Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 4928 - Competitive Retail Electric Service

• Advanced energy project: means any technologies, products, activities, or management practices or strategies that facilitate the generation or use of electricity or energy and that reduce or support the reduction of energy consumption or support the production of clean, renewable energy for industrial, distribution, commercial, institutional, governmental, research, not-for-profit, or residential energy users, including, but not limited to, advanced energy resources and renewable energy resources. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Advanced energy resource: means any of the following:

  (a) Any method or any modification or replacement of any property, process, device, structure, or equipment that increases the generation output of an electric generating facility to the extent such efficiency is achieved without additional carbon dioxide emissions by that facility;

  (b) Any distributed generation system consisting of customer cogeneration technology;

  (c) Clean coal technology that includes a carbon-based product that is chemically altered before combustion to demonstrate a reduction, as expressed as ash, in emissions of nitrous oxide, mercury, arsenic, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, or sulfur trioxide in accordance with the American society of testing and materials standard D1757A or a reduction of metal oxide emissions in accordance with standard D5142 of that society, or clean coal technology that includes the design capability to control or prevent the emission of carbon dioxide, which design capability the commission shall adopt by rule and shall be based on economically feasible best available technology or, in the absence of a determined best available technology, shall be of the highest level of economically feasible design capability for which there exists generally accepted scientific opinion;

  (d) Advanced nuclear energy technology consisting of generation III technology as defined by the nuclear regulatory commission; other, later technology; or significant improvements to existing facilities;

  (e) Any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity, including, but not limited to, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell;

  (f) Advanced solid waste or construction and demolition debris conversion technology, including, but not limited to, advanced stoker technology, and advanced fluidized bed gasification technology, that results in measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions as calculated pursuant to the United States environmental protection agency's waste reduction model (WARM);

  (g) Demand-side management and any energy efficiency improvement;

  (h) Any new, retrofitted, refueled, or repowered generating facility located in Ohio, including a simple or combined-cycle natural gas generating facility or a generating facility that uses biomass, coal, modular nuclear, or any other fuel as its input;

  (i) Any uprated capacity of an existing electric generating facility if the uprated capacity results from the deployment of advanced technology. See Ohio Code 4928.01

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• agriculture: includes farming; ranching; aquaculture; algaculture meaning the farming of algae; apiculture and related apicultural activities, production of honey, beeswax, honeycomb, and other related products; horticulture; viticulture, winemaking, and related activities; animal husbandry, including, but not limited to, the care and raising of livestock, equine, and fur-bearing animals; poultry husbandry and the production of poultry and poultry products; dairy production; the production of field crops, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, nursery stock, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, flowers, sod, or mushrooms; timber; pasturage; any combination of the foregoing; the processing, drying, storage, and marketing of agricultural products when those activities are conducted in conjunction with, but are secondary to, such husbandry or production; and any additions or modifications to the foregoing made by the director of agriculture by rule adopted in accordance with Chapter 119 of the Revised Code. See Ohio Code 1.61
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Ancillary service: means any function necessary to the provision of electric transmission or distribution service to a retail customer and includes, but is not limited to, scheduling, system control, and dispatch services; reactive supply from generation resources and voltage control service; reactive supply from transmission resources service; regulation service; frequency response service; energy imbalance service; operating reserve-spinning reserve service; operating reserve-supplemental reserve service; load following; back-up supply service; real-power loss replacement service; dynamic scheduling; system black start capability; and network stability service. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Billing and collection agent: means a fully independent agent, not affiliated with or otherwise controlled by an electric utility, electric services company, electric cooperative, or governmental aggregator subject to certification under section 4928. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Certified territory: means the certified territory established for an electric supplier under sections 4933. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Cogeneration technology: means technology that produces electricity and useful thermal output simultaneously. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Combined heat and power system: means the coproduction of electricity and useful thermal energy from the same fuel source designed to achieve thermal-efficiency levels of at least sixty per cent, with at least twenty per cent of the system's total useful energy in the form of thermal energy. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Competitive retail electric service: means a component of retail electric service that is competitive as provided under division (B) of this section. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Customer-generator: means a user of a net metering system. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric cooperative: means a not-for-profit electric light company that both is or has been financed in whole or in part under the "Rural Electrification Act of 1936" 49 Stat. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Electric distribution utility: means an electric utility that supplies at least retail electric distribution service. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Electric services company: includes a power marketer, power broker, aggregator, or independent power producer but excludes an electric cooperative, municipal electric utility, governmental aggregator, or billing and collection agent. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Electric utility: means an electric light company that has a certified territory and is engaged on a for-profit basis either in the business of supplying a noncompetitive retail electric service in this state or in the businesses of supplying both a noncompetitive and a competitive retail electric service in this state. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Governmental aggregator: means a legislative authority of a municipal corporation, a board of township trustees, or a board of county commissioners acting as an aggregator for the provision of a competitive retail electric service under authority conferred under section 4928. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• hydroelectric facility: means a hydroelectric generating facility that is located at a dam on a river, or on any water discharged to a river, that is within or bordering this state or within or bordering an adjoining state and meets all of the following standards:

