Terms Used In Montana Code 69-3-1403

• commission: means the public service commission provided for in 2-15-2602. See Montana Code 69-1-101
• Customer: means a natural gas customer or consumer of natural gas supply or natural gas transmission facilities, storage facilities, or distribution facilities. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Distribution facilities: means those facilities that are not transmission facilities:

  (a)by and through which natural gas is received from a transmission services provider and transmitted to the customer; and

  (b)operated by a distribution services provider. See Montana Code 69-3-1402

• Natural gas supplier: means a person, including aggregators, market aggregators, brokers, and marketers, licensed by the commission that is offering to sell natural gas to retail customers in the state of Montana. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Natural gas utility: means a utility regulated by the commission on May 2, 1997, that provides natural gas services to the public. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• 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.
• Open access: means that a natural gas utility has made its transmission facilities, storage facilities, or distribution facilities available to all natural gas suppliers, transmission services providers, distribution services providers, and customers on a nondiscriminatory and comparable basis. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Storage facilities: means those facilities that are owned, controlled, or operated by a person offering storage service for natural gas and generally means any underground reservoir suitable for the storage of natural gas and the facilities used to inject and withdraw natural gas into and out of that underground reservoir. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Transition costs: means :

  (a)a natural gas utility's net, verifiable production-related and gathering-related costs, including costs of capital, that become unrecoverable as a result of customer choice and open access. See Montana Code 69-3-1402

• Transmission facilities: means those facilities owned, controlled, and operated by a transmission services provider that are used to transport natural gas from a gathering line or storage facility to a distribution facility, storage facility, or end-use customer. See Montana Code 69-3-1402