Wyoming Administrative Code › Agency 023 - Public Service Commission › Sub-Agency 0002 - Public Service Commission Rules › Chapter 1 - AUTHORITY AND DEFINITIONS › Section 1-3 - Definitions

Current through July 13, 2024
(a) The following
				definitions shall apply to Chapters 2 and 3:
(i) Advertising: the commercial use, by an
				electric or gas utility, of any media, including newspaper, printed matter,
				radio and television, in order to transmit a message to a substantial number of
				members of the public or to such utility's consumers;
(ii) ANSI: American National Standards
				Institute;
(iii) Appearances before
				the Wyoming Public Service Commission:
(A)
				Individuals may appear on their own behalf;
(B) A partnership may appear by a
				partner;
(C) A corporation or a
				limited liability company may appear by an officer or full-time
				employee;
(D) A municipality or a
				municipal council may appear by an officer, council member or full-time
				employee;
(E) An unincorporated
				association may appear by any bona fide general officer or full-time
				employee;
(F) Any party to a
				proceeding may appear and be represented by an attorney at law admitted to
				practice in Wyoming and an active member of the Wyoming State Bar. Other
				attorneys shall comply with the Uniform Rules for District Courts of the State
				of Wyoming Rule 104 prior to entry of an appearance;
(iv) Applicant: any public utility or person
				seeking the whole or part of any Commission permit, certificate approval,
				registration or similar approval, the grant or denial of which is required by
				law to be determined by the Commission;
(v) ASME: American Society of Mechanical
				Engineers;
(vi) Authorized person:
				an individual possessing the legal power to commit a person or municipality,
				including, but not limited to, a binding agreement, payment authority, revenue
				authority, spending authority or indebtedness authority. This includes any
				authority delegated by an authoritative body (such as a board of directors) to
				organizational positions (such as president, managing director or manager),
				appointing them as agents of the organization for general or specific
				purposes;
(vii) AWWA: American
				Water Works Association;
(viii)
				Baseline standards for electric reliability: means the System Average
				Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), the System Average Interruption Frequency
				Index (SAIFI), and the Momentary Average Interruption Frequency Index (MAIFI):
(1) specific to each utility; and
(2) including major events and without major
				events.
(ix) Case: means
				any matter docketed by the Commission from the time of the initial filing or
				action instituting the case through the final order, future ordered action and
				the appeal process;
(x) CBA:
				Commodity Balancing Account;
(xi)
				Class 1 Location: any location that has 10 or fewer buildings intended for
				human occupancy within 660 feet of the pipeline in a running mile;
(xii) Class rate: a rate which applies on any
				one or more of various articles according to the class rating to which they are
				assigned in a classification or tariff of exceptions thereto or in the class
				rate tariff;
(xiii) Classification:
				a publication containing a list of articles or commodities and the class
				ratings to which they are assigned for the purpose of applying class rates,
				together with governing rules and regulations;
(xiv) Coal Fired Electric Generation
				Facility: One or more units of an electric generation facility located within
				the State of Wyoming that is owned or operated in whole or in part by a public
				utility other than a cooperative electric utility and that uses coal as its
				primary fuel source.
(xv)
				Commencing construction: any excavation or physical placement of fixed
				facilities, but does not mean work done for the purpose of studying or testing
				possible facility locations;
(xvi)
				Commission and Commissioner: the Public Service Commission of Wyoming or a
				member thereof respectively;
(xvii)
				Commission's Authorized Interest Rate: a rate that will be computed from the
				arithmetic mean of the following:
(1) the
				bank prime loan rate at the close of business on the last business day of
				September, also as published by the Federal Reserve economic data and
(2) the arithmetic mean of the
				twelve monthly one-year U.S. Treasury constant maturity rates for the previous
				twelve-month period ending on the last business day of September, as published
				by the Federal Reserve economic data. The Commission will provide notice of the
				assigned interest rate by November 30th of each year. The Commission's
				Authorized Interest Rate shall be in effect for the following calendar year,
				beginning January 1st and ending December 31st;
(xviii) Complainant: any party as defined in
				(a)(xlii) below complaining to the Commission of anything, actual or proposed,
				done or omitted to be done in violation of the Wyoming Public Utilities Act or
				of an order, rule or regulation of or authorized by the Commission;
(xix) DEQ: Wyoming Department of
				Environmental Quality;
(xx)
				Eligible Retail Customer: A customer who (1) is located in the existing service
				territory of that utility; (2) has more than one megawatt average demand at
				each individual meter; and (3) takes service at a primary or transmission
				voltage level.
