Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 58 > Chapter 27 > Article 8 - Storm Damage Recovery

• ancillary agreement: means a bond, insurance policy, letter of credit, reserve account, surety bond, liquidity or credit support arrangement, or other financial arrangement entered into in connection with recovery bonds. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• 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.
• 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 a legally recognized entity to which an electrical utility assigns, sells, or transfers, other than as a security, all or a portion of its interest in or right to storm recovery property. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• 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.
• code: means The Uniform Commercial Code, Title 36 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• commission: means the Public Service Commission of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• consolidated political subdivision: means a consolidated political subdivision existing pursuant to the Constitution of this State and shall not be deemed a city, town, county, or other governmental unit merged thereinto. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• electrical utility: is a s defined in § 58-27-10(7). See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• financing costs: includes all of the following:
  
  (a) interest and acquisition, defeasance, or redemption premiums payable on recovery bonds;
  
  (b) any payment required under an ancillary agreement and any amount required to fund or replenish a storm reserve account or other accounts established under the terms of any indenture, ancillary agreement, or other financing documents pertaining to recovery bonds;
  
  (c) any other cost related to issuing, supporting, repaying, refunding, and servicing storm recovery bonds, including servicing fees, accounting and auditing fees, trustee fees, legal fees, consulting fees, structuring adviser fees, administrative fees, placement and underwriting fees, independent director and manager fees, capitalized interest, rating agency fees, stock exchange listing and compliance fees, security registration fees, filing fees, information technology programming costs, and any other costs necessary to otherwise ensure the timely payment of recovery or other amounts or charges payable in connection with the bonds, including costs related to obtaining the financing order;
  
  (d) any taxes and license fees or other fees imposed on the revenues generated from the collection of a storm recovery charge or otherwise resulting from the collection of storm recovery charges, in any such case whether paid, payable, or accrued;
  
  (e) any state and local taxes, franchise, gross receipts, and other taxes or similar charges, including regulatory assessment fees, whether paid, payable, or accrued;
  
  (f) any costs incurred by the commission or the Office of Regulatory Staff for any outside consultants, including counsel and advisors, retained in connection with the securitization of storm recovery costs. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• financing order: means an order that authorizes the issuance of storm recovery bonds; the imposition, collection, and periodic adjustments of a storm recovery charge; the creation of storm recovery property; and the sale, assignment, or transfer of storm recovery property to an assignee. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• financing party: means bondholders and trustees, collateral agents, any party under an ancillary agreement, or any other person acting for the benefit of bondholders. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• financing statement: is a s defined in § 36-9-102. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• 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}
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• municipality: includes a city, town, county, township, or any other corporation existing, created, or organized as a governmental unit under the Constitution or laws of this State except a consolidated political subdivision. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• 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.
• 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.
• person: includes all individuals, partnerships, or associations other than corporations. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• pledgee: means a financing party to which an electrical utility or its successors or assignees mortgages, negotiates, pledges, or creates a security interest or lien on all or any portion of its interest in or right to storm recovery property. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• public: means the public generally or any limited portion of the public, including a person, corporation, or municipality. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• rate: means and includes every compensation, charge, toll, rental, and classification, or any of them, demanded, observed, charged, or collected by any electrical utility for any electric current or service offered by it to the public and any rules, regulations, practices, or contracts affecting any such compensation, charge, toll, rental, or classification. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• 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 staff: means the executive director or the executive director and the employees of the Office of Regulatory Staff. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• securities: means and includes stock, stock certificates, bonds, notes, debentures, or other evidences of indebtedness and any assumption or guaranty thereof. See South Carolina Code 58-27-10
• 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.
• storm: means , individually or collectively, a named tropical storm or hurricane, a tornado, ice storm or snowstorm, flood, an earthquake, or other significant weather or natural disaster. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• storm recovery activity: means an activity or activities by an electrical utility, its affiliates, or its contractors directly and specifically in connection with the restoration of service and infrastructure associated with electric power outages affecting customers of an electrical utility as the result of a storm or storms, including activities related to mobilization, staging, and construction, reconstruction, replacement, or repair of electric generation, transmission, distribution, or general plant facilities. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• storm recovery bonds: means bonds, debentures, notes, certificates of participation, certificates of beneficial interest, certificates of ownership, or other evidences of indebtedness or ownership that are issued by an electrical utility or an assignee pursuant to a financing order, the proceeds of which are used directly or indirectly to recover, finance, or refinance commission-approved storm recovery costs and financing costs, and that are secured by or payable from storm recovery property. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• storm recovery charge: means the amounts authorized by the commission to repay, finance, or refinance storm recovery costs and financing costs and that are nonbypassable charges (i) imposed on and part of all retail customer bills, (ii) collected by an electrical utility or its successors or assignees, or a collection agent, in full, separate and apart from the electrical utility's base rates, and (iii) paid by all existing or future retail customers receiving transmission or distribution service, or both, from the electrical utility or its successors or assignees under commission-approved rate schedules or under special contracts, even if a customer elects to purchase electricity from an alternative electricity supplier following a fundamental change in regulation of electrical utilities in this State. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• storm recovery costs: means :
  
  (a) all incremental costs, including capital costs, appropriate for recovery from existing and future retail customers receiving transmission or distribution service from an electrical utility that an electrical utility has incurred or expects to incur as a result of the applicable storm that are caused by, associated with, or remain as a result of undertaking storm recovery activity;
  
  (b) storm recovery costs shall be net of applicable insurance proceeds, tax benefits, income tax savings, and any other amounts intended to reimburse the electrical utility for storm recovery activities such as government grants, or aid of any kind and where determined appropriate by the commission, and may include adjustments for capital replacement and operating costs previously considered in determining normal amounts in the electrical utility's most recent general rate proceeding. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• storm recovery property: means :
  
  (a) All rights and interests of an electrical utility or successor or assignee of the electrical utility under a financing order, including the right to impose, bill, charge, collect, and receive storm recovery charges authorized under the financing order and to obtain periodic adjustments to such charges as provided in the financing order. See South Carolina Code 58-27-1105
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}