Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 69 > Chapter 8 - Electric Utility Industry Generation Reintegration

• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assignee: means any entity, including a corporation, partnership, board, trust, or financing vehicle, to which a utility assigns, sells, or transfers, other than as security, all or a portion of the utility's interest in or right to transition property. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Board: means the board of investments created by 2-15-1808. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Carbon offset provider: means a qualified third-party entity that arranges for projects or actions that either reduce carbon dioxide emissions or increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• commission: means the public service commission provided for in 2-15-2602. See Montana Code 69-1-101
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Cooperative utility: means :

  (a)a utility qualifying as an electric cooperative pursuant to Title 35, chapter 18; or

  (b)an existing municipal electric utility as of May 2, 1997. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Cost-effective carbon offsets: means any combination of certified actions that are taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions or that increase the absorption of carbon dioxide, which collectively do not increase the cost of electricity produced annually on a per-megawatt-hour basis by more than 2. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Customer-generator: means a user of a net metering system. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Distribution facilities: means those facilities by and through which electricity is received from transmission facilities and distributed to a retail customer and that are controlled or operated by a utility. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Electric vehicle charging station: means a commercial charging station including all required equipment for the provision of power and fueling of electric vehicles. See Montana Code 69-8-801
• Electricity supply costs: means the actual costs incurred in providing electricity supply service through power purchase agreements, demand-side management, and energy efficiency programs, including but not limited to:

  (a)capacity costs;

  (b)energy costs;

  (c)fuel costs;

  (d)ancillary service costs;

  (e)transmission costs, including congestion and losses;

  (f)planning and administrative costs; and

  (g)any other costs directly related to the purchase of electricity and the management and provision of power purchase agreements. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Electricity supply resource: means :

  (a)contracts for electric capacity and generation;

  (b)plants owned or leased by a utility or equipment used to generate electricity;

  (c)customer load management and energy conservation programs; or

  (d)other means of providing adequate, reliable service to customers, as determined by the commission. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Electricity supply service: means the provision of electricity supply and related services through power purchase agreements, the acquisition and operation of electrical generation facilities, demand-side management, and energy efficiency programs. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Entity: means any party procuring power for the commercial purpose of electric vehicle charging. See Montana Code 69-8-801
• 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.
• Financing order: means an order of the commission adopted in accordance with 69-8-503 that authorizes the imposition and collection of fixed transition amounts and the issuance of transition bonds. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Fixed transition amounts: means those nonbypassable rates or charges, including but not limited to:

  (i)distribution;

  (ii)connection;

  (iii)disconnection; and

  (iv)termination rates and charges that are authorized by the commission in a financing order to permit recovery of transition costs and the costs of recovering, reimbursing, financing, or refinancing the transition costs and of acquiring transition property through a plan approved by the commission in the financing order, including the costs of issuing, servicing, and retiring transition bonds. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Interested person: means a retail electricity customer, the consumer counsel established in 5-15-201, the commission, or a utility. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Large customer: means , for universal system benefits programs purposes, a customer with an individual load greater than a monthly average of 1,000 kilowatt demand in the previous calendar year for that individual load. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local governing body: means a local board of trustees of a rural electric cooperative. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Net metering: means measuring the difference between the electricity distributed to and the electricity generated by a customer-generator that is fed back to the distribution system during the applicable billing period. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Net metering system: means a facility for the production of electrical energy that:

  (a)uses as its fuel solar, wind, or hydropower;

  (b)has a generating capacity of not more than 50 kilowatts;

  (c)is located on the customer-generator's premises;

  (d)operates in parallel with the utility's distribution facilities; and

  (e)is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer-generator's requirements for electricity. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Nonbypassable rates or charges: means rates or charges that are approved by the commission and imposed on a customer to pay the customer's share of transition costs or universal system benefits programs costs even if the customer has physically bypassed either the utility's transmission or distribution facilities. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Oath: includes an affirmation or declaration. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Public utility: has the meaning of a public utility regulated by the commission pursuant to Title 69, chapter 3, on May 2, 1997, including the public utility's successors or assignees. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Qualifying load: means , for payments and credits associated with universal system benefits programs, all nonresidential demand-metered accounts of a large customer within the utility's service territory in which the customer qualifies as a large customer. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Retail customer: means a customer that purchases electricity for residential, commercial, or industrial end-use purposes and does not resell electricity to others. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Transition bonds: means any bond, debenture, note, interim certificate, collateral, trust certificate, or other evidence of indebtedness or ownership issued by the board or other transition bonds issuer that is secured by or payable from fixed transition amounts or transition property. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Transition charge: means a nonbypassable rate or charge to be imposed on a customer to pay the customer's share of transition costs. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Transition cost recovery period: means the period beginning on July 1, 1998, and ending when a utility customer does not have any liability for payment of transition costs. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Transition costs: means :

  (a)a public utility's net verifiable generation-related and electricity supply costs, including costs of capital, that become unrecoverable as a result of the implementation of federal law requiring retail open access or customer choice or of this chapter;

  (b)those costs that include but are not limited to:

  (i)regulatory assets and deferred charges that exist because of current regulatory practices and can be accounted for up to the effective date of the commission's final order regarding a public utility's transition plan and conservation investments made prior to universal system benefits charge implementation;

  (ii)nonutility and utility power purchase contracts executed before May 2, 1997, including qualifying facility contracts;

  (iii)existing generation investments and supply commitments or other obligations incurred before May 2, 1997, and costs arising from these investments and commitments;

  (iv)the costs associated with renegotiation or buyout of the existing nonutility and utility power purchase contracts, including qualifying facilities and all costs, expenses, and reasonable fees related to issuing transition bonds; and

  (v)the costs of refinancing and retiring of debt or equity capital of the public utility and associated federal and state tax liabilities or other utility costs for which the use of transition bonds would benefit customers. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Transition property: means the property right created by a financing order, including without limitation the right, title, and interest of a utility, assignee, or other issuer of transition bonds to all revenue, collections, claims, payments, money, or proceeds of or arising from or constituting fixed transition amounts that are the subject of a financing order, including those nonbypassable rates and other charges and fixed transition amounts that are authorized by the commission in the financing order to recover transition costs and the costs of recovering, reimbursing, financing, or refinancing the transition costs and acquiring transition property, including the costs of issuing, servicing, and retiring transition bonds. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Transmission facilities: means those facilities that are used to provide transmission services as determined by the federal energy regulatory commission and the commission and that are controlled or operated by a utility. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Universal system benefits charge: means a nonbypassable rate or charge to be imposed on a customer to pay the customer's share of universal system benefits programs costs. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Universal system benefits programs: means public purpose programs for:

  (a)cost-effective local energy conservation;

  (b)low-income customer weatherization;

  (c)renewable resource projects and applications, including those that capture unique social and energy system benefits or that provide transmission and distribution system benefits;

  (d)research and development programs related to energy conservation and renewables;

  (e)market transformation designed to encourage competitive markets for public purpose programs; and

  (f)low-income energy assistance. See Montana Code 69-8-103

• Utility: means any public utility or cooperative utility. See Montana Code 69-8-103
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203