Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 330 - DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY › Division 250 - COMMUNITY RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT GRANT PROGRAM › Section 330-250-0010 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
For the purposes of this division, the following definitions
				apply:
(1) "Applicant" means a
			 federally recognized Oregon Indian tribe, public body or consumer-owned utility
			 that is applying for or has applied for a grant for the purpose of planning or
			 developing a community renewable energy project.
(2) "Business site" means a site operated for
			 business purposes that is owned by the applicant or partner or with whose owner
			 the applicant or partner has a formal agreement to use the site.
(3) "Community renewable energy project"
			 means one or more renewable energy systems, storage systems, microgrids or
			 energy-related infrastructure that promote energy resilience, increase
			 renewable energy generation or renewable energy storage capacity and provide a
			 direct benefit to a particular community in the form of increased community
			 energy resilience, local jobs, economic development or direct energy costs
			 savings to families and small businesses.
(4) "Community energy resilience" means the
			 ability of a specific community to maintain the availability of energy needed
			 to support the provision of energy-dependent critical public services to the
			 community following nonroutine disruptions of severe impact or duration to the
			 state's broader energy systems.
(5)
			 "Community energy resilience project" means a community renewable energy
			 project that includes utilizing one or more renewable energy systems to support
			 the energy resilience of structures or facilities that are essential to the
			 public welfare.
(6) "Consumer-owned
			 utility" means a municipal electricity utility, a people's utility district
			 organized under ORS chapter 261 that sells electricity or an electric
			 cooperative organized under ORS chapter 62.
(7) "Department" means the Oregon Department
			 of Energy.
(8) "Director" means the
			 director of the department.
(9)
			 "Electric utility" means a consumer-owned utility or an electric company, as
			 defined in ORS
			 757.600,
			 that is engaged in the business of distributing electricity to retail
			 electricity consumers in this state.
(10) "Energy" means electrical or thermal
			 energy.
(11) "Energy resilience"
			 means the ability of energy systems, from production through delivery to
			 end-users, to withstand and restore energy delivery rapidly following
			 nonroutine disruptions of severe impact or duration.
(12) "Environmental justice community"
			 includes communities of color, communities experiencing lower incomes, tribal
			 communities, rural communities, coastal communities, communities with limited
			 infrastructure and other communities traditionally underrepresented in public
			 processes and adversely harmed by environmental and health hazards, including
			 seniors, youth and persons with disabilities.
(13) "Grantee" means an entity that has
			 received an award of a grant for planning or developing a community renewable
			 energy project and has executed a performance agreement with the
			 department.
(14) "Good cause" for
			 extending a timeline agreed upon in a performance agreement means that the
			 grantee failed, or expects to fail, to meet the original deadline due to
			 circumstances beyond the applicant's control, including a significant
			 unforeseeable or uncontrollable circumstance such as supply chain disruptions
			 or delays associated with utility interconnection. Good cause does not include
			 changes to project scope.
(15)
			 "Installation or construction" means the process of physical assembly of a
			 system or supporting infrastructure at its operating location.
(16) "Opportunity period" means the timeframe
			 specified in an opportunity announcement for the department to accept
			 applications for a grant for planning or developing a community renewable
			 energy project.
(17) "Partner"
			 means an entity listed as a partner to an eligible applicant on an application
			 for a grant award. A partner may be a federally recognized Oregon Indian tribe,
			 public body, nonprofit entity, private business with a business site in Oregon,
			 or owner of a rental property in Oregon.
(18) "Planning costs" means the costs related
			 to planning paid by an applicant described under Oregon Laws 2021, chapter 508,
			 section 30.
(19) "Project cost"
			 means the actual cost of the acquisition, construction and installation of a
			 renewable energy system incurred by an applicant, before considering utility
			 incentives.
(20) "Public body"
			 means a public body as defined in ORS
			 174.109.
(21) "Qualifying community" means a community
			 that qualifies as an environmental justice community.
(22) "Renewable energy system" includes:
(a) A system that uses biomass, solar,
			 geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, landfill gas, biogas or wave, tidal or ocean
			 thermal energy technology to produce energy.
(b) One or more energy storage systems paired
			 with an existing or newly constructed system described in paragraph (a) of this
			 section.
(c) One or more vehicle
			 charging stations paired with an existing or newly constructed system described
			 in paragraph (a) of this section.
(d) Microgrid enabling technologies paired
			 with an existing or newly constructed system described in paragraph (a) of this
			 section, including microgrid controllers and any other related technologies
			 needed to electrically isolate a community energy resilience project from the
			 electric grid so that the project is capable of operating independently from
			 the electric grid.