Rule 515-3-4-.02 - Definitions(1) Allowance: Authority to emit one ton of sulfur dioxide, as set forth in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (PL 101-549), at Title IV.(2) Avoided Cost: The cost over a future period to the electric utility of marginal energy and capacity from a utility supply-side resource for which an alternative resource may be substituted. Avoided costs shall be reported by season and time-of-day if variations are sufficient to warrant such time-differentiation. Avoided costs shall be as determined by current Commission policy. (a) The direct avoided cost, for the purposes of developing the integrated resource plan shall consist of: 1. Avoided generating capacity cost, adjusted for transmission and distribution losses and reserve margin requirements.2. Avoided transmission and distribution system capacity cost; and3. Avoided energy cost, adjusted for transmission and distribution system losses.(b) The total avoided cost, for use in the societal cost test for the purposes of developing the integrated resource plan shall consist of: 1. The direct avoided cost defined above;2. Avoided externality costs which have been monetized or considered through an adder (5%) or as otherwise determined by this Commission associated with a utility supply-side resource; and3. Other avoided costs and benefits which have not been monetized, including an adjustment for risk associated with a utility resource.(3) Capacity Factor: The ratio of the net energy produced by a generating facility to the amount of energy that could have been produced, in the absence of any scheduled or unscheduled outages, in any selected time period. Net capacity factor equals net power generation in the period divided by the product of [number of hours in the period and net dependable capacity], where net power generation is gross station output less in-station electricity consumption.(4) Capacity Resource: An electric plant, a long-term power purchase, or a demand-side capacity option.(5) Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (PL 101-549): All titles of the amended Clean Air Act, subsequent rules and amendments, future revisions to the Act, and future federal legislation related to air quality.(6) Cogeneration: Production by a Qualifying Facility of electricity which the utility is required to purchase or in some instances carry over its transmission facilities as defined in and pursuant to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, at 16 U.S.C. Section 796. An entity providing electricity from its Qualifying Facility is a cogenerator.(7) Commission: Georgia Public Service Commission.(8) Construction: The clearing of land, excavation, or other substantial activity leading to the operation of an electric plant other than planning, land surveying, land acquisition, subsurface exploration, design work, licensing or other regulatory activity, contracting for construction, or environmental protection measures and activities associated therewith.(9) Customer (or participant) Cost: The incremental cost to the customer(or to any person or entity, other than the utility serving the customer), for a demand-side measure.(10) Demand-side Capacity Option: A program for the reduction of future electricity requirements the utility's Georgia retail customers would otherwise impose, including, but not limited to energy efficiency and energy management options (together known as demand-side resources), and cogeneration and renewable resource technologies. (Cogeneration and technologies are generally included among supply-side resources because they add to the total amount of electrical energy produced by society).(11) Demand-Side Measure: Any hardware, equipment or practice which is installed or instituted for energy efficiency or energy management purposes.(12) Demand-Side Program: A utility program designed to implement demand-side measures.(13) Demand-Side Resource: A resource that reduces the demand for electrical power or energy as a result of applying demand-side programs to implement one or more demand-side measures.(14) Direct Costs: These are costs which are paid directly by the utility, the customer, or a third party and include such items as the cost of demand-side management equipment and programs, fuel and operating and maintenance costs, and generating, transmission, and distribution equipment.(15) Electric Plant: Any facility, or portion of a facility, that produces electricity, or is intended to produce electricity, for a utility's Georgia retail customers. Electric plant includes the realty, ancillary facilities, and associated facilities required to interconnect the electric plant with the bulk power supply system.(16) End-Use: Light, heat, cooling, refrigeration, motor drive, microwave energy, video or audio signal, computer processing, electrolytic process, or other useful work produced by electricity or its substitute. If equivalent energy-related amenity levels and/or productivity are maintained, the end-use service is considered constant for purposes of these regulations.(17) Energy Efficiency: The decrease of power (kilowatt, or "kW") or energy (kilowatt-hour, or "kWh") requirements of participating customers during any selected time period with end-use service held constant.(18) Energy Management: The modification of the time pattern of customer energy usage, with end-use service held constant.