Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 56 > Chapter 25 - Natural Gas Conservation and Ratemaking Efficiency Act

• Allowed distribution revenue: means the average annual, weather-normalized, nongas commodity revenue per customer associated with the rates in effect as adopted in the applicable utility's last Commission-approved rate case or performance-based regulation plan, multiplied by the average number of customers served. See Virginia Code 56-600
• 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.
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Commission: means the Marine Resources Commission. See Virginia Code 28.2-100
• company: includes all corporations created by acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, or under the general incorporation laws of this Commonwealth, or doing business therein, and shall exclude all municipal corporations, other political subdivisions, and public institutions owned or controlled by the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan: means a plan filed by a natural gas utility pursuant to this chapter that includes a decoupling mechanism. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Cost-effective conservation and energy efficiency program: means a program approved by the Commission that is designed to decrease the average customer's annual, weather-normalized consumption of energy, for gas and nongas elements combined, or avoid energy costs or consumption the customer may otherwise have incurred, and is determined by the Commission to be cost-effective if the net present value of the benefits exceeds the net present value of the costs at the portfolio level as determined by not less than any three of the following four tests: the Total Resource Cost Test, the Program Administrator Test (also referred to as the Utility Cost Test), the Participant Test, and the Ratepayer Impact Measure Test. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Decoupling mechanism: means a rate, tariff design or mechanism that decouples the recovery of a utility's allowed distribution revenue from the level of consumption of natural gas by its customers, including (i) a mechanism that adjusts actual nongas distribution revenues per customer to allowed distribution revenues per customer, such as a sales adjustment clause, (ii) rate design changes that substantially align the percentage of fixed charge revenue recovery with the percentage of the utility's fixed costs, such as straight fixed variable rates, provided such mechanism includes a substantial demand component based on a customer's peak usage, or (iii) a combination of clauses (i) and (ii) that substantially decreases the relative amount of nongas distribution revenue affected by changes in per customer consumption of gas. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fixed costs: means any and all of the utility's nongas costs of service, together with an authorized return thereon, that are not associated with the cost of the natural gas commodity flowing through and measured by the customer's meter. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Measure: means an individual item, service, offering, or rebate available to a customer of a natural gas utility as part of the utility's conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Portfolio: means the program or programs included in a natural gas utility's conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Program: means a group of one or more related measures for a customer class. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Rate: means rate charged for any service rendered or to be rendered. See Virginia Code 56-1
• regulation: include joint rates, joint charges and joint regulations, respectively. See Virginia Code 56-1
• Revenue-neutral: means a change in a rate, tariff design or mechanism as a component of a conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan that does not shift annualized allowed distribution revenue between customer classes, and does not increase or decrease the utility's average, weather-normalized nongas utility revenue per customer for any given rate class by more than 0. See Virginia Code 56-600
• Shoals: means subaqueous elevations covered by water less than four feet deep at mean low water. See Virginia Code 28.2-200
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• utility: means any investor-owned public service company engaged in the business of furnishing natural gas service to the public. See Virginia Code 56-600