  (i) The facility provides for river flows that are not detrimental for fish, wildlife, and water quality, including seasonal flow fluctuations as defined by the applicable licensing agency for the facility. See Ohio Code 4928.01

• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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.
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legacy generation resource: means all generating facilities owned directly or indirectly by a corporation that was formed prior to 1960 by investor-owned utilities for the original purpose of providing power to the federal government for use in the nation's defense or in furtherance of national interests, including the Ohio valley electric corporation. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Level of funding for low-income customer energy efficiency programs provided through electric utility rates: means the level of funds specifically included in an electric utility's rates on October 5, 1999, pursuant to an order of the public utilities commission issued under Chapter 4905. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Low-income customer assistance programs: means the percentage of income payment plan program, the home energy assistance program, the home weatherization assistance program, and the targeted energy efficiency and weatherization program. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Market power: means the ability to impose on customers a sustained price for a product or service above the price that would prevail in a competitive market. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Mercantile customer: means a commercial or industrial customer if the electricity consumed is for nonresidential use and the customer consumes more than seven hundred thousand kilowatt hours per year or is part of a national account involving multiple facilities in one or more states. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Municipal electric utility: means a municipal corporation that owns or operates facilities to generate, transmit, or distribute electricity. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Net metering: means measuring the difference in an applicable billing period between the electricity supplied by an electric service provider and the electricity generated by a customer-generator that is fed back to the electric service provider. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Net metering system: means a facility for the production of electrical energy that does all of the following:

  (a) Uses as its fuel either solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, or hydropower, or uses a microturbine or a fuel cell;

  (b) Is located on a customer-generator's premises;

  (c) Operates in parallel with the electric utility's transmission and distribution facilities;

  (d) Is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer-generator's requirements for electricity. See Ohio Code 4928.01

• Noncompetitive retail electric service: means a component of retail electric service that is noncompetitive as provided under division (B) of this section. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Nonfirm electric service: means electric service provided pursuant to a schedule filed under section 4905. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• 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.
• Percentage of income payment plan arrears: means funds eligible for collection through the percentage of income payment plan rider, but uncollected as of July 1, 2000. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Prudently incurred costs related to a legacy generation resource: means costs, including deferred costs, allocated pursuant to a power agreement approved by the federal energy regulatory commission that relates to a legacy generation resource, less any revenues realized from offering the contractual commitment for the power agreement into the wholesale markets, provided that where the net revenues exceed net costs, those excess revenues shall be credited to customers. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Rate plan: means the standard service offer in effect on the effective date of the amendment of this section by…. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• 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}
• Regulatory assets: includes , but is not limited to, all deferred demand-side management costs; all deferred percentage of income payment plan arrears; post-in-service capitalized charges and assets recognized in connection with statement of financial accounting standards no. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Renewable energy resource: includes , but is not limited to, any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity, including, but not limited to, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell; wind turbine located in the state's territorial waters of Lake Erie; methane gas emitted from an abandoned coal mine; waste energy recovery system placed into service or retrofitted on or after the effective date of the amendment of this section by…. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail electric service: means any service involved in supplying or arranging for the supply of electricity to ultimate consumers in this state, from the point of generation to the point of consumption. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Self-generator: means an entity in this state that owns or hosts on its premises an electric generation facility that produces electricity primarily for the owner's consumption and that may provide any such excess electricity to another entity, whether the facility is installed or operated by the owner or by an agent under a contract. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Smart grid: means capital improvements to an electric distribution utility's distribution infrastructure that improve reliability, efficiency, resiliency, or reduce energy demand or use, including, but not limited to, advanced metering and automation of system functions. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• Starting date of competitive retail electric service: means January 1, 2001. See Ohio Code 4928.01
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Waste energy recovery system: means either of the following:

  (a) A facility that generates electricity through the conversion of energy from either of the following:

  (i) Exhaust heat from engines or manufacturing, industrial, commercial, or institutional sites, except for exhaust heat from a facility whose primary purpose is the generation of electricity;

  (ii) Reduction of pressure in gas pipelines before gas is distributed through the pipeline, provided that the conversion of energy to electricity is achieved without using additional fossil fuels. See Ohio Code 4928.01