26 Del. Admin. Code § 3013-1.0

Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 5, November 1, 2024

Section 3013-1.0 - Definitions

The following words and terms when used in this regulation, have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Affiliate interest" means:

1. Any person or entity who owns directly, indirectly or through a chain of successive ownership, 10% or more of the voting securities of the applicant;

2. Any person or entity, 10% or more of whose voting securities are owned, directly or indirectly, by an affiliate interest as defined in this regulation; or

3. Any person or entity, 10% or more of whose voting securities are owned, directly or indirectly, by the applicant.

"Agent" means a person who conducts marketing or sales activities, or both, interacting directly with customers based on a contractual arrangement with and on behalf of community energy facility. "Agent" does not include brokers or aggregators.

"Applicant" means a community energy facility seeking to obtain a preliminary certificate to operate or a final certificate to operate.

"Broker" means an entity or person that acts as an agent or intermediary on behalf of the customer in the sale or purchase of, but that does not take title to, electricity for sale to retail electric customers or an entity or person that acts as an agent or intermediary on behalf of the customer in the purchase of a subscription to a community energy facility but does not take title to the subscription.

"Business day" means any calendar day except Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays as defined in 1 Del.C. § 501.

"Community-owned energy generating facility" or "community energy facility" means a renewable energy generating facility that has multiple owners or customers who share the output of the generator, which may be located either as a stand-alone facility or behind the meter of a participating owner or customer and that meets all applicable requirements of 26 DE Admin. Code 3013.

"Community energy facility subscriber" or "subscriber" means any customer who participates in a community energy facility project by means of having an active subscription to a community energy facility or owning a portion of the community energy facility. Subscribers are defined by the meter associated with their Delmarva bill.

"Consumer Protection Unit" means the Delaware Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit or the Director of the Consumer Protection Unit, as applicable.

"Contract" means the total legal obligation resulting from the parties' agreement as effected by this regulation and other applicable law. Contracts for community energy facility subscriptions must be accompanied by a contract summary.

"Contract summary" means a written summary of the material terms and conditions of service between a community energy facility and a subscriber. If the terms of the contract summary differ from the terms of the contract, then the provision(s) most favorable to the customer shall control.

"Cramming" means the prohibited practice of charging customers for services that they have not ordered or have been sold in a deceptive manner such that the customer is not reasonably aware of the nature or price of the service for which the customer is being charged.

"Customer" means a purchaser of electricity with a Delmarva account number for ultimate consumption and not for resale in Delaware, including the owner/operator of any building or facility, but not the occupants thereof, who purchases and supplies electricity to the occupants of such building or facility.

"Customer-generator facility" means equipment used by a customer to generate, manage, and monitor electricity. A customer-generator facility, which typically includes an electric generator or an equipment package, shall:

1. Satisfy all of the applicable requirements of 26 DE Admin. Code 3012 Net Metering;

2. Meet all applicable safety and performance standards established by the National Electrical Code, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and Underwriters Laboratories to ensure that net metering customers meet applicable safety and performance standards; and

3. Comply with the electric supplier's interconnection tariffs and operating guidelines.

"Delmarva" or "DP&L" means Delmarva Power & Light Company or its successors.

"Distribution facilities" means electric facilities located in Delaware that are owned by a public utility that operate at voltages of 34,500 volts or below and that are used to deliver electricity to customers, up through and including the point of physical connection with electric facilities owned by the customer.

"Distribution services" means those services, including metering, relating to the delivery of electricity to a customer through distribution facilities.

"DNREC" means Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

"Door-to-door sale" means a sale, or offer of contracts for sale, in which a community energy facility or its agent, personally solicits a residential or small commercial customer to sell community energy facility subscriptions. This term includes sales made at a place other than the community energy facility's place of business. This term does not include:

1. Sales made at public events;

2. For small commercial customers, sales in response to or following a pre-scheduled appointment between the small commercial customer and the community energy facility; and

3. Any sale which is conducted entirely by mail, telephone or other electronic means.

"DPA" means the Delaware Division of the Public Advocate.

"Electric distribution company" or "EDC" means a public utility owning or operating transmission or distribution facilities in Delaware.

"Electric supplier" means an entity or person certified by the Commission that sells electricity to customers utilizing the transmission or distribution facilities of a nonaffiliated EDC, as defined in 26 Del.C. § 1001(14), including:

1. Affiliates of an EDC;

2. Municipal corporations which choose to provide electricity outside their municipal limits (except to the extent provided prior to February 1, 1999);

3. Electric cooperatives which, having exempted themselves from the Commission's jurisdiction pursuant to 26 Del.C. §§ 202(g) and 223, choose to provide electricity outside their assigned service territories; and

4. Any broker, marketer or other entity (including public utilities and their affiliates).

"Electric supply service" means the provision of electricity and related services to customers, as defined in 26 Del.C. § 1001(15).

