Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 77 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS (§§ 77-1-1 — 77-NEW-NEW-004) › Chapter 3 - REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES (§§ 77-3-NEW — 77-3-809) › Article 2 - ALTERNATE METHOD OF COST RECOVERY ON CERTAIN BASE LOAD GENERATION (§§ 77-3-101 — 77-3-129) › MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC UTILITY RATE MITIGATION AND REDUCTION ACT (§§ 77-3-111 — 77-3-129) › Section 77-3-111 - Definitions

As used in Sections
77-3-111
through
77-3-127
:
(a)
"Assignee" means any person or legal entity to which an interest in security property is sold, assigned, transferred or conveyed (other than as security) and any successor to or subsequent assignee of such a person or legal entity.
(b)
"Bondholder" means any holder or owner of a rate reduction bond.
(c)
"Commission" means the Mississippi Public Service Commission.
(d)
"Financing costs" means:
(i)
Any payment made on or before issuance of rate reduction bonds and any amount required to fund any reserves or other accounts established pursuant to the terms of any financing order, indenture or other financing documents pertaining to rate reduction bonds;
(ii)
Principal, interest and acquisition, defeasance or redemption premiums and all other amounts that are payable on rate reduction bonds;
(iii)
Any amount required to be paid under any financing document;
(iv)
Any amount required to fund or replenish any reserves or other accounts established pursuant to the terms of any financing order, indenture, financing document or other financing document pertaining to rate reduction bonds;
(v)
Any taxes, fees, franchise, transfer, profits, license, excise, severance, customs, duties, assessments or other charges imposed by any governmental or taxing authority on the rate reduction bond charge revenue whether paid, payable or accrued;
(vi)
Any other cost related to issuing, supporting, repaying, servicing, retiring, refinancing or refunding rate reduction bonds and all other required amounts payable in connection therewith, including, but not limited to, servicing fees and expenses, accounting and auditing fees and expenses, legal fees and expenses, consulting fees and expenses, security registration fees, trustee fees and expenses, insurance premiums, administrative fees, placement and underwriting fees, rating agency fees, stock exchange listing fees, compliance fees, costs to create or amend financing documents, and costs to obtain waivers, consents or approvals;
(vii)
Any costs and expenses associated with the creation, operation, management and winding up of any special purpose entity created by the electric public utility in connection with the issuance of rate reduction bonds; and
(viii)
Any other costs deemed appropriate by the commission.
(e)
"Financing document" or "financing documents" means any bond, insurance policy, letter of credit, reserve account, surety bond, swap agreement, hedging arrangement, liquidity or credit support arrangement, trust indenture, security agreement, pledge agreement, financing agreement, transfer or assignment document, or other document or financial arrangement entered into in connection with the issuance of rate reduction bonds.
(f)
"Financing party" shall include any and all of the following:
(i)
Any trustee, collateral agent, or other person acting on behalf or for the benefit of any bondholder under any financing document; or
(ii)
Any party to a financing document, the rights and obligations of which relate to or depend upon the existence of security property, the enforcement and priority of a security interest in security property, the timely collection and payment of rate reduction bond charge revenues, or a combination of any of the foregoing.
(g)
"Financing statement" shall have the same meaning as that provided in Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, as same may be amended from time to time.
(h)
"Issuing entity" means any person or legal entity, including, but not limited to, any corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, public authority or trust, that issues rate reduction bonds pursuant to a financing order issued pursuant to Sections
77-3-111
through
77-3-127
.
(i)
"Non-bypassable" means, with respect to rate reduction bond charges, that, so long as rate reduction bonds are outstanding and the related financing costs have not been recovered in full, such charges cannot be avoided by any retail customer of the electric public utility, including special contract customers, or any other person located within the electric public utility's certificated area that is directly or indirectly connected to electric facilities of the electric public utility or its successors or assignees and receiving retail electric service pursuant to a commission approved rate, even if such retail customer or other person elects to purchase electricity from an alternative electricity supplier following a fundamental change in regulation of electric public utilities in this state.
(j)
"Qualifying facility" shall mean a generating facility as the term is defined in Section
77-3-103
:
(i)
That uses coal gasification or clean coal technology with a coal fuel stock derived, in whole or in part, from the State of Mississippi; and
(ii)
That is placed into commercial operation on or before December 31, 2020.
(k)
"Qualifying facility cost" means any cost incurred or expected to be incurred by an electric public utility related to a qualifying facility, including, but not limited to, pre-construction costs, construction costs, capitalized cost relating to a regulatory asset, any amounts accrued as allowance for funds used during construction and construction work in progress.
(l)
"Rate reduction bonds" or "bonds" means those debentures, notes, certificates of participation, certificates of beneficial interest, certificates of ownership or other evidences of indebtedness or ownership that are issued by an issuing entity under a financing order, the proceeds of which are used directly or indirectly to recover, finance or refinance generation facility costs and financing costs, and that are secured by or payable from security property and which shall have a maturity date of no more than twenty (20) years after the date of issuance.
(m)
"Rate reduction bond charge" means the nonbypassable tariff, rate, charge, formula or mechanism established in a financing order to fully recover financing costs, which is to be imposed on, and as a part of, all retail customer bills, including special contract customer bills, and collected by an electric public utility or its successors or assignees, or a collection agent, separate and apart from the base rates of the electric public utility.
(n)
"Rate reduction bond charge revenue" means any and all revenues, receipts, collections, claims, rights to payments, payments, monies or other proceeds arising from the security property and collected by an electric public utility or other collection agent that is attributable to a rate reduction bond charge.
(o)
"Secured party" means a financing party to which an electric public utility, issuing entity or their respective successors or assignees mortgages, negotiates, hypothecates, grants, pledges, or creates a security interest or lien on all or any portion of the rights in or to the security property.
(p)
"Security property" means all rights and interests of an electric public utility established upon the issuance of a financing order under Sections
77-3-111
through
77-3-127
, including, but not limited to:
(i)
The right to bill and to obtain periodic true-up adjustments to the rate reduction bond charge as provided in the financing order and Sections
77-3-111
through
77-3-127
;
(ii)
The right to receive rate reduction bond charge revenue, as periodically adjusted, imposed, billed, collected and transferred; and
(iii)
All revenues, receipts, collections, claims, rights to payments, payments, money or other proceeds arising from the rights and interests described in subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of this subsection, regardless of whether such collections, claims, rights to payment, payments, money or proceeds are imposed, billed, received, collected, or maintained together with or commingled with other revenues, receipts, collections, rights to payment, payments, money or other proceeds of an electric public utility or collection agent.
(q)
"Uniform Commercial Code" shall have the same meaning as provided in Title 75 of the Mississippi Code of 1972.
Added by Laws, 2013, ch. 305, HB 1134, 3, eff. 2/26/2013.