Ohio § 4928.01

§ 4928.01.

(A) As used in this chapter: (1) “ Ancillary service ” means any function necessary to the provision of electric transmission or distribution

service to a retail customer and includes, but is not limited to, scheduling, system

control, and dispatch services;  reactive supply from generation resources and voltage

control service;  reactive supply from transmission resources service;  regulation

service;  frequency response service;  energy imbalance service;  operating reserve-spinning

reserve service;  operating reserve-supplemental reserve service;  load following;

 back-up supply service;  real-power loss replacement service;  dynamic scheduling;

 system black start capability;  and network stability service. (2) “ Billing and collection agent ” means a fully independent agent, not affiliated with or otherwise controlled by

an electric utility, electric services company, electric cooperative, or governmental

aggregator subject to certification under section 4928.08 of the Revised Code , to the extent that the agent is under contract with such utility, company, cooperative,

or aggregator solely to provide billing and collection for retail electric service

on behalf of the utility company, cooperative, or aggregator. (3) “ Certified territory ” means the certified territory established for an electric supplier under sections 4933.81 to 4933.90 of the Revised Code . (4) “ Competitive retail electric service ” means a component of retail electric service that is competitive as provided under

division (B) of this section. (5) “ Electric cooperative ” means a not-for-profit electric light company that both is or has been financed

in whole or in part under the “Rural Electrification Act of 1936,” 49 Stat. 1363, 7 U.S.C. 901 , and owns or operates facilities in this state to generate, transmit, or distribute

electricity, or a not-for-profit successor of such company. (6) “ Electric distribution utility ” means an electric utility that supplies at least retail electric distribution service

and does not own or operate an electric generating facility. (7) “Electric light company” has the same meaning as in section 4905.03 of the Revised Code and includes an electric services company. (8) “Electric load center” has the same meaning as in section 4933.81 of the Revised Code . (9) “ Electric services company ” means an electric light company that is engaged on a for-profit or not-for-profit

basis in the business of supplying or arranging for the supply of only a competitive

retail electric service in this state.  “ Electric services company ” includes a power marketer, power broker, aggregator, or independent power producer

but excludes an electric cooperative, municipal electric utility, governmental aggregator,

or billing and collection agent. (10) “Electric supplier” has the same meaning as in section 4933.81 of the Revised Code . (11) “ Electric utility ” means an electric light company that has a certified territory and is engaged on

a for-profit basis in the business of supplying at least a noncompetitive retail electric

service in this state.  “Electric utility” excludes a municipal electric utility or a billing and collection

agent. (12) “ Firm electric service ” means electric service other than nonfirm electric service. (13) “ Governmental aggregator ” means a legislative authority of a municipal corporation, a board of township trustees,

or a board of county commissioners acting as an aggregator for the provision of a

competitive retail electric service under authority conferred under section 4928.20 of the Revised Code . (14) A person acts “ knowingly ,” regardless of the person's purpose, when the person is aware that the person's

conduct will probably cause a certain result or will probably be of a certain nature.  A person has knowledge of circumstances when the person is aware that such circumstances

probably exist. (15) “ Level of funding for low-income customer energy efficiency programs provided through

electric utility rates ” means the level of funds specifically included in an electric utility's rates on

October 5, 1999, pursuant to an order of the public utilities commission issued under

Chapter 4905. or 4909. of the Revised Code and in effect on October 4, 1999, for the

purpose of improving the energy efficiency of housing for the utility's low-income

customers.  The term excludes the level of any such funds committed to a specific nonprofit

organization or organizations pursuant to a stipulation or contract. (16) “ Low-income customer assistance programs ” means the percentage of income payment plan program, the home energy assistance

program, the home weatherization assistance program, and the targeted energy efficiency

and weatherization program. (17) “ Market development period ” for an electric utility means the period of time beginning on the starting date

of competitive retail electric service and ending on the applicable date for that

utility as specified in section 4928.40 of the Revised Code , irrespective of whether the utility applies to receive transition revenues under

this chapter. (18) “ Market power ” means the ability to impose on customers a sustained price for a product or service

above the price that would prevail in a competitive market. (19) “ Mercantile customer ” means a commercial or industrial customer if the electricity consumed is for nonresidential

use and the customer consumes more than seven hundred thousand kilowatt hours per

year or is part of a national account involving multiple facilities in one or more

states. (20) “ Municipal electric utility ” means a municipal corporation that owns or operates facilities to generate, transmit,

