Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 69 > Chapter 3 - Regulation of Utilities

• Abandonment costs: means the costs incurred for resources acquired and abandoned pursuant to a plan. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Affiliate: means an entity closely connected or associated with a regulated energy utility. See Montana Code 69-3-1501
• Affiliate transaction: means a financial transaction between the utility operations of a regulated energy utility and an affiliate. See Montana Code 69-3-1501
• Aggregator surcharge: means a charge to a customer by an entity that, in the ordinary course of its operations, makes telephones available to the public or to transient users of its premises for intrastate telephone calls using an operator service provider. See Montana Code 69-3-1102
• 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 agreement: means any bond, insurance policy, letter of credit, reserve account, surety bond, interest rate lock or swap arrangement, liquidity or credit support arrangement, or other financial arrangement entered into in connection with Montana energy impact assistance bonds that is designed to promote the credit quality and marketability of Montana energy impact assistance bonds or to mitigate the risk of an increase in interest rates. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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 person to which an interest in Montana energy impact assistance property is sold, assigned, transferred, or conveyed, other than as security, and any successor to or subsequent assignee of a person. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• 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.
• Billing agent: means a telecommunications carrier that includes in a bill that it sends to a customer a charge for a product or service offered by a service provider. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Billing aggregator: means any entity, other than a service provider, that forwards the charge for a product or service offered by a service provider to a billing agent. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Bondholder: means any holder or owner of Montana energy impact assistance bonds. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• carrier: means any provider of telecommunications services. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• carrier: means any provider of telecommunications services. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Commercial mobile radio service: means commercial mobile radio service as defined in 47 C. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• commission: means the public service commission provided for in 2-15-2602. See Montana Code 69-1-101
• Commission: means the Montana public service commission. See Montana Code 69-3-601
• Commission: means the Montana public service commission created in 2-15-2602. See Montana Code 69-3-701
• Commission: means the public service commission. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Commission: means the Montana public service commission. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• Conservation: means any reduction in electric power or natural gas consumption as a result of investment in measures that increase the efficiency of electricity or gas use in building shells, space heating or cooling equipment, water heating equipment, or refrigeration equipment or other cost-effective measures which, over its economic life meet the criteria of 69-3-702. See Montana Code 69-3-701
• Consumer counsel: means the consumer counsel provided for in 5-15-201. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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: means a person who makes an intrastate telephone call through an operator service provider or the person accepting a collect telephone call made through an operator service provider. See Montana Code 69-3-1102
• Customer: means a person who has purchased telecommunications services from a telecommunications carrier or who has been billed charges on a telephone bill for the services or products of another entity. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• 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
• Customer: means a person who takes electric service from an electric utility for consumption of electricity in Montana. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Demand-side management programs: means energy efficiency, energy conservation, load management, and demand response or any combination of these measures implemented by an electric utility. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• 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.
• 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

• Distribution services provider: means a person controlling or operating distribution facilities for distribution of natural gas to the public. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric cooperative: means a rural electric cooperative organized under the laws of Montana, or a foreign corporation admitted to do business in Montana. See Montana Code 69-3-601
• Electric infrastructure or facility: means :

  (a)any portion of an electrical generating facility owned by an electric utility used to serve customers in Montana; or

  (b)any infrastructure or facility involved in the transmission or delivery of electricity to Montana customers; or

  (c)associated cleanup or remediation of an electrical generating facility. See Montana Code 69-3-1603

