In this chapter:
(1) “Certificate” means a certificate of convenience and necessity.
(2) “Electric utility” includes an electric cooperative.
(3) “Retail electric utility” means a person, political subdivision, electric cooperative, or agency that operates, maintains, or controls in this state a facility to provide retail electric utility service. The term does not include a corporation described by § 32.053 to the extent that the corporation sells electricity exclusively at wholesale and not to the ultimate consumer. A qualifying cogenerator that sells electric energy at retail to the sole purchaser of the cogenerator’s thermal output under Sections 35.061 and 36.007 is not for that reason considered to be a retail electric utility. The owner or operator of a qualifying cogeneration facility who was issued the necessary environmental permits from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission after January 1, 1998, and who commenced construction of such qualifying facility before July 1, 1998, may provide electricity to the purchasers of the thermal output of that qualifying facility and shall not for that reason be considered an electric utility or a retail electric utility, provided that the purchasers of the thermal output are owners of manufacturing or process operation facilities that are located on a site entirely owned before September, 1987, by one owner who retained ownership after September, 1987, of some portion of the facilities and that those facilities now share some integrated operations, such as the provision of services and raw materials. A person who is an electric generation equipment lessor or operator is not for that reason considered to be a retail electric utility. A person who owns or operates equipment used solely to provide electricity charging service for consumption by an alternatively fueled vehicle, as defined by § 502.004, Transportation Code, is not for that reason considered to be a retail electric utility.