(19) Equivalent Availability: The availability of a generating facility in any selected time period, considering both scheduled and unscheduled, partial and full outages. The equivalent availability factor equals the [service hours plus reserve hours minus equivalent derated hours] divided by the number of hours in the period, where service hours are the hours the unit is electrically connected to the load, reserve hours are the hours the unit is shut down for economic reasons and the equivalent derated hours are the number of forced or scheduled derated hours times megawatt reduction divided by the maximum dependable capacity.(20) Exempt Wholesale Generator: Any person determined by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to be engaged directly, or indirectly through one or more affiliates as defined in section 2(a)(11)(B) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, and exclusively in the business of owning and/or operating all or part of one or more eligible electric generating facilities and selling electric energy at wholesale. A person shall be deemed an exempt wholesale generator who complies with the definition of same under section 32(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.(21) Externalities (or external costs/benefits): Those environmental and social costs or benefits of energy which result from the production, delivery, or reduction in use through efficiency improvements and which are external to the transaction between the supplier (including the supplier of efficiency improvements) and the wholesale (e.g., utility) or retail (e.g., ratepayer) customer. Externalities should be quantified and expressed in monetary terms where possible. Those externalities that cannot be quantified or expressed in monetary terms shall nonetheless be qualitatively considered in the societal cost test to develop resource plans.(22) FERC: Federal Energey Regulatory Commission.(23) Independent Power Producer: A supplier of electricity from an electric plant that is not directly owned and operated by a utility for servicing its retail customers, and not a utility operating company that sells electricity as part of an affiliated utility operating company system. Independent power producers include non-utility generators and exempt wholesale generators.(24) Indirect Costs/Benefits: These are costs which result from utility actions but are not paid directly by either the utility or the customers. Indirect costs include such items as the environmental impacts of air pollutant emissions from power plants, land use disruptions from building power plants and transmission lines, and similar generalized costs. Indirect benefits are benefits which result from utility actions but are not received directly by either the utility or the customers. Indirect benefits include consideration of economic developments, increased tax base and similar generalized benefits.(25) Integrated Resource Planning (IRP): A utility resource planning process in which an integrated combination of demand-side and supply-side resources is selected to satisfy future energy service demands in the most economic and reliable manner while balancing the interests of utility customers, utility shareholders and society-at large. In IRP, all resources reasonably available to reliably meet future energy service demands are considered by the utility on a fair and consistent basis. These options include, but are not limited to: (a) Options that increase the available supply from, or efficiency of, existing utility facilities, such as plant heat-rate improvements, plant refurbishment and life-extension, transmission and distribution system loss reduction;(b) Options that increase the available supply from new utility sources, such as new conventional plants and new advanced technology plants;(c) Options that increase the available supply from utility sources, including power pool purchases;(d) Options that increase the available supply from non-utility sources, such as cogenerators and independent power producers;(e) Options that reduce demands for utility-supplied power and energy through energy efficiency;(f) Options that reduce demands for utility-supplied power and energy through energy management; and(g) Options that reduce demands for utility-supplied power and energy through the use of alternative fuels.(26) Long-Term: Exceeding one year.(27) Long-term Power Purchase: Any purchase of electric capacity and energy for a period exceeding one year, the principal purpose of which is to supply the requirements of the Georgia retail customers of a utility. Long-term power purchases are one of several supply-side resources.(28) Market Discount Rate: A rate which reflects current customers' after-tax cost of capital. The utility's after-tax cost of capital is one such rate.(29) Net Dependable Capacity: The maximum capacity a generating facility can sustain over a specified period of time, as modified for ambient limitations and less auxiliary loads, as reported to the U.S. Department of Energy on Form IE-411 or its successor.(30) Participant's Test: The economic test which measures the quantifiable benefits and costs to the customer due to participation in a program.