Okla. Admin. Code § 165:45-23-3
The following words and terms, when used in this Subchapter, shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Administrative Cost" means the expenses incurred in controlling supporting Demand Programs that are not tied to the marketing and delivery of those programs. These expenses include:
(A) reviewing and selecting Demand Programs in accordance with this section;
(B) providing regular and special reports to the Commission, including reports of Demand Program savings;
(C) a utility's costs for an annual review of Demand Programs or true-up proceeding for cost recovery mechanism;
(D) Supervisory functions performed by Demand Portfolio Manager that are related to supervision of employees and related human resource administration.
"Average customer bill" means the value derived from the sum of all consumer bills in a particular customer sector divided by the number of consumers in that sector; i.e., the arithmetic mean. A utility may use the average customer bills for the customer rate classes rather than the customer sectors if it chooses to do so and clearly identifies the choice.
"Barrier" means any physical or non-physical necessity, obligation, condition, constraint, or requisite that obstructs or impedes natural gas user participation in Demand Programs. Barriers may include but are not limited to language, physical or mental disability, access to capital, educational attainment, utility meter type, economic status, property status, or geography.
"Base line" means natural gas use, trend in natural gas use, and description of conditions affecting such uses and trends prior to implementation of a Demand Program designed to affect particular uses and trends. When evaluating energy efficiency measures implemented as a result of non-fuel switching Demand Programs, the base line to be used in savings calculations shall be either the performance standard base line (the minimum efficiency available in the market), or a customized, project specific base line. When evaluating energy efficiency measures implemented as a result of fuel switching or non-prescriptive Demand Programs, the base line to be used in calculations shall be the replaced equipment efficiency.
"California Standard Practice Manual" means The California Standard Practice Manual: Economic Analysis of Demand Side Programs and Projects, 2001 edition, produced by the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utility Commission.
"Cost effective" and "cost effectiveness" mean utilizing a specified amount of money, in a way that delivers a benefit from available alternative uses, so long as the benefit's value exceeds the money spent.
"Customized opportunity" means an energy efficiency program tailored to an individual natural gas user's needs.
"Deemed savings" means an estimate of natural gas savings for a single unit of an installed energy-efficiency or renewable-energy measure that (1) has been developed from data sources and analytical methods that are widely considered acceptable for the measure and purpose, and (2) will be applied to measures that are deployed in significant numbers in similar ways.
"Demand portfolio" means a collection of energy efficiency programs , or as defined in this subchapter, Demand Programs including fuel switching programs offered or proposed by a natural gas utility; for example, a residential weatherization program and a program to trade tankless water heaters for tank water heaters or a general education program for energy efficiency may be contributors to a demand portfolio.
"Demand portfolio administrator" means the utility employee responsible for supervising the utility's energy efficiency efforts as proposed in compliance with this subchapter.
"Demand Program(s)" means the Energy Efficiency programs offered or proposed by a natural gas utility. Collectively, the Demand Programs make up the company's Demand portfolio.
"Education" means any formal program, training, or activity designed to raise awareness of, and participation in company specific Demand Programs or increase general knowledge concerning energy savings opportunities and efficiency topics. These programs shall include communication efforts designed to reach customers with energy efficiency information through a variety of mediums including but not limited to television, radio, print and web-based media.
"Energy efficiency" means reducing natural gas consumption on the customer's side of the meter while achieving substantially the same level of end-use service.
"Evaluation, measurement, and verification" or "EM&V" means a systematic, objective study conducted periodically to authenticate, assess, and report how well a Demand program is achieving its objectives, including identification and quantification of inputs, outputs, outcomes, and unintended effects.
"EM&V Costs" means the costs associated with performance of studies and activities intended to determine the actual savings and other effects from Demand Programs.
"Free rider" means a program participant who would have implemented the program measure or practice in the absence of the Demand Program. Free riders can be total, in which the participant's activity would have completely replicated the program measure; partial, in which the participant's activity would have partially replicated the program measure; or deferred, in which the participant's activity would have completely replicated the program measure, but at a time after the time the program measure was implemented.
"Fuel switching" means changing from rate regulated natural gas to rate regulated electricity or from rate regulated electricity to rate regulated natural gas for a particular end-use service. It does not include installation of any device that relies primarily on on-site renewable energy, such as, but not limited to, a solar water heater, geothermal heat pump, or biomass gas-powered furnace.
