2023 Texas Statutes › Utilities Code › Title 2 - Public Utility Regulatory Act › Subtitle A - Provisions Applicable to All Utilities › Chapter 11 - General Provisions › Section 11.003. Definitions

Sec. 11.003.  DEFINITIONS.  In this title:
(1)  "Affected person" means:
(A)  a public utility or electric cooperative affected by an action of a regulatory authority;
(B)  a person whose utility service or rates are affected by a proceeding before a regulatory authority;  or
(C)  a person who:
(i)  is a competitor of a public utility with respect to a service performed by the utility;  or
(ii)  wants to enter into competition with a public utility.
(2)  "Affiliate" means:
(A)  a person who directly or indirectly owns or holds at least five percent of the voting securities of a public utility;
(B)  a person in a chain of successive ownership of at least five percent of the voting securities of a public utility;
(C)  a corporation that has at least five percent of its voting securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a public utility;
(D)  a corporation that has at least five percent of its voting securities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by:
(i)  a person who directly or indirectly owns or controls at least five percent of the voting securities of a public utility;  or
(ii)  a person in a chain of successive ownership of at least five percent of the voting securities of a public utility;
(E)  a person who is an officer or director of a public utility or of a corporation in a chain of successive ownership of at least five percent of the voting securities of a public utility;  or
(F)  a person determined to be an affiliate under Section 11.006.
(3)  "Allocation" means the division among municipalities or among municipalities and unincorporated areas of the plant, revenues, expenses, taxes, and reserves of a utility used to provide public utility service in a municipality or for a municipality and unincorporated areas.
(3-a)  "Chilled water program" means:
(A)  a program to produce chilled water at a central plant and pipe that water to buildings for air conditioning, including a district cooling system or chilled water service; or
(B)  any other program designed to used chilled water to provide air conditioning, reduce peak electric demand, or shift electric load.
(4)  "Commission" means the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
(5)  "Commissioner" means a member of the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
(6)  "Cooperative corporation" means:
(A)  an electric cooperative;  or
(B)  a telephone cooperative corporation organized under Chapter 162 or a predecessor statute to Chapter 162 and operating under that chapter.
(7)  "Corporation" means a domestic or foreign corporation, joint-stock company, or association, and each lessee, assignee, trustee, receiver, or other successor in interest of the corporation, company, or association, that has any of the powers or privileges of a corporation not possessed by an individual or partnership.  The term does not include a municipal corporation or electric cooperative, except as expressly provided by this title.
(8)  "Counsellor" means the public utility counsel.
(9)  "Electric cooperative" means:
(A)  a corporation organized under Chapter 161 or a predecessor statute to Chapter 161 and operating under that chapter;  or
(B)  a corporation organized as an electric cooperative in a state other than Texas that has obtained a certificate of authority to conduct affairs in the State of Texas.
(C)  Deleted by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1327, Sec. 1.
(10)  "Facilities" means all of the plant and equipment of a public utility, and includes the tangible and intangible property, without limitation, owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, controlled, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of the public utility.
(11)  "Municipally owned utility" means a utility owned, operated, and controlled by a municipality or by a nonprofit corporation the directors of which are appointed by one or more municipalities and includes any chilled water program operated by the utility.
(12)  "Office" means the Office of Public Utility Counsel.
(13)  "Order" means all or a part of a final disposition by a regulatory authority in a matter other than rulemaking, without regard to whether the disposition is affirmative or negative or injunctive or declaratory.  The term includes:
(A)  the issuance of a certificate of convenience and necessity;  and
(B)  the setting of a rate.
(14)  "Person" includes an individual, a partnership of two or more persons having a joint or common interest, a mutual or cooperative association, and a corporation, but does not include an electric cooperative.
(15)  "Proceeding" means a hearing, investigation, inquiry, or other procedure for finding facts or making a decision under this title.  The term includes a denial of relief or dismissal of a complaint.
(16)  "Rate" includes:
(A)  any compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification that is directly or indirectly demanded, observed, charged, or collected by a public utility for a service, product, or commodity described in the definition of utility in Section 31.002 or 51.002;  and
(B)  a rule, practice, or contract affecting the compensation, tariff, charge, fare, toll, rental, or classification.
(17)  "Ratemaking proceeding" means a proceeding in which a rate is changed.
(18)  "Regulatory authority" means either the commission or the governing body of a municipality, in accordance with the context.
(19)  "Service" has its broadest and most inclusive meaning.  The term includes any act performed, anything supplied, and any facilities used or supplied by a public utility in the performance of the utility's duties under this title to its patrons, employees, other public utilities, an electric cooperative, and the public.  The term also includes the interchange of facilities between two or more public utilities.  The term does not include the printing, distribution, or sale of advertising in a telephone directory.
(20)  "Test year" means the most recent 12 months, beginning on the first day of a calendar or fiscal year quarter, for which operating data for a public utility are available.
(21)  "Trade association" means a nonprofit, cooperative, and voluntarily joined association of business or professional persons who are employed by public utilities or utility competitors to assist the public utility industry, a utility competitor, or the industry's or competitor's employees in dealing with mutual business or professional problems and in promoting their common interest.
Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 166, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.  Amended by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 405, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999;  Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1327, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 277 (H.B. 3615), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2021.