(31) Pilot Demand-Side Program: A demand-side program which is implemented on a trial basis by the utility for one or any combination of customer classes for which the demand-side measure, program design, or method of implementation has not yet been proven cost-effective through either the implementation of a pilot program in the utility's service territory or the implementation of a transferable pilot or full scale program in the service territory of another electric utility. Pilot programs are limited in scope as to target population, duration or a combination of these factors.(32) Plan: The integrated resource plan, as defined in O.C.G.A. Section 46-3A, filed by the utility pursuant to these regulations, to cover the twenty-year forecast period from the year of filing. The plan will contain the utility's electricity demand forecasts, analysis of all capacity resource options, analysis of alternative system configurations, list of assumptions, and supporting data and information.(33) PURPA: The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 including any amendments.(34) Rate Impact Analysis: An analysis of the extent to which unit rates for electricity are altered by the implementation of an alternative system configuration.(35) Rate Impact Measure Test: The economic test which measures the changes in customer rates as a result of changes in utility revenues and operating costs caused by a program.(36) Request for Proposals: A formal written document submitted to potential utility, cogenerator, independent power producer and exempt wholesale generator suppliers, and others seeking proposals to sell supply-side capacity resource(s) in order to supply the requirements of the Georgia retail customers of a utility.(37) Screening Tests: The evaluations used to determine which demand and supply-side resource options are eligible for inclusion in the alternative system configurations. The demand-side screening tests may include the rate impact measure test, utility cost test, the participant's test, the total resource cost test and the societal cost test. The primary test for screening supply-side additions will be based upon the present value of revenue requirement over the life of the resource at varying levels of operation or capacity factor.(38) Societal Cost Test: An analytical test which identifies resources that provide net benefits considering economic, environmental and social factors. A resource option is cost-effective under the societal cost test when present value life cycle benefits exceed present value life cycle costs, evaluated at the utility discount rate. Total benefits equal the total avoided costs multiplied by the energy/capacity supplied by the resource option, plus any resource-specific benefits not otherwise reflected in the total avoided cost. Total costs equal the total installed cost of the resource option plus its operating costs plus any monetized and non-monetized costs attributable to the option.(39) Supply-Side Resource: A resource which can provide for a supply of electrical energy and/or capacity to the utility. Supply-side resources include supply-side capacity options, supplies from other utilities, cogenerators, renewable resource technologies, or independent third parties via existing or new transmission facilities; and the life extension, upgrading, plant refurbishment, efficiency improvement, or capital additions of existing generation, transmission or distribution facilities of the utility.(40) System Configuration: A set of demand-side resource options, supply-side resource options, or a combination thereof, which is designed to provide electric service needs over the planning period.(41) Total Resource Cost Test: An economic test which measures the "net" costs of a demand-side management program as a resource option based on the total costs of the program, including both the participant's and the utility's cost.(42) Transmission facilities shall be generally defined as those having the following general characteristics: (a) Transmission facilities are generally network in nature and are interconnected with other transmission systems;(b) Power generally flows through a transmission system:(c) Network transmission systems serve both native load and external markets through interconnecting with other transmission systems;(d) Power flowing on a transmission system may be consumed over a diverse geographic area; and(e) Transmission shall be at voltage levels as prescribed ty the FERC.(43) Utility: Any electric supplier whose rates are fixed by the Commission.(44) Utility Enterprise: A utility, its parent holding company and affiliated companies.(45) Utility Cost Test: An analytic test which considers only the direct utility economics of resource options. A resource option is cost effective under the utility cost test when present value life cycle benefits exceed present value life cycle costs, evaluated at a market discount rate. Direct benefits equal the direct avoided costs multiplied by the energy/capacity supplied by the resource option. Direct costs equal the utility cost of installing the resource option plus the utility's operating costs.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 515-3-4-.02
Ga. L. 1878-79 p. 125; 1907; pp. 72-81; 1922 pp. 142-147; 1975 pp. 404-412; 1991 pp. 1696-1705, 16 U.S.C. Secs. 791, 796; 15 U.S.C. Secs. 79 et seq., Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 Sec. 32.
Original Rule entitled "Definitions" adopted. F. Dec. 10, 1991; eff. Dec. 30, 1991.Amended: F. May 12, 1994; eff. June 1, 1994.Amended: F. Oct. 27, 1997; eff. Nov. 16, 1997.