"Goal" means a target to be achieved by a utility's Demand Portfolio. A goal may be expressed in thousand cubic feet, dekatherms, percentage reduction or limitation, and/or another quantifiable measurement approved by the Commission. When determining whether a goal is met, reductions or increases attributable to weather and economic activity will not be counted.
"Gross savings" means the values reported by a gas utility after the Demand Program activities have been completed, but prior to the time an independent, third-party evaluation of the savings is performed. As with projected savings estimates, these values may utilize results of prior evaluations and/or values in technical reference manuals. However, they are adjusted from projected savings estimates by correcting for any known data errors and actual installation rates and may also be adjusted with revised values for factors such as per-unit savings values, operating hours, and savings persistence rates. Gross savings can be indicated as first year, annual demand or energy savings, and/or lifetime energy or demand savings values.
"Hard-to-reach customers" means:
(A) Residential natural gas users who rent their residences from persons other than kin related to the third degree of affinity or consanguinity, trusts operated by and for the benefit of the users, or the users' legal guardians;
(B) Commercial natural gas users who rent their business property from persons other than the users' owners, parent companies, subsidiaries of their parent companies, their own subsidiaries, or trusts operated by and for the benefit of the same;
(C) Residential or commercial natural gas users who traditionally fail to engage in Demand Programs because of one or more barriers beyond those experienced by average residential or commercial customers in a utility's service area.
"Incentive" means a sum of money a utility may be allowed to recover, in addition to program costs and allowed lost net revenues . Incentives shall be based on the utility's verified savings from the Demand Portfoliofor the previousprogram year and shall be calculated as described in 165:23-45-8.
"Inducement" means anything of value offered by a utility to encourage natural gas users or trade allies to engage in a Demand Program approved pursuant to this subchapter.
"Lost net revenue" means income from the retail sale of natural gas forgone by a utility directly resulting from the success of its demand portfolio, less expenses the utility was not required to pay by forgoing the sales. Lost net revenue shall be calculated using verified savings, shall exclude customer service charge revenues (non-volumetric revenues), and shall exclude revenues collected from riders with annual true-ups.
"Low-income customer" means a residential natural gas user who provides proof to a utility that the user has been determined by the appropriate authority to be eligible to receive services through the Oklahoma Department of Commerce Weatherization Assistance Program State Plan, as provided by OAC 150:80; Health Care Authority SoonerCare Choice or fee-for-service programs, as provided by OAC 317:25, 35, and 40; or Department of Human Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, State Supplemental Payment, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, Food Stamp, or Refugee Resettlement programs as provided by OAC 340:10, 15, 20, 50, and 60, respectively, or similar program.
"Market potential study" means an evaluation that assesses customer population base lines, customer needs, target customer populations, and how best to address these issues.
"Market transformation" means the strategic process of influencing customer population and trade ally's decision-making that creates lasting change in customer behavior by removing barriers or exploiting opportunities to accelerate adoption of cost-effective energy efficiency as a matter of standard practice.
"Measure" means the equipment, materials, or actions that are installed or used within a Demand Program that results in measurable or verifiable savings; for example, a measure would include caulking around windows or weather stripping around doors to prevent heat loss.
"Natural gas user" means a real property freeholder or leaseholder at a specific location who consumes natural gas at that location, regardless of whether the consumer receives a gas bill directly from a utility.
"Net benefits" equal the difference between total benefits and total costs as calculated for cost-effectiveness. The economic objective of Demand Resource portfolios is to maximize net benefits. A portfolio is cost-effective if it yields positive net benefits.
"Net savings" means the total change in load that is directly attributable to a Demand Program or the Demand Portfolio. This change in energy and/or demand use shall include, implicitly or explicitly, consideration of appropriate factors. These factors shall include free ridership, participant and non-participant spillover and induced market effects.
"Net Source Energy Usage Savings" means the total change in source energy usage that is directly attributable to a Demand Portfolio. This change in source energy usage will reflect the pre-treatment source energy usage of a device or process less the post-treatment source energy usage of a device or process and shall include, implicitly or explicitly, consideration of appropriate factors. These factors shall include free ridership, participant and non-participant spillover