(xxi) Electric
				reliability: means the following standards established by the Institute of
				Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Std 1366:
(1) the System Average Interruption Duration
				Index (SAIDI);
(2) the System
				Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI); and
(3) the Momentary Average Interruption
				Frequency Index (MAIFI).
(xxii) EPA: United States Environmental
				Protection Agency;
(xxiii) FCC:
				United States Federal Communications Commission;
(xxiv) FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory
				Commission;
(xxv) Financial
				condition: includes the following information and, where practical, may be
				presented in the manner prescribed in the Uniform System of Accounts for the
				FERC, FCC, RUS, NARUC or in such manner as may hereafter be prescribed by the
				Commission:
(A) The amount and class of stock
				authorized by the certificate of incorporation and by any other
				authority;
(B) The amount and
				classes of stock issued and outstanding;
(C) The terms of preference of all preferred
				stock;
(D) A brief description of
				each mortgage upon any property of the applicant, giving date of execution,
				name of mortgagor, the name of the mortgagee or trustee, the amount of
				indebtedness authorized to be secured thereby, the amount of indebtedness
				actually accrued, the amount of principal outstanding, the amount of interest
				due and unpaid and a brief description of the mortgaged property;
(E) The number and amount of bonds authorized
				and issued, giving the name of the issuing company, describing each class
				separately, giving the date of issue, par value, rate of interest, date of
				maturity and how said bonds are secured. If convertible debentures are
				authorized or outstanding, the date when the conversion privilege accrues and
				expires and the securities into which, and the rates at which conversion may be
				made, shall be given;
(F) Other
				indebtedness, giving name of classes and describing security, if any;
(G) The amount of interest paid during the
				previous calendar year and the rate thereof. If different rates were paid, give
				the amount paid at each rate;
(H)
				The rate and amount of dividends paid upon each class of stock during the
				previous five years; and,
(J) A
				detailed income statement and balance sheet for the latest calendar
				year.
(xxvi) Good utility
				practice: any of the practices, methods and acts engaged in or generally
				approved by the utility industry during the relevant time period, or any of the
				practices, methods and acts which, in the exercise of reasonable judgment, in
				light of the facts known at the time the decision was made, could have been
				expected to accomplish the desired result at a reasonable cost consistent with
				good business practices, reliability and safety. Good utility practice is not
				intended to be limited to the optimum practice, method, or act to the exclusion
				of all others, but rather to be acceptable practices, methods, or acts
				generally accepted in the industry.
(xxvii) IEEE: Institute of Electrical and
				Electronics Engineers;
(xxviii)
				IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission;
(xxix) Incremental cost: As used in W.S.
				§§
										
											37-18-101
				and -102, the net difference between a utility's cost to comply with the
				reliable and dispatchable low-carbon energy standard and the reasonable and
				prudent costs that the utility would have incurred but for the reliable and
				dispatchable low-carbon energy standard, as determined prior, but close in time
				to the investment decision.
(xxx)
				Independent Evaluator: an independent, experienced and knowledgeable person
				engaged by a public utility to assist the Commission in reviewing the utility's
				plan and oversee the process for soliciting buyers of an otherwise retiring
				Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility. The Independent Evaluator will assist
				the Commission by reviewing offers from prospective buyers of an otherwise
				retiring Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility, assessing the utility's
				efforts to sell the Coal Fired Electric Generation Facility, and assessing the
				technical, financial and managerial ability of the proposed purchaser to own
				and operate the facility, and to decommission and retire the facility and
				remediate the site.
