Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 18.2 > Chapter 5 > Article 6 - Damage to Realty and Personalty Thereon

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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 56-603
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Eligible infrastructure: means storage, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, transmission and distribution facilities to be used in the delivery of natural gas, or supplemental or substitute forms of gas sources by a natural gas utility. See Virginia Code 56-605
• Eligible infrastructure replacement: includes natural gas utility facility replacement projects that are identified as a result of an enhanced leak detection and repair program. See Virginia Code 56-603
• Eligible infrastructure replacement costs: includes the following:

  1. See Virginia Code 56-603

• Enhanced leak detection and repair program: means a program that is designed to allow a natural gas utility to deploy advanced leak detection technologies to more accurately identify active leaks as part of the natural gas utility's leak management program and to prioritize the repair of leaks that present a risk to safety or the environment. See Virginia Code 56-603
• 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
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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
• Investment: means costs incurred on eligible infrastructure replacement projects including planning, development, and construction costs; costs of infrastructure associated therewith; and an allowance for funds used during construction. See Virginia Code 56-603
• Investment: means costs incurred to deploy eligible infrastructure including planning, development, and construction costs and, if applicable, an allowance for funds used during construction. See Virginia Code 56-605
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• 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
• Natural gas utility: means any investor-owned public service company engaged in the business of furnishing natural gas service to the public. See Virginia Code 56-603
• Natural gas utility: means an investor-owned public service company engaged in the business of furnishing natural gas service to the public. See Virginia Code 56-605
• Person: means natural persons, firms, associations, cooperatives, corporations, limited liability companies, business trusts, partnerships, and limited liability partnerships. See Virginia Code 56-605
• 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 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
• 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.
• Program: means a group of one or more related measures for a customer class. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Qualifying project: means an economic development project requiring natural gas service as to which the natural gas utility has made a good faith determination that the following criteria are satisfied:

  1. See Virginia Code 56-605

• Rate: means rate charged for any service rendered or to be rendered. See Virginia Code 56-1
• regulation: include joint rates, joint charges and joint regulations, respectively. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Revenue-neutral: means a change in a rate, tariff design or mechanism as a component of a conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan that does not shift annualized allowed distribution revenue between customer classes, and does not increase or decrease the utility's average, weather-normalized nongas utility revenue per customer for any given rate class by more than 0. See Virginia Code 56-600
• SAVE: means Steps to Advance Virginia's Energy Plan. See Virginia Code 56-603
• SAVE plan: means a plan filed by a natural gas utility that identifies proposed eligible infrastructure replacement projects and a SAVE rider. See Virginia Code 56-603
• SAVE rider: means a recovery mechanism that will allow for recovery of the eligible infrastructure replacement costs, through a separate mechanism from the customer rates established in a rate case using the cost of service methodology set forth in § 56-235. See Virginia Code 56-603
• 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
• 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 infraction: means a violation of law punishable as provided in § 46. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
• United States: includes 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 1-255
• 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