Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 30 > Chapter 89 > Subchapter 1 - General Provisions

• 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.
• 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.
• biennially: shall mean the year in which a regular session of the General Assembly is held. See
• Commission: means the Public Utility Commission under section 3 of this title. See
• commissioning: means the first time a plant is put into operation following initial construction or modernization if the costs of modernization are at least 50 percent of the costs that would be required to build a new plant including all buildings and structures technically required for the new plant's operation. See
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• CPI: means the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers, designated as "CPI-U" in the northeast region, as published by the U. See
• Customer: means a retail electric consumer. See
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Public Service under section 1 of this title, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See
• Energy conversion efficiency: means the effective use of energy and heat from a combustion process. See
• Energy transformation project: means an undertaking that provides energy-related goods or services but does not include or consist of the generation of electricity and that results in a net reduction in fossil fuel consumption by the customers of a retail electricity provider and in the emission of greenhouse gases attributable to that consumption. See
• Environmental attributes: means the characteristics of a plant that enable the energy it produces to qualify as renewable energy and include any and all benefits of the plant to the environment such as avoided emissions or other impacts to air, water, or soil that may occur through the plant's displacement of a nonrenewable energy source. See
• 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}
• Existing renewable energy: means renewable energy produced by a plant that came into service prior to or on June 30, 2015. See
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Group net metering system: means a net metering system serving more than one customer, or a single customer with multiple electric meters, located within the service area of the same retail electricity provider. See
• 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.
• kWh: means kW hour or hours. See
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See
• MWH: means MW hour or hours. See
• Net metering: means measuring the difference between the electricity supplied to a customer and the electricity fed back by the customer's net metering system during the customer's billing period:

• Net metering system: means a plant for generation of electricity that:

• New renewable energy: means renewable energy produced by a specific and identifiable plant coming into service after June 30, 2015. See
• 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: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Plant: means an independent technical facility that generates electricity from renewable energy. See
• Plant capacity: means the rated electrical nameplate for a plant, except that, in the case of a solar energy plant, the term shall mean the aggregate AC nameplate capacity of all inverters used to convert the plant's output to AC power. See
• Plant owner: means a person who has the right to sell electricity generated by a plant. See
• provider: means a company engaged in the distribution or sale of electricity directly to the public. See
• 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.
• Renewable energy: means energy produced using a technology that relies on a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at or below its natural regeneration rate. See
• Renewable pricing: shall mean an optional service provided or contracted for by an electric company:

• RES: means the Renewable Energy Standard established under sections 8004 and 8005 of this title. See
• Standard Offer Facilitator: means an entity appointed by the Commission pursuant to subsection 8005a(a) of this title. See
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Tradeable renewable energy credits: means all of the environmental attributes associated with a single unit of energy generated by a renewable energy source where:

• Vermont composite electric utility system: means the combined generation, transmission, and distribution resources along with the combined retail load requirements of the Vermont retail electricity providers. See