or distribute electricity. (21) “ Noncompetitive retail electric service ” means a component of retail electric service that is noncompetitive as provided

under division (B) of this section. (22) “ Nonfirm electric service ” means electric service provided pursuant to a schedule filed under section 4905.30 of the Revised Code or pursuant to an arrangement under section 4905.31 of the Revised Code , which schedule or arrangement includes conditions that may require the customer

to curtail or interrupt electric usage during nonemergency circumstances upon notification

by an electric utility. (23) “ Percentage of income payment plan arrears ” means funds eligible for collection through the percentage of income payment plan

rider, but uncollected as of July 1, 2000. (24) “Person” has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of the Revised Code . (25) “ Advanced energy project ” means any technologies, products, activities, or management practices or strategies

that facilitate the generation or use of electricity or energy and that reduce or

support the reduction of energy consumption or support the production of clean, renewable

energy for industrial, distribution, commercial, institutional, governmental, research,

not-for-profit, or residential energy users, including, but not limited to, advanced

energy resources and renewable energy resources.  “Advanced energy project” also includes any project described in division (A) , (B) , or (C) of section 4928.621 of the Revised Code . (26) “ Regulatory assets ” means the unamortized net regulatory assets that are capitalized or deferred on

the regulatory books of the electric utility, pursuant to an order or practice of

the public utilities commission or pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles

as a result of a prior commission rate-making decision, and that would otherwise have

been charged to expense as incurred or would not have been capitalized or otherwise

deferred for future regulatory consideration absent commission action.  “ Regulatory assets ” includes, but is not limited to, all deferred demand-side management costs;  all

deferred percentage of income payment plan arrears;  post-in-service capitalized charges

and assets recognized in connection with statement of financial accounting standards

no. 109 (receivables from customers for income taxes);  future nuclear decommissioning

costs and fuel disposal costs as those costs have been determined by the commission

in the electric utility's most recent rate or accounting application proceeding addressing

such costs;  the undepreciated costs of safety and radiation control equipment on

nuclear generating plants owned or leased by an electric utility;  and fuel costs

currently deferred pursuant to the terms of one or more settlement agreements approved

by the commission. (27) “ Retail electric service ” means any service involved in supplying or arranging for the supply of electricity

to ultimate consumers in this state, from the point of generation to the point of

consumption.  For the purposes of this chapter, retail electric service includes one or more of

the following “ service components ”:  generation service, aggregation service, power marketing service, power brokerage

service, transmission service, distribution service, ancillary service, metering service,

and billing and collection service. (28) “ Starting date of competitive retail electric service ” means January 1, 2001. (29) “ Customer-generator ” means a user of a net metering system. (30) “ Net metering ” means measuring the difference in an applicable billing period between the electricity

supplied by an electric service provider and the electricity generated by a customer-generator

that is fed back to the electric service provider. (31) “ Net metering system ” means a facility for the production of electrical energy that does all of the following: (a) Uses as its fuel either solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, or hydropower, or uses

a microturbine or a fuel cell; (b) Is located on a customer-generator's premises; (c) Operates in parallel with the electric utility's transmission and distribution facilities; (d) Is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer-generator's requirements

for electricity.  For an industrial customer-generator with a net metering system that has a capacity

of less than twenty megawatts and uses wind as energy, this means the net metering

system was sized so as to not exceed one hundred per cent of the customer-generator's

annual requirements for electric energy at the time of interconnection. (32) “ Self-generator ” means an entity in this state that owns or hosts on property the entity controls

an electric generation facility that produces electricity primarily for the owner's

consumption and that may provide any such excess electricity to another entity, and

that meets all of the following: (a) The facility is installed or operated by the owner or by a third party under a contract,

including a lease, purchase power agreement, or other service contract. (b) The facility connects directly to the owner's side of the electric meter. (c) The facility delivers electricity to the owner's side of the electric meter without

the use of an electric distribution utility's or electric cooperative's distribution

system or transmission system. (33) “ Rate plan ” means the standard service offer in effect on the effective date of the amendment

of this section by S.B. 221 of the 127th general assembly, July 31, 2008. (34) “ Advanced energy resource ” means any of the following: (a) Any method or any modification or replacement of any property, process, device, structure,

or equipment that increases the generation output of an electric generating facility

to the extent such efficiency is achieved without additional carbon dioxide emissions

