Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 56 > Chapter 25 - Natural Gas Conservation and Ratemaking Efficiency Act

• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• 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
• Person: means a natural person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or a governmental entity including a school board. See Virginia Code 46.2-341.4
• Portfolio: means the program or programs included in a natural gas utility's conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Program: means a group of one or more related measures for a customer class. See Virginia Code 56-600
• 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
• 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
• 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