2023 Texas Statutes › Utilities Code › Title 3 - Gas Regulation › Subtitle A - Gas Utility Regulatory Act › Chapter 104 - Rates and Services › Subchapter I. Customer Rate Relief Bonds › Section 104.362. Definitions

Sec. 104.362.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
(1)  "Ancillary agreement" means a financial arrangement entered into in connection with the issuance or payment of customer rate relief bonds that enhances the marketability, security, or creditworthiness of customer rate relief bonds, including a bond, insurance policy, letter of credit, reserve account, surety bond, interest rate or currency swap arrangement, interest rate lock agreement, forward payment conversion agreement, credit agreement, other hedging arrangement, or liquidity or credit support arrangement.
(2)  "Authority" means the Texas Public Finance Authority.
(3)  "Bond administrative expenses" means all costs and expenses incurred by the railroad commission, the authority, or any issuing financing entity to evaluate, issue, and administer customer rate relief bonds issued under this subchapter, including fees and expenses of the authority, any bond administrator, and the issuing financing entity, fees for paying agents, trustees, and attorneys, and fees for paying for other consulting and professional services necessary to ensure compliance with this subchapter, applicable state or federal law, and the terms of the financing order.
(4)  "Bond obligations" means the principal of a customer rate relief bond and any premium and interest on a customer rate relief bond issued under this subchapter, together with any amount owed under a related ancillary agreement or credit agreement.
(5)  "Credit agreement" has the meaning assigned by Section 1371.001, Government Code.
(6)  "Customer rate relief bonds" means bonds, notes, certificates, or other evidence of indebtedness or ownership the proceeds of which are used directly or indirectly to recover, finance, or refinance regulatory assets approved by the railroad commission, including extraordinary costs and related financing costs, and that are:
(A)  issued by an issuing financing entity under a financing order; and
(B)  payable from and secured by customer rate relief property and amounts on deposit in any trust accounts established for the benefit of the customer rate relief bondholders as approved by the applicable financing order.
(7)  "Customer rate relief charges" means the amounts authorized by the railroad commission as nonbypassable charges to repay, finance, or refinance regulatory assets, including extraordinary costs, financing costs, bond administrative expenses, and other costs authorized by the financing order:
(A)  imposed on and included in customer bills of a gas utility that has received a regulatory asset determination under Section 104.365;
(B)  collected in full by a gas utility that has received a regulatory asset determination under Section 104.365, or its successors or assignees, or a collection agent, as servicer, separate and apart from the gas utility's base rates; and
(C)  paid by all existing or future customers receiving service from a gas utility that has received a regulatory asset determination under Section 104.365 or its successors or assignees, even if a customer elects to purchase gas from an alternative gas supplier.
(8)  "Customer rate relief property" means:
(A)  all rights and interests of an issuing financing entity or any successor under a financing order, including the right to impose, bill, collect, and receive customer rate relief charges authorized in the financing order and to obtain periodic adjustments to those customer rate relief charges as provided in the financing order and in accordance with Section 104.370; and
(B)  all revenues, collections, claims, rights to payments, payments, money, or proceeds arising from the rights and interests specified by Paragraph (A), regardless of whether the revenues, collections, claims, rights to payments, payments, money, or proceeds are imposed, billed, received, collected, or maintained together with or commingled with other revenues, collections, rights to payments, payments, money, or proceeds.
(9)  "Financing costs" means any of the following:
(A)  interest and acquisition, defeasance, or redemption premiums that are payable on customer rate relief bonds;
(B)  a payment required under an ancillary agreement or credit agreement or an amount required to fund or replenish reserve or other accounts established under the terms of an indenture, ancillary agreement, or other financing document pertaining to customer rate relief bonds;
(C)  issuance costs or ongoing costs related to supporting, repaying, servicing, or refunding customer rate relief bonds, including servicing fees, accounting or auditing fees, trustee fees, legal fees or expenses, consulting fees, administrative fees, printing fees, financial advisor fees or expenses, Securities and Exchange Commission registration fees, issuer fees, bond administrative expenses, placement and underwriting fees, capitalized interest, overcollateralization funding requirements including amounts to fund or replenish any reserve established for a series of customer rate relief bonds, rating agency fees, stock exchange listing and compliance fees, filing fees, and any other bond administrative expenses; and
(D)  the costs to the railroad commission of acquiring professional or consulting services for the purpose of evaluating extraordinary costs under this subchapter.
(10)  "Financing order" means an order adopted under Section 104.366 approving the issuance of customer rate relief bonds and the creation of customer rate relief property and associated customer rate relief charges for the recovery of regulatory assets, including extraordinary costs, related financing costs, and other costs authorized by the financing order.
(11)  "Financing party" means a holder of customer rate relief bonds, including a trustee, a pledgee, a collateral agent, any party under an ancillary agreement, or other person acting for the holder's benefit.
(12)  "Gas utility" means:
(A)  an operator of natural gas distribution pipelines that delivers and sells natural gas to the public and that is subject to the railroad commission's jurisdiction under Section 102.001; or
(B)  an operator that transmits, transports, delivers, or sells natural gas or synthetic natural gas to operators of natural gas distribution pipelines and whose rates for those services are established by the railroad commission in a rate proceeding filed under this chapter.
(13)  "Issuing financing entity" means a special purpose nonmember, nonstock, nonprofit public corporation established by the authority under Section 1232.1072, Government Code.
(14)  "Nonbypassable" means a charge that:
(A)  must be paid by all existing or future customers receiving service from a gas utility that has received a regulatory asset determination under Section 104.365 or the gas utility's successors or assignees, even if a customer elects to purchase gas from an alternative gas supplier; and
(B)  may not be offset by any credit.
(15)  "Normalized market pricing" means the average monthly pricing at the Henry Hub for the three months immediately preceding the month during which extraordinary costs were incurred, plus contractual adders to the index price and other non-indexed gas procurement costs.
(16)  "Regulatory asset" includes extraordinary costs:
(A)  recorded by a gas utility in the utility's books and records in accordance with the uniform system of accounts prescribed for natural gas companies subject to the provisions of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. Section 717 et seq.) by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and generally accepted accounting principles; or
(B)  classified as a receivable or financial asset under international financial reporting standards under the railroad commission's authorization in the Notice of Authorization for Regulatory Asset Accounting for Local Distribution Companies Affected by the February 2021 Winter Weather Event issued February 13, 2021.
(17)  "Servicer" means, with respect to each issuance of customer rate relief bonds, the entity identified by the railroad commission in the financing order as servicer responsible for collecting customer rate relief charges from participating gas utilities, remitting all collected funds to the applicable issuing financing entity or the bond trustee, calculating true-up adjustments, and performing any other duties as specified in the financing order.
(18)  "Winter Storm Uri" means the North American winter storm that occurred in February 2021.
Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 805 (H.B. 1520), Sec. 5, eff. June 16, 2021.