• Electric utility: means any electric utility regulated by the commission pursuant to Title 69, chapter 3, including the electric utility's successors or assignees. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Electronic signature: has the meaning as provided in 30-18-102. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Eligible telecommunications carrier: means a telecommunications provider designated by the commission under 69-3-840. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Energy conservation: means the decrease in electricity requirements of specific customers during any selected time period, resulting in a reduction in end-use services. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Energy efficiency: means the decrease in electricity requirements of specific customers during any selected period with end-use services of those customers held constant. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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}
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Financing costs: means , if approved by the commission in a financing order, costs to issue, service, repay, or refinance Montana energy impact assistance bonds, whether incurred or paid on issuance of the Montana energy impact assistance bonds or over the life of the bonds. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Financing order: means an order issued by the commission in accordance with 69-3-1606 that grants, in whole or in part, an application filed pursuant to 69-3-1605 authorizing the issuance of Montana energy impact assistance bonds in one or more series, the imposition, charging, and collection of Montana energy impact assistance charges, and the creation of Montana energy impact assistance property. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Financing party: means holders of Montana energy impact assistance bonds and trustees, collateral agents, any party under an ancillary agreement, or any other person acting for the benefit of Montana energy impact assistance bondholders. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the universal service fund established in 69-3-842. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Incumbent local exchange carrier: means , with respect to an area, the local exchange carrier that:

  (a)on February 8, 1996, provided telephone exchange service in the area; and

  (b)on February 8, 1996, was considered to be a member of the exchange carrier association pursuant to 47 C. See Montana Code 69-3-803

• 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}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Knowingly: means only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. See Montana Code 1-1-204
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Local exchange company: means a telecommunications company that provides telephone lines or wireless service to members of the general public who are its customers. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Local telecommunications: means :

  (a)telecommunications originating in a wireline local calling area, including extended area service areas, and terminating in the same wireline local calling area or extended area service area; or

  (b)commercial mobile radio service that originates from or terminates to a commercial mobile radio service provider within the same major trading area as defined in 47 C. See Montana Code 69-3-803

• Material affiliate transaction: means an affiliate transaction that has a significant potential impact on the financial stability of a regulated energy utility, including but not limited to:

  (a)dividend payments from a regulated energy utility to a corporate parent company if those payments would place the regulated energy utility's credit quality or property in jeopardy;

  (b)intercompany loans or other extensions of credit or advances of working capital between a regulated energy utility and an affiliate if those activities would place the regulated energy utility's credit quality or property in jeopardy;

  (c)the use of proceeds in issuing securities for which the assets of the regulated energy utility are pledged; or

  (d)external borrowing by a regulated energy utility with a term greater than 120 days if the loan would place the regulated energy utility's credit quality or property in jeopardy. See Montana Code 69-3-1501

• Montana energy impact assistance bonds: means low-cost corporate securities, including but not limited to senior secured bonds, debentures, notes, certificates of participation, certificates of beneficial interest, certificates of ownership, or other evidences of indebtedness or ownership that have a scheduled maturity of no longer than 30 years and a final legal maturity date that is not later than 32 years from the issue date, that are rated AA or Aa2 or better by a major independent credit rating agency at the time of issuance, and that are issued by an electric utility or an assignee pursuant to a financing order. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Montana energy impact assistance charges: means charges in amounts determined appropriate by the commission and authorized by the commission in a financing order in order to provide a source of revenue solely to repay, finance, or refinance Montana energy impact assistance costs and financing costs that are imposed on and are a part of all customer bills and are collected in full by the electric utility that the financing order applies to, its successors or assignees, or a collection agent through a nonbypassable charge that is separate and apart from the electric utility's base rates. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Montana energy impact assistance costs: means :

  (i)at the option of and upon petition by an electric utility, and as approved by the commission pursuant to 69-3-1606, the pretax costs that the electric utility has incurred or will incur that are caused by, associated with, or remain as a result of the retirement or replacement of electric generating infrastructure or facilities located in Montana; and

  (ii)pretax costs that an electric utility has previously incurred related to the closure or replacement of electric infrastructure or facilities occurring before July 1, 2019. See Montana Code 69-3-1603

• Montana energy impact assistance property: means :

  (a)all rights and interests of an electric utility or successor or assignee of an electric utility under a financing order for the right to impose, bill, collect, and receive Montana energy impact assistance charges as it is authorized to do solely under the financing order and to obtain periodic adjustments to the Montana energy impact assistance charges as provided in the financing order; and

