reliable service, energy independence, and environmental responsibility. See Virginia Code 56-597
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Low-income utility customer: means any person or household whose income is no more than 80 percent of the median income of the locality in which the customer resides. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Measure: means an individual item, service, offering, or rebate available to a customer of a natural gas utility as part of the utility's conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Municipality: means a city, county, town, authority, or other political subdivision of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Person: means a natural person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or a governmental entity including a school board. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Person: includes individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Person: means any individual, corporation, partnership, association, company, business, trust, joint venture, or other private legal entity, and the Commonwealth or any municipality. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Portfolio: means the program or programs included in a natural gas utility's conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Program: means a group of one or more related measures for a customer class. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Rate: means rate charged for any service rendered or to be rendered. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• regulation: include joint rates, joint charges and joint regulations, respectively. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Renewable energy: means energy derived from sunlight, wind, falling water, biomass, sustainable or otherwise, (the definitions of which shall be liberally construed), energy from waste, landfill gas, municipal solid waste, wave motion, tides, and geothermal power, and does not include energy derived from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail customer: means any person that purchases retail electric energy for its own consumption at one or more metering points or nonmetered points of delivery located in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 56-576
• revocation: means that the document or privilege revoked is not subject to renewal or restoration except through reapplication after the expiration of the period of revocation. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• State: means one of the 50 states of the United States or the District of Columbia. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supplier: means any generator, distributor, aggregator, broker, marketer, or other person who offers to sell or sells electric energy to retail customers and is licensed by the Commission to do so, but it does not mean a generator that produces electric energy exclusively for its own consumption or the consumption of an affiliate. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• suspension: means that the document or privilege suspended has been temporarily withdrawn, but may be reinstated following the period of suspension unless it has expired prior to the end of the period of suspension. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Total annual energy savings: means (i) the total combined kilowatt-hour savings achieved by electric utility energy efficiency and demand response programs and measures installed in that program year, as well as savings still being achieved by measures and programs implemented in prior years, or (ii) savings attributable to newly installed combined heat and power facilities, including waste heat-to-power facilities, and any associated reduction in transmission line losses, provided that biomass is not a fuel and the total efficiency, including the use of thermal energy, for eligible combined heat and power facilitates must meet or exceed 65 percent and have a nameplate capacity rating of less than 25 megawatts. See Virginia Code 56-576
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Traffic control device: means a sign, signal, marking, or other device used to regulate, warn, or guide traffic placed on, over, or adjacent to a street, highway, private road open to public travel, pedestrian facility, or shared-use path by authority of a public agency or official having jurisdiction, or in the case of a private road open to public travel, by authority of the private owner or private official having jurisdiction. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• utility: means any investor-owned public service company engaged in the business of furnishing natural gas service to the public. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Vehicle: means every device in, on or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except personal delivery devices and devices moved by human power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.