Virginia Code 56-578: Nondiscriminatory access to transmission and distribution system
A. All distributors shall have the obligation to connect any retail customer, including those using distributed generation, located within its service territory to those facilities of the distributor that are used for delivery of retail electric energy, subject to Commission rules and regulations and approved tariff provisions relating to connection of service.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 56-578
- Affiliate: means any person that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with an electric utility. See Virginia Code 56-576
- Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 56-576
- Distributor: means a person owning, controlling, or operating a retail distribution system to provide electric energy directly to retail customers. See Virginia Code 56-576
- 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.
- 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.
- Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
- Retail customer: means any person that purchases retail electric energy for its own consumption at one or more metering points or nonmetered points of delivery located in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 56-576
- Retail electric energy: means electric energy sold for ultimate consumption to a retail customer. See Virginia Code 56-576
- Supplier: means any generator, distributor, aggregator, broker, marketer, or other person who offers to sell or sells electric energy to retail customers and is licensed by the Commission to do so, but it does not mean a generator that produces electric energy exclusively for its own consumption or the consumption of an affiliate. See Virginia Code 56-576
B. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, every distributor shall provide distribution service within its service territory on a basis which is just, reasonable, and not unduly discriminatory to suppliers of electric energy, including distributed generation, as the Commission may determine. The distribution services provided to each supplier of electric energy shall be comparable in quality to those provided by the distribution utility to itself or to any affiliate.
C. The Commission shall establish interconnection standards to ensure transmission and distribution safety and reliability, which standards shall not be inconsistent with nationally recognized standards acceptable to the Commission. In adopting standards pursuant to this subsection, the Commission shall seek to prevent barriers to new technology and shall not make compliance unduly burdensome and expensive. The Commission shall determine questions about the ability of specific equipment to meet interconnection standards.
D. The Commission shall consider developing expedited permitting processes for small generation facilities of fifty megawatts or less. The Commission shall also consider developing a standardized permitting process and interconnection arrangements for those power systems less than 500 kilowatts which have demonstrated approval from a nationally recognized testing laboratory acceptable to the Commission.
E. Upon the separation and deregulation of the generation function and services of incumbent electric utilities, the Commission shall retain jurisdiction over utilities’ electric transmission function and services, to the extent not preempted by federal law. Nothing in this section shall impair the Commission’s authority under §§ 56-46.1, 56-46.2, and 56-265.2 with respect to the construction of electric transmission facilities.