  (b)all revenue, collections, claims, rights to payments, payments, money, or proceeds arising from the rights and interests specified in subsection (14)(a), regardless of whether the revenue, collections, claims, rights to payment, payments, money, or proceeds are imposed, billed, received, collected, or maintained together with or commingled with other revenue, collections, rights to payment, payments, money, or proceeds. See Montana Code 69-3-1603

• Montana energy impact assistance revenue: means revenue, receipts, collections, payments, money, claims, or other proceeds arising from Montana energy impact assistance property. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Natural gas production and gathering resources: means plants or equipment, minerals, and mineral rights used to extract natural gas from the earth and to collect, purify, measure, regulate, compress, and transport natural gas from its place of production to its connection with a transmission facility. 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
• Nonbypassable: means that the payment of a Montana energy impact assistance charge required to repay bonds and related costs may not be avoided by any retail customer located within an electric utility service area. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Nonlocal telecommunications: means :

  (a)wireline telecommunications traffic carried by either an interlocal access transport area carrier or an intralocal access transport area toll provider that originates in one wireline local calling area and terminates in another wireline local calling area; or

  (b)commercial mobile radio service that originates in a major trading area and terminates in a different major trading area as defined in 47 C. See Montana Code 69-3-803

• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes an affirmation or declaration. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• 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
• Operator service provider: means any person, company, or entity that provides automated or live assistance to a customer to arrange for billing or completion, or both, of an intrastate telephone call through a method other than:

  (a)automatic completion, with billing to the telephone from which the call originated; or

  (b)completion through an access code used by the customer, with billing to an account previously established with a telecommunications carrier by the customer. See Montana Code 69-3-1102

• Originating carrier: means a telecommunications carrier from whose network a customer originates telecommunications traffic. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Peace officer: has the meaning as defined in 46-1-202. See Montana Code 1-1-207
• Performance-based ratemaking: means those forms of regulation that include but are not limited to the use of revenue indexing, price indexing, ranges of authorized return, gas cost indexing, and innovative use of utility-related assets and activities, such as system sales of excess natural gas supplies, release of upstream pipeline capacity, and performance of billing services for other natural gas suppliers. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• person or entity: includes a corporation and all of its affiliates and subsidiaries if the corporation, affiliates, and subsidiaries have a common ownership or control of 80% of the outstanding voting shares. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Plan: means an integrated least-cost resource plan submitted by a utility in accordance with this part and the rules adopted under this part. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Planning period: means the future period for which a utility develops its plan, and the period over which net present value of revenue requirements for resources is calculated. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Pretax costs: means costs approved by the commission, including but not limited to:

  (a)unrecovered capitalized costs of retired or replaced electric infrastructure or facilities;

  (b)costs of decommissioning and restoring the site of the electric infrastructure or facility;

  (c)other applicable capital and operating costs, accrued carrying charges, deferred expenses, reductions for applicable insurance and salvage proceeds; and

  (d)the costs of retiring any existing indebtedness, fees, costs, and expenses to modify existing debt agreements or for waivers or consents related to existing debt agreements. See Montana Code 69-3-1603

• Primary interexchange carrier: means the telecommunications carrier from which a customer chooses to purchase long-distance services. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Private telecommunications service: means a system, including the construction, maintenance, or operation of the system, for the provision of telecommunications service or any portion of the service, by a person or entity for the sole and exclusive use of that person or entity and not for resale, directly or indirectly. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Federal Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Federal Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Public utility: means a public utility, as defined in 69-3-101, that provides electric or natural gas service. See Montana Code 69-3-1203
• Qualifying small power production facility: means a facility that:

  (a)produces electricity by the use, as a primary energy source, of biomass, waste, water, wind, or other renewable resource, or any combination of those sources; or

  (b)produces electricity and useful forms of thermal energy, such as heat or steam, used for industrial, commercial, heating, or cooling purposes through the sequential use of energy known as cogeneration; and

  (c)has a power production capacity that together with any other facilities located at the same site is not greater than 80 megawatts; and

  (d)is owned by a person not primarily engaged in the generation or sale of electricity other than electric power from a small power production facility. See Montana Code 69-3-601

