Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 165 - Corporation Commission › Chapter 45 - Gas Service Utilities › Subchapter 1 - General Provisions › Section 165:45-1-2 - Definitions

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter,
				  shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Affiliate"
means any person, entity, or
				  business section, or division that directly or through one or more
				  intermediaries controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the
				  entity in question. Control includes but is not limited to, the possession,
				  directly or indirectly and whether acting alone or in conjunction with others,
				  of the authority to direct the management or policies of a person or entity.
				  Control may be exercised through management, ownership of voting securities or
				  other right to vote, by contract or otherwise. A voting interest or ownership
				  of five percent (5%) or more creates a presumption of control.
"Aggregation point"
means any Commission
				  approved interconnection point of more than one citygate at which gas can be
				  aggregated for the purposes of supplying reliable and least cost natural gas
				  services for more than one city or municipality.
"ANSI"
means the American National Standards
				  Institute, Inc.
"Attorney General"
means the Oklahoma Attorney
				  General.
"Business day"
means Monday through Friday,
				  excluding all legal holidays which have been declared legal holidays by law or
				  proclamation of the Governor of Oklahoma, or those days on which mail is not
				  delivered.
"Citygate"
means the interconnection point
				  between the local distribution facilities which are located downstream of such
				  interconnection point and the transmission lines and/or other facilities
				  located upstream of such interconnection point at a point in time to be
				  determined by the Commission during the unbundling plan hearing, or as
				  otherwise ordered by the Commission.
"Citygate gas service(s)"
means any one or more
				  of the services of natural gas supply, gathering, storage or transmission of
				  natural gas upstream of the citygate or other delivery point acquired by a gas
				  utility at the citygate or other delivery point pursuant to the competitive
				  bidding procedures in Subchapter 17 of this Chapter in order to provide natural
				  gas service to end-users on its local distribution facilities.
"Competitive bid"
means a response provided
				  based on a public competitive bidding process.
"Commission"
means the Oklahoma Corporation
				  Commission.
"Complaint"
means an oral or written
				  communication by an interested party requesting an investigation or corrective
				  action regarding the provision of natural gas services. A complaint may be made
				  orally, electronically or in writing, but must be made or received at the
				  utility's offices.
"Consumer"
means any person, firm, corporation,
				  municipality, or agency, other political subdivision of the United States or
				  the State of Oklahoma receiving any type of natural gas service. Any reference
				  to a "customer" or "end-user" or "ratepayer" contained in a tariff, or in this
				  Chapter, shall be deemed to mean a "consumer," unless the context clearly
				  indicates otherwise.
"Corporate Support Services"
or
"Shared
				  Services"
are human resources, procurement services, information
				  technology, regulatory services, administrative services, real estate services,
				  legal services, accounting, environmental services, research and development,
				  internal audit, community relations, corporate communications, financial
				  services, financial planning and management support services shared between or
				  among a gas utility, its parent holding company or an affiliated entity and
				  such other services authorized by the Commission on a case-by-case basis.
"CSD"
means the Consumer Services Division of
				  the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
"Customer rate class"
means a division of rates
				  as provided by a utility's tariff for pricing natural gas service.
"Customer sector"
means a major division of
				  consumers, i.e., residential, commercial, or industrial.
"Distribution main"
means a distribution line
				  that serves as a common source of supply to service lines.
"Distribution system"
means any pipeline, meter,
				  metering station, valve, regulator, regulating station and/or delivery station
				  which receives natural gas from a transmission system, gathering line, or other
				  natural gas supply source for service to one or more consumers.
"Distribution"
or
"Distribution
				  service"
means the downstream transportation of natural gas services
				  from the citygate to end-users through a utility's local distribution
				  facilities unbundled from all citygate gas services, but generally bundled with
				  any one or more of the services of billing, metering, customer service and
				  similar services.
"Downstream (
or
"merchant"
or
"retail") service"
means any one or more of the citygate(s)
				  service(s) of natural gas supply, gathering, storage or transmission of natural
				  gas marketed downstream by an entity at the retail or merchant level to
				  end-users rather than through the competitive bidding process pursuant to
				  Subchapter 17 of this Chapter, and which entity uses the local distribution
				  facilities of a utility, rather than bypass for ultimate delivery of such
				  downstream or merchant or retail service to the end-user.
"Electronic notification"
means any automated
				  communication received by e-mail, phone, text message, or fax.
"End-user"
means any consumer receiving natural
				  gas service of any nature.
