Ohio Administrative Code › Title 4901:1 - Utilities › Chapter 4901:1-19 - Alternative Rate Plan; Exemptions › Section 4901:1-19-01 - Definitions

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1,
			 2024
(A) "Alternative
			 rate plan" means a method, alternate to the method provided in section
			 4909.15 of the Revised Code, for
			 establishing rates and charges for a distribution service or for a commodity
			 sales service or ancillary service that is not exempt pursuant to section
			 4929.04 of the Revised Code.
			 Alternative rate plans may include, but are not limited to, methods that
			 provide adequate and reliable natural gas services and goods in this state;
			 minimize the costs and time expended in the regulatory process; tend to assess
			 the costs of any natural gas service or goods to the entity, service, or goods
			 that cause such costs to be incurred; afford rate stability; promote and reward
			 efficiency, quality of service, or cost containment by a natural gas company;
			 provide sufficient flexibility and incentives to the natural gas industry to
			 achieve high quality, technologically advanced, and readily available natural
			 gas services and goods at just and reasonable rates and charges; or establish
			 revenue decoupling mechanisms. Alternative rate plans also may include, but are
			 not limited to, automatic adjustments based on a specified index or changes in
			 a specified cost or costs.
(B)
			 "Ancillary service" means a service that is ancillary to the receipt or
			 delivery of natural gas to consumers, including, but not limited to, storage,
			 pooling, balancing, and transmission.
(C) "Applicant" means a natural gas company,
			 as defined in division (G) of section
			 4929.01 of the Revised Code,
			 that has filed an application under either section
			 4929.04 or
			 4929.05 of the Revised
			 Code.
(D) "Choice-eligible
			 customer" means a customer who is eligible, according to a natural gas
			 company's tariffs, to choose the customer's retail natural gas supplier, and
			 who is not enrolled in the percentage of income payment plan program or any
			 successor program.
(E)
			 "Choice-ineligible customer" means a customer who is ineligible, according to a
			 natural gas company's tariffs, to choose the customer's retail natural gas
			 supplier, but who is not enrolled in the percentage of income payment plan
			 program or any successor program.
(F) "Commodity sales service" means the sale
			 of natural gas to consumers, exclusive of any distribution or ancillary
			 service.
(G) "Consumer" means any
			 person or association of persons purchasing, delivering, storing, or
			 transporting, or seeking to purchase, deliver, store, or transport, natural
			 gas, including industrial consumers, commercial consumers, and residential
			 consumers, but not including natural gas companies.
(H) "Default commodity sales service" means
			 commodity sales service supplied to choice-eligible customers who have not
			 chosen their retail natural gas supplier, choice-ineligible customers, or
			 PIPP-enrolled customers.
(I)
			 "Distribution service" means the delivery of natural gas to a consumer at the
			 consumer's facilities, by and through the instrumentalities and facilities of a
			 natural gas company, regardless of the party having title to the natural
			 gas.
(J) "Exit the merchant
			 function" means the complete transfer of the obligation to supply default
			 commodity sales service for choice-eligible customers from a natural gas
			 company to retail natural gas suppliers without the occurrence of a competitive
			 procurement process.
(K) "Market"
			 means the set of all actual and potential buyers and sellers of a particular
			 product.
(L) "PIPP-enrolled
			 customer" means a customer who is enrolled in the natural gas
			 utility's percentage of income payment plan program or
			 any successor program.
(M)
			 "Product" means commodity sales and/or ancillary goods or services.
(N) "Reasonably available alternatives" means
			 buyers have access to a product that is available soon enough, priced low
			 enough, with quality high enough, under comparable terms and conditions to
			 permit its substitution as an alternative.
(O) "Relevant market" means the market for
			 the product that is the subject of an application for exemption.
(P) "Transmission" means the act or process
			 of transporting the commodity in bulk from a source or sources of supply to
			 principal parts of the system or to other utility systems.