• Rate: means a charge by a small telecommunications provider to a subscriber for the initiation or continued provision of regulated telecommunications service. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• Rate increase: means an increase in the rates for regulated telecommunications services provided by a small telecommunications provider and the creation of new rates. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• 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}
• Regulated energy utility: means a public utility with more than 100 customers that owns distribution facilities for the distribution of electricity or natural gas to the public and that is regulated by the commission pursuant to this title. See Montana Code 69-3-1501
• Regulated telecommunications service: means two-way switched, voice-grade access and transport of communications originating and terminating in this state and nonvoice-grade access and transport if intended to be converted to or from voice-grade access and transport. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Regulated telecommunications service: is a s defined in 69-3-803. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• Retail revenue: means the gross Montana revenue from telecommunications services that originate or terminate in Montana and are billed for a service address in Montana, excluding revenue from the resale of telecommunications services to another telecommunications services provider that uses the telecommunications services to provide telecommunications services to the ultimate retail consumer who originates or terminates the transmission. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Rural telephone company: means a local exchange carrier operating entity to the extent that the entity:

  (a)provides common carrier service to any local exchange carrier study area that does not include either:

  (i)all or any part of an incorporated place of 10,000 inhabitants or more based on the most recently available population statistics of the United States bureau of the census; or

  (ii)any territory, incorporated or unincorporated, included in an urbanized area, as defined by the United States bureau of the census as of August 10, 1993;

  (b)provides telephone exchange service, including exchange access, to fewer than 50,000 access lines;

  (c)provides telephone exchange service to any local exchange carrier study area with fewer than 100,000 access lines; or

  (d)has less than 15% of its access lines in communities of more than 50,000 on February 8, 1996. See Montana Code 69-3-803

• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Service provider: means any entity, other than the billing agent, that offers a product or service to a customer, the charge for which appears on the bill of a billing agent. See Montana Code 69-3-1302
• Small telecommunications provider: means a person, partnership, corporation, or other entity providing regulated telecommunications service to less than 12,000 subscribers in Montana. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subscriber: means a person, partnership, corporation, or other entity acquiring regulated telecommunications service from a small telecommunications provider. See Montana Code 69-3-901
• Successor: means , with respect to any legal entity, another legal entity that succeeds by operation of law to the rights and obligations of the first legal entity pursuant to any bankruptcy, reorganization, restructuring, other insolvency proceeding, merger, acquisition, consolidation, or sale or transfer of assets, whether any of these occur due to restructuring of the electric power industry or otherwise. See Montana Code 69-3-1603
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Telecommunications: means the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing without a change in the form or content of the information upon receipt. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Telecommunications carrier: means the same as provided in 69-3-1302. See Montana Code 69-3-1102
• Terminating carrier: means a telecommunications carrier upon whose network telecommunications traffic terminates. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Third persons: means all persons who are not parties to the obligation or transaction concerning which the phrase is used. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• 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.
• Transit traffic: means telecommunications traffic that an originating carrier delivers to a transiting carrier or carriers for delivery to a terminating carrier. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• Transiting carrier: means a telecommunications carrier or carriers that transport transit traffic from an originating carrier to a terminating carrier and that do not originate or terminate telecommunications traffic. See Montana Code 69-3-803
• 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
• Transmission services provider: means a person controlling or operating transmission facilities. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• 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 program costs. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Universal system benefits programs: means public purpose programs for cost-effective local energy conservation, low-income energy bill discounts, low-income weatherization, and emergency low-income energy bill assistance. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
• Usage: means a reasonable and lawful public custom concerning transactions of the same nature as those which are to be affected thereby, existing at the place where the obligation is to be performed, and either known to the parties or so well established, general, and uniform that the parties must be presumed to have acted with reference thereto. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Utility: means any public utility supplying electricity and regulated by the commission. See Montana Code 69-3-601
• Willfully: when applied to the intent with which an act is done or omitted, means a purpose or willingness to commit the act or make the omission referred to. See Montana Code 1-1-204
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203