"FERC"
means the Federal Energy Regulatory
				  Commission.
"Filed"
means to present a document and have it
				  accepted by the Court Clerk of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
"Gas"
means manufactured gas, natural gas, other
				  hydrocarbon gas, or any mixture of gases produced, transmitted, distributed or
				  furnished by a utility unless otherwise specifically designated.
"Gas supply source
" means gas from the
				  wellhead, any type of storage, processing plant, or other provider of gas.
"Gathering line"
means a pipeline that
				  transports gas from a production facility within a gathering system.
"Gathering system"
means a pipeline system
				  bringing gas from the wellhead to an aggregation point or transmission line or
				  other gas handling facility.
"Gas utility"
means natural gas utility as
				  defined in this Chapter.
"Independent producer"
means, for purposes of
				  this Chapter only, any person who produces natural gas and is not engaged in
				  marketing natural gas except for its own account or for other working interest
				  owners in operated wells or who derives a majority of his or her oil or natural
				  gas related income from working interests.
"Interested party"
means any individual or
				  entity with appropriate authority to act on behalf of a particular consumer or
				  group of consumers or any other party involved in, or affected by, the
				  provision of natural gas services.
"Intrastate pipeline"
means a common carrier
				  transmission pipeline as defined in 52 O.S. § 24 and as applied in this
				  Chapter.
"Legal holiday"
means any day declared to be a
				  legal holiday by law or proclamation of the Governor of Oklahoma, or a day on
				  which mail the United States Postal Service does not deliver mail.
"Local distribution company"
means the utility
				  distributing natural gas, delivered to its citygate from a transmission
				  pipeline or gathering system, to residential, commercial and industrial
				  end-users over a local geographic area.
"Local distribution facilities"
means facilities
				  whose function is the local distribution of natural gas to residential,
				  commercial and industrial consumers and which facilities are characterized by a
				  system of pipes, meters, stations, valves and other equipment for distributing
				  natural gas among consumers within a particular local community or in smaller
				  diameter lines at lower pressures in contrast to movement in larger diameter
				  lines at higher pressures characteristic of transmission, unless otherwise
				  ordered by the Commission.
"Local forecast"
means a statement of what the
				  weather is predicted to be, that is issued by the National Weather Service for
				  a specific county, city, and/or zip-code area.
"Meter"
means any device that measures the
				  quantity of gas transferred from one party to another.
"Meter shop"
means a shop used for the
				  inspection, testing and repair of meters.
"Municipality"
means an incorporated city or
				  town in the State of Oklahoma.
"Natural gas services"
means any of the services
				  in the natural gas industry, including, but not limited to, local distribution,
				  transmission, gathering, storage, and gas supply, and as specified in
				  Subchapter 17 of this Chapter.
"Natural gas utility"
means a natural gas
				  utility as defined in 17 O.S. § 151
et seq
., and that
				  includes all utility affiliate assets which the Commission has determined to be
				  included in ratebase.
"NWS"
means the National Weather Service.
"P.s.i.a."
means pounds per square inch
				  absolute.
"Pipe"
means any tubing used in the gathering,
				  transmission or distribution of gas which meets the specifications of the U.S.
				  Department of Transportation (U.S.D.O.T.).
"Premises"
means any piece of land or real
				  estate, or any building or other structure or portion thereof, or any facility
				  where gas service is furnished to a consumer.
"Prudency review"
means, for purposes of this
				  Chapter, a comprehensive review that examines as fair, just and reasonable, a
				  utility's practices and policies and judgment regarding an investment or
				  expense at the time the investment was made or expense was incurred; including
				  direct or indirect maximization of its positive impacts and mitigation of
				  adverse impact upon its ratepayers, without consideration of its ultimate used
				  and useful nature.
"PUD"
means the Public Utility Division of the
				  Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
"Public competitive bidding process"
means a gas
				  utility process to solicit from all entities offers to provide natural gas
				  services upstream of the citygate as provided in Subchapter 17 of this Chapter.
"Regulator"
means a device used to reduce the
				  gas pressure.
"Residence"
means any dwelling unit containing
				  kitchen appliances, permanent sewer or septic facilities and water service. A
				  weekend cabin and a mobile home are residences when used as such. An individual
				  room in a hotel or motel is not a residence.
"Request for bid"
means a gas utility's request
				  for proposals to provide natural gas services at a Commission approved gas
				  utility's designated citygate or aggregation point.