(xxxi)
				Institutional advertising: any advertising solely intended to enhance the
				customer's image of the utility;
(xxxii) Intermittent availability: as used in
				the definition of "reliable" at W.S. §
										
											37-18-101(a)(iv), an
				electric generation facility has "intermittent availability" if, under standard
				operating conditions, it is incapable of generating electricity under each of
				the following requirements:
(1) carrying
				spinning reserves in compliance with NERC standards;
(2) providing inertial response to
				disturbances on the interconnected electric transmission system;
(3) providing continuous electrical current
				to the interconnected bulk transmission system at a nominal 60Hz, excluding
				periods of normal maintenance and repair; and
(4) maintaining voltage within Western
				Electricity Coordinating Council standards.
(xxxiii) Intervenor: any person or entity
				affected by any application, petition, formal complaint or motion filed with
				the Commission, who files an intervention petition in Commission proceedings
				involving the same, when admitted by the Commission, and means the Office of
				Consumer Advocate, upon filing a Notice of Intervention;
(xxxiv) ISO: International Organization for
				Standardization;
(xxxv) IRP:
				Integrated Resource Plan;
(xxxvi)
				Joint rate: a rate that applies over the lines of two or more carriers made
				pursuant to arrangement or agreement between such carriers and evidenced by
				concurrence or power of attorney;
(xxxvii) Local rate: a rate that applies over
				the lines of one carrier only;
(xxxviii) Main: a distribution line that
				serves as a common source of supply for more than one telecommunications
				service line;
(xxxix) Maintenance
				power: electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility during
				scheduled outages of the qualifying facility;
(xl) Major event: an event that exceeds
				reasonable design or operational limits of the electric power system as defined
				by IEEE Std 1366;
(xli) Major
				utility facility:
(A) An electric generating
				plant and associated facilities, utilizing any source of energy;
(B) An electric transmission line or an
				electric distribution line of more than three miles, designed for operation at
				69 kV or above;
(C) An electric
				substation or a switching station designed to operate at 69 kV or
				above;
(D) A natural or
				manufactured gas transmission pipeline, a natural or manufactured gas
				processing plant, a natural or manufactured gas compressor station or a natural
				or manufactured gas storage system, any part of which is designed for or
				capable of transporting or storing natural or manufactured gas at pressures in
				excess of 125 pounds per square inch gauge for a distance of greater than three
				miles in length in Class 1 Locations not designated as a High Consequence Area
				or one mile in length in all other locations;
(E) A crude oil trunk transmission line, a
				liquid petroleum or refined products trunk transmission line or associated
				processing or pumping facilities, any part of which is designed for or capable
				of processing or transporting crude oil, liquid petroleum or refined products,
				excluding well head facilities;
(F)
				A coal gasification plant and associated facilities or a plant and associated
				facilities for in situ utilization of coal for gas;
(G) A major water transmission line, water
				pumping station, water storage facilities or water diversion facilities, not
				including construction accomplished in the regular course of
				business.