"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities, as defined in 6 Del.C. 12A-§102(5).

"Electronic mail" or "e-mail" means any message transmitted through the internet including messages transmitted to or from any address affiliated with an internet site.

"Eligible energy resources" means the following energy sources located within the PJM region or imported into the PJM region and tracked through the PJM Market Settlement System:

1. Solar energy technologies that employ solar radiation to produce electricity;

2. Electricity derived from wind energy;

3. Electricity derived from ocean energy including wave or tidal action, currents, or thermal differences;

4. Geothermal energy technologies that generate electricity with a steam turbine, driven by hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the earth's crust;

5. Electricity generated by a fuel cell (defined by 26 Del.C. § 1001) powered by renewable fuels;

6. Electricity generated by the combustion of gas from the anaerobic digestion of organic material;

7. Electricity generated by a hydroelectric facility that has a maximum design capacity of 30 megawatts or less from all generating units combined that meet appropriate environmental standards as determined by DNREC (see DNREC Regulation 7 DE Admin. Code 2104, Environmental Standards for Eligible Energy Resources);

8. Electricity generated from the combustion of biomass that has been cultivated and harvested in a sustainable manner as determined by DNREC, and is not combusted to produce energy in a waste to energy facility or in an incinerator (see DNREC Regulation 7 DE Admin. Code 2104, Environmental Standards for Eligible Energy Resources);

9. Electricity generated by the combustion of methane gas captured from a landfill gas recovery system; provided, however, that:

a. Increased production of landfill gas from production facilities in operation prior to January 1, 2004 demonstrates a net reduction in total air emissions compared to flaring and leakage;

b. Increased utilization of landfill gas at electric generating facilities in operation prior to January 1, 2004:

i. Is used to offset the consumption of coal, oil, or natural gas at those facilities,

ii. Does not result in a reduction in the percentage of landfill gas in the facility's average annual fuel mix when calculated using fuel mix measurements for 12 out of any continuous 15-month period during which the electricity is generated, and

iii. Causes no net increase in air emissions from the facility; and

c. Facilities installed on or after January 1, 2004 meet or exceed 2004 Federal and State air emission standards, or the Federal and State air emission standards in place on the day the facilities are first put into operation, whichever is higher.

"Final certificate to operate" means a certificate granted by the Commission to a community energy facility that has fulfilled the Commission's final certification requirements under Section 5.0 of this regulation. The Commission order approving an applicant's application for a final certificate to operate as a community energy facility shall serve as the final certificate to operate.

"Generation attribute" means a non-price characteristic of the electrical energy output of a generation unit, including the unit's fuel type, geographic location, emissions, vintage, and renewable portfolio standard eligibility.

"Generation unit" means a facility that converts a fuel or an energy resource into electrical energy.

"Low-income customer" means a customer whose gross annual income, by family size, is at or below 200% of the U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines, or 60% of the state median household income published by the United States Census Bureau, whichever is greater. Owners or operators of master-metered buildings whose tenants meet the income eligibility requirements for low-income customers may also qualify as a "low-income customer".

"Net metering" or "net energy metering" means a service to a customer whereby electric energy generated by the customer, through a customer-generator facility and delivered to the local distribution facilities of an EDC, may be used to offset electric energy provided by the EDC to the customer.

"Permission to operate" means Delmarva's approval for a community energy facility to commence operation pursuant to Section 6.0 of this regulation.

"Person" means a natural person; a corporation, partnership, association, public trust, joint stock company, joint venture, or other group of persons, whether incorporated or not; a trustee or receiver of the foregoing; a municipality or other political subdivision of the State of Delaware; and any other governmental agency or any officer, agent or employee of such agency.

"PJM Interconnection, LLC" or "PJM" means the Regional Transmission Organization ("RTO") that is responsible for wholesale energy markets and the interstate transmission of energy throughout a multi-state area, or its successor organization.

"Preliminary certificate to operate" means a certificate granted by the Commission to a community energy facility that has fulfilled the Commission's preliminary certification requirements under Section 4.0 of this regulation, which establishes project viability. The Commission order approving an applicant's application for a preliminary certificate to operate as a community energy facility shall serve as the preliminary certificate to operate.

"Price" or "rate" means all charges (excluding taxes), including fixed or variable, to be charged by the community energy facility for subscription credits pursuant to the contract.