"Service line"
means a line that branches off a
				  distribution main or distribution line in order to transport gas from the
				  common source of supply to utility meters or to a consumer's piping, whichever
				  is farther downstream, or the connection to a consumer's piping if there is no
				  utility meter.
"Shipper"
means any person, firm or corporation
				  engaged in the intrastate or interstate transmission of natural gas for third
				  parties.
"Special contract"
means a written
				  Commission-approved agreement between a utility and a consumer for the
				  provision of gas service on terms and conditions which are different from those
				  authorized by a tariff.
"Statistical sampling"
means a method for
				  drawing elements from a population such that all possible elements in the
				  population have a known and specified probability of being drawn and such that
				  the set of chosen elements has approximately the same distribution of
				  characteristics as the population from which it was drawn.
"Storage"
means an underground natural or
				  man-made facility used to store natural gas for extended periods of time.
"Stranded costs"
means those prudent and
				  verifiable costs and investments incurred by a natural gas utility, which were
				  "used and useful" to meet the needs of its end-users, including but not limited
				  to, its upstream capacity and supply commitments that cannot be avoided or
				  mitigated or recovered from end-users under an existing tariff which have been
				  caused as a result of the restructuring of the natural gas industry which were
				  incurred prior to February 19, 1997, the date of issuance of Commission Order
				  No. 409563, which closed the Notice of Inquiry, Cause No. PUD 960000133, and
				  which ordered the promulgation of rules to restructure the natural gas service
				  industry, such date being the date the gas utilities were placed on notice of
				  the Commission's intent to restructure natural gas utility service(s). Prior to
				  or during the utilities' stranded cost hearing, this date may be modified by
				  order of the Commission, after notice and hearing. Stranded costs may include
				  prudent and verifiable transition costs.
"Subdivision"
means any land, wherever located,
				  whether improved or unimproved, contiguous or not, which is divided into lots
				  or proposed to be divided, for the purpose of disposition pursuant to a common
				  promotional scheme or plan of advertising.
"Submit"
means to present a document to the
				  Director of the Public Utility Division.
"Subsidize"
means to furnish financial support
				  by the utility to the affiliate.
"Tariff"
means every rate schedule, or provision
				  thereof, and all terms, conditions, rules and regulations for furnishing gas
				  service filed with the Commission and approved by the Director of the Public
				  Utility Division.
"Therm"
means 100,000 British thermal units of
				  heat.
"Transition costs"
means those prudent and
				  verifiable costs and investments incurred by a public gas utility after
				  February 18, 1997, in implementing the Commission's gas utility restructuring
				  rules and to restructure its facilities, contracts and operation. Such costs as
				  determined by the Commission may include education for the public related to
				  the natural gas industry restructuring.
"Transmission or transmission service"
means the
				  upstream transportation of natural gas through pipelines and/or other
				  facilities from a well-head, gathering line or other receipt point to a local
				  distribution facilities or an end-user located on the transmission pipeline.
"Transmission pipeline"
means a pipeline, either
				  a gas utility owned transmission line or an intrastate pipeline, other than a
				  gathering system that transports gas from a gathering system, interstate
				  pipeline or storage facility to a citygate, aggregation point, storage facility
				  or other delivery point.
"Unbundling"
means the identification and
				  separation of natural gas services and/or products and the associated costs to
				  provide each such service and/or product which have been part of the "bundled"
				  complement of services provided by a public gas utility.
"Unbundling plan"
means a public utility's
				  proposal(s) to separate its previously bundled services offered upstream of the
				  citygate and to price these services individually.
"Uniform System of Accounts (USOA)"
means the
				  system of accounts as currently prescribed the Federal Energy Regulatory
				  Commission (FERC), those accounting systems as published by the National
				  Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) or other accounting
				  methods approved by the Commission.
"Upstream of the Citygate"
means all natural gas
				  services provided at the gas utility's citygate or other point of delivery to
				  local distribution facilities which are necessary to serve end-users.
"Upstream related entity"
means an affiliate of
				  a gas utility or that portion of a gas utility which provides citygate gas
				  services.
"U.S.D.O.T."
means the United States Department
				  of Transportation.
"Utility"
means a natural gas utility as defined
				  in this Chapter.
Amended at 13 Ok Reg
				  3259, eff 7-25-96; Amended at 15 Ok Reg 2177, eff 7-1-98; Amended at 21 Ok Reg
				  2095, eff 7-1-04; Amended at 26 Ok Reg 1856, eff
				  6-25-09