by that facility; (b) Any distributed generation system consisting of customer cogeneration technology; (c) Clean coal technology that includes a carbon-based product that is chemically altered

before combustion to demonstrate a reduction, as expressed as ash, in emissions of

nitrous oxide, mercury, arsenic, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, or sulfur trioxide in accordance

with the American society of testing and materials standard D1757A or a reduction

of metal oxide emissions in accordance with standard D5142 of that society, or clean

coal technology that includes the design capability to control or prevent the emission

of carbon dioxide, which design capability the commission shall adopt by rule and

shall be based on economically feasible best available technology or, in the absence

of a determined best available technology, shall be of the highest level of economically

feasible design capability for which there exists generally accepted scientific opinion; (d) Advanced nuclear energy technology consisting of generation III technology as defined

by the nuclear regulatory commission;  other, later technology;  or significant improvements

to existing facilities; (e) Any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity, including, but not limited to,

a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, molten carbonate

fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell; (f) Advanced solid waste or construction and demolition debris conversion technology,

including, but not limited to, advanced stoker technology, and advanced fluidized

bed gasification technology, that results in measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions

as calculated pursuant to the United States environmental protection agency's waste

reduction model (WARM); (g) Demand-side management and any energy efficiency improvement; (h) Any new, retrofitted, refueled, or repowered generating facility located in Ohio,

including a simple or combined-cycle natural gas generating facility or a generating

facility that uses biomass, coal, modular nuclear, or any other fuel as its input; (i) Any uprated capacity of an existing electric generating facility if the uprated capacity

results from the deployment of advanced technology. “Advanced energy resource” does not include a waste energy recovery system that is,

or has been, included in an energy efficiency program of an electric distribution

utility pursuant to requirements under section 4928.66 of the Revised Code . (35) “Air contaminant source” has the same meaning as in section 3704.01 of the Revised Code . (36) “ Cogeneration technology ” means technology that produces electricity and useful thermal output simultaneously. (37)(a) “ Renewable energy resource ” means any of the following: (i) Solar photovoltaic or solar thermal energy; (ii) Wind energy; (iii) Power produced by a hydroelectric facility; (iv) Power produced by a small hydroelectric facility, which is a facility that operates,

or is rated to operate, at an aggregate capacity of less than six megawatts; (v) Power produced by a run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility placed in service on

or after January 1, 1980, that is located within this state, relies upon the Ohio

river, and operates, or is rated to operate, at an aggregate capacity of forty or

more megawatts; (vi) Geothermal energy; (vii) Fuel derived from solid wastes, as defined in section 3734.01 of the Revised Code , through fractionation, biological decomposition, or other process that does not

principally involve combustion; (viii) Biomass energy; (ix) Energy produced by cogeneration technology that is placed into service on or before

December 31, 2015, and for which more than ninety per cent of the total annual energy

input is from combustion of a waste or byproduct gas from an air contaminant source

in this state, which source has been in operation since on or before January 1, 1985,

provided that the cogeneration technology is a part of a facility located in a county

having a population of more than three hundred sixty-five thousand but less than three

hundred seventy thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census; (x) Biologically derived methane gas; (xi) Heat captured from a generator of electricity, boiler, or heat exchanger fueled by

biologically derived methane gas; (xii) Energy derived from nontreated by-products of the pulping process or wood manufacturing

process, including bark, wood chips, sawdust, and lignin in spent pulping liquors. “ Renewable energy resource ” includes, but is not limited to, any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity,

including, but not limited to, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid

fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell;  a linear generator;

 wind turbine located in the state's territorial waters of Lake Erie;  methane gas

emitted from an abandoned or active coal mine;  waste energy recovery system placed

into service or retrofitted on or after the effective date of the amendment of this

section by S.B. 315 of the 129th general assembly, September 10, 2012, except that

a waste energy recovery system described in division (A)(38)(b) of this section may

be included only if it was placed into service between January 1, 2002, and December

31, 2004;  storage facility that will promote the better utilization of a renewable

energy resource;  or distributed generation system used by a customer to generate

electricity from any such energy. “ Renewable energy resource ” does not include a waste energy recovery system that is, or was, on or after January