"Renewable Energy Credit" or "REC" means a tradable instrument comprised of all the generation attributes equal to 1 megawatt-hour of electricity derived from eligible energy resources and that is used to track and verify compliance with the provisions of the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act, 26 Del.C. § 351et. seq. A REC does not include emission reduction credits or allowances encumbered or used by a generation unit for compliance with local, state, or federal operating or air quality permits associated with the 1 megawatt-hour of electricity.

"Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard" or "RPS" means the percentage of retail electricity sales in the State that is to be derived from eligible energy resources.

"Rescission period" means the time period within which a residential or small commercial customer may choose to cancel, without penalty, a contract for subscription credits with a community energy facility.

"Residential customer" means a retail electric customer eligible to take service classified as residential under the tariff of the customer's electric distribution company currently on file with the Commission.

"Residential subscriber" means a residential customer who has subscribed to a community energy facility.

"Slamming" means the prohibited unauthorized enrollment of a customer without the customer's permission or the unauthorized transfer of a customer to another electric supplier.

"Small commercial customer" means a customer taking service under a current electric distribution company tariff governing service classification "Small General Service-Non Demand Rate" or the current Delaware Electric Coop. tariff governing service classification "General Service." However, for the purposes of this regulation, any small commercial customer who has joined with an affiliated non-small commercial customer or a non-residential customer for the purpose of contracting for electric supply service shall be exempt from the definition of a small commercial customer.

"Small commercial subscriber" means a small commercial customer who has subscribed to a community energy facility.

"Staff" means full-time professional employees of, and outside counsel and consultants retained by, the Commission who render advice to the Commission.

"Standard offer service" or "SOS" means the provision of electric supply service by a standard offer service supplier to customers who do not otherwise receive electric supply service from an electric supplier, as defined in 26 Del.C. § 1001(23).

"Standard offer service supplier" or "SOSS" means an EDC serving within its certificated territory, as defined in 26 Del.C. § 1001(24).

"State" means the State of Delaware.

"Telemarketing" means any unsolicited telephone calls initiated by, or on behalf of, a community energy facility to a residential or small commercial customer in order to market community energy facility subscriptions.

"TPV" means a a third party verification used as method to record consent from a residential or small commercial customer agreeing to each of the material listed in this regulation and contract terms that is recorded by an independent person not party to the agreement or that may be performed by an automated, computerized system. To be valid, the TPV must occur without the presence of the sales agent, and at the outset must describe how the residential or small commercial customer can cancel the TPV and the enrollment at any time prior to completion without penalty. The consent from the residential or small commercial customer must be given without unreasonable assistance from the individual conducting the TPV and must include an acknowledgement from the residential or small commercial customer:

1. That the customer is voluntarily choosing to enroll with a community energy facility;

2. Of the type of product offered (introductory, variable, fixed, or some combination);

3. Of the price that will be charged for the first month's service and when or if the price may change;

4. Of the duration of the contract;

5. Of the amount of an early termination fee (if applicable);

6. If a residential customer, that the customer is the account holder or authorized to make the switch;

7. If a small commercial customer, that the customer is authorized to make the switch;

8. That the residential or small commercial customer has been provided with information on how the contract can be renewed and, if applicable, what the community energy facility can do if the customer fails to respond to the renewal notice;

9. That the residential or small commercial customer has been provided information on how to access the community energy facility's historical pricing information;

10. That the residential or small commercial customer has been provided information on how to access future pricing information; and

11. That the residential or small commercial customer has received the community energy facility's customer support contact information.

"Transmission facilities" means electric facilities located in Delaware and owned by a public utility that operate at voltages above 34,500 volts and that are used to transmit and deliver electricity to customers (including any customers taking electric service under interruptible rate schedules as of December 31, 1998) up through and including the point of physical connection with electric facilities owned by the customer, as defined in 26 Del.C. § 1001(26).

"Unsubscribed energy" means any community-owned energy generating facility percentage of output that is not allocated to any subscriber.

"Variable price" means a price that can change from month to month (but not more frequently) on a residential or small commercial customer's bill according to the terms and conditions in the contract.

"Written notice" means notice in writing, mailed by First Class mail to the person who is being given notice, sent to the current billing address as shown on the records of the electric distribution company or community energy facility, or via electronic mail to a valid e-mail address if the customer authorizes the receipt of the applicable communication via electronic means and provides a valid e-mail address.

26 Del. Admin. Code § 3013-1.0

27 DE Reg. 987 (6/1/2024) (Final)