(xlii) NARUC:
				National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners;
(xliii) NEC: National Electric
				Code;
(xliv) NERC: North American
				Electric Reliability Corporation;
(xlv) NESC: National Electrical Safety
				Code;
(xlvi) NIST: National
				Institute of Standards and Technology;
(xlvii) Party: each public utility, person,
				agency, partnership, corporation, other legally recognized business entity,
				unincorporated association, group, the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Wyoming
				Attorney General or his representative, or Commission staff member assigned by
				the Commission to assert or have an adversary position, named or admitted as an
				applicant, complainant, intervenor, defendant or respondent in any proceeding
				before the Commission or any person or entity properly seeking and entitled as
				of right to be admitted as a party. However, nothing in these Rules shall
				prevent the Commission, upon its own motion for good cause shown, from allowing
				any interested person or entity to appear in any proceedings before the
				Commission, whether or not such a person or entity shall have been granted
				permission to intervene;
(xlviii)
				Person: includes individuals, associations of individuals, firms, partnerships,
				companies, corporations, their lessees, trustees, or receivers, appointed by
				any court whatsoever in the singular number, as well as the plural;
(xlix) PHMSA: Pipeline and Hazardous
				Materials Safety Administration;
(l)
				Point of delivery: the outlet point where the utility's service facilities are
				connected with the customer's facilities, unless otherwise altered by service
				contract. If the utility's facilities are connected with the customer's
				facilities at more than one point, each connecting point shall be considered a
				separate point of delivery, unless the additional connecting points are made by
				the utility for its sole convenience in supplying service. Additional service
				of a different type supplied by the utility shall also be considered a separate
				point of delivery;
(li) Political
				advertising: any advertising for the purpose of influencing public opinion with
				respect to legislative, administrative or electoral matters, or with respect to
				any controversial issue of public importance;
(lii) Power quality: suitability of the power
				delivered to customers for its intended purpose as measured by comparison to
				accepted industry standards applicable to (1) the quality of steady-state
				power, including voltage magnitude and balance, voltage and current distortion,
				and repetitive voltage fluctuations; and (2) the quality of power during
				disturbances, including infrequent voltage fluctuations, voltage sags and
				swells caused by short circuits and voltage transients.
(liii) Presiding officer: the presiding
				member of the Commission or Commission employee designated by the Commission to
				conduct a specific public hearing in matters before the Commission;
(liv) Promotional advertising: any
				advertising for the purpose of encouraging any person to select or use the
				service or additional service of an electric or gas utility or the selection or
				installation of any appliance or equipment designed to use such utility's
				service;
(lv) Proportional rate: a
				rate published to apply only on traffic originating beyond the point from which
				such rate applies, destined beyond the point to which such rate applies or
				originating and destined beyond the points from and to which contain
				proportional rates;
(lvi) Protestant
				or Proponent: any person or entity objecting to or supporting an application or
				petition which the Commission may have under consideration. Protestants or
				proponents may file written comments or make oral presentations in a contested
				case which will alert the Commission to issues to be considered. However, such
				action will not serve to make the protestant or proponent an intervenor. Any
				protestant or proponent desiring to be an intervenor shall petition to
				intervene. Protestants or proponents shall be subject to cross-examination as
				provided in the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act;
(lvii) PURPA: Public Utilities Regulatory
				Policies Act of 1978;
(lviii) Real
				gas law: P = pressure, in psia; V = volume; T = temperature, degrees Rankine; Z
				= gas compressibility factor;
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(lix) Respondent: any person subject to the
				jurisdiction of the Commission to whom an order or notice is issued by the
				Commission; and any person subject to the laws, rules, regulations and orders
				administered or promulgated by the Commission against whom any complaint is
				filed;
(lx) RUS: Rural Utilities
				Service;
(lxi) Service line: a
				distribution line that transports gas from a common source of supply to the
				connection to a customer's piping, where it first enters the building wall or
				to the building wall or roof top or other exterior connection;
(lxii) SIRT: Service Interruption Reporting
				Telephone
(lxiii) Through rate: the
				total rate from point of origin to destination. It may be a local rate, a joint
				rate or a combination of separately established rates;
(lxiv) TIER: Times interest earned
				ratio;
(lxv) Utility: a public
				utility as defined by W.S. §
										
											37-1-101(a)(vi);
(lxvi) WAPA: Wyoming Administrative Procedure
				Act (W.S. §§
										
											16-3-101 through
				16-3-115
				). All references therein to the "court" shall be deemed to refer to the
				Commission;
(lxvii) WECC: Western
				Electricity Coordinating Council; and
(lxviii) W.R.C.P.: Wyoming Rules of Civil
				Procedure. All references therein to the "court" shall be deemed to refer to
				the Commission.