1, 2012, included in an energy efficiency program of an electric distribution utility

pursuant to requirements under section 4928.66 of the Revised Code . (b) As used in division (A)(37) of this section, “ hydroelectric facility ” means a hydroelectric generating facility that is located at a dam on a river, or

on any water discharged to a river, that is within or bordering this state or within

or bordering an adjoining state and meets all of the following standards: (i) The facility provides for river flows that are not detrimental for fish, wildlife,

and water quality, including seasonal flow fluctuations as defined by the applicable

licensing agency for the facility. (ii) The facility demonstrates that it complies with the water quality standards of this

state, which compliance may consist of certification under Section 401 of the “Clean

Water Act of 1977,” 91 Stat. 1598, 1599, 33 U.S.C. 1341 , and demonstrates that it has not contributed to a finding by this state that the

river has impaired water quality under Section 303(d) of the “Clean Water Act of 1977,”

114 Stat. 870, 33 U.S.C. 1313 . (iii) The facility complies with mandatory prescriptions regarding fish passage as required

by the federal energy regulatory commission license issued for the project, regarding

fish protection for riverine, anadromous, and catadromous fish. (iv) The facility complies with the recommendations of the Ohio environmental protection

agency and with the terms of its federal energy regulatory commission license regarding

watershed protection, mitigation, or enhancement, to the extent of each agency's respective

jurisdiction over the facility. (v) The facility complies with provisions of the “Endangered Species Act of 1973,” 87

Stat. 884, 16 U.S.C. 1531 to 1544 , as amended. (vi) The facility does not harm cultural resources of the area.  This can be shown through compliance with the terms of its federal energy regulatory

commission license or, if the facility is not regulated by that commission, through

development of a plan approved by the Ohio historic preservation office, to the extent

it has jurisdiction over the facility. (vii) The facility complies with the terms of its federal energy regulatory commission

license or exemption that are related to recreational access, accommodation, and facilities

or, if the facility is not regulated by that commission, the facility complies with

similar requirements as are recommended by resource agencies, to the extent they have

jurisdiction over the facility;  and the facility provides access to water to the

public without fee or charge. (viii) The facility is not recommended for removal by any federal agency or agency of any

state, to the extent the particular agency has jurisdiction over the facility. (c) The standards in divisions (A)(37)(b)(i) to (viii) of this section do not apply to

a small hydroelectric facility under division (A)(37)(a)(iv) of this section. (38) “ Waste energy recovery system ” means any of the following: (a) A facility that generates electricity through the conversion of energy from either

of the following: (i) Exhaust heat from engines or manufacturing, industrial, commercial, or institutional

sites, except for exhaust heat from a facility whose primary purpose is the generation

of electricity; (ii) Reduction of pressure in gas pipelines before gas is distributed through the pipeline,

provided that the conversion of energy to electricity is achieved without using additional

fossil fuels. (b) A facility at a state institution of higher education as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code that recovers waste heat from electricity-producing engines or combustion turbines

and that simultaneously uses the recovered heat to produce steam, provided that the

facility was placed into service between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2004; (c) A facility that produces steam from recovered waste heat from a manufacturing process

and uses that steam, or transfers that steam to another facility, to provide heat

to another manufacturing process or to generate electricity. (39) “ Smart grid ” means capital improvements to an electric distribution utility's distribution infrastructure

that improve reliability, efficiency, resiliency, or reduce energy demand or use,

including, but not limited to, advanced metering and automation of system functions. (40) “ Combined heat and power system ” means the coproduction of electricity and useful thermal energy from the same fuel

source designed to achieve thermal-efficiency levels of at least sixty per cent, with

at least twenty per cent of the system's total useful energy in the form of thermal

energy. (41)(a) “ Green energy ” means any energy generated by using an energy resource that does one or more of

the following: (i) Releases reduced air pollutants, thereby reducing cumulative air emissions; (ii) Is more sustainable and reliable relative to some fossil fuels. (b) “ Green energy ” includes energy generated using the following: (i) Natural gas as a resource; (ii) Nuclear reaction. (42) “ Energy storage ” means electrical generation and storage performed by a distributed energy system

connected battery. (43) “ Linear generator ” means an integrated system that may consist of oscillators, cylinders, electricity

conversion equipment, and associated balance of plant components that meet the following

criteria: (a) Converts linear motion directly into electricity; (b) Is dispatchable with the ability to vary power output across all loads. (B) For the purposes of this chapter, a retail electric service component shall be deemed

a competitive retail electric service if the service component is competitive pursuant

to a declaration by a provision of the Revised Code or pursuant to an order of the

public utilities commission authorized under division (A) of section 4928.04 of the Revised Code .  Otherwise, the service component shall be deemed a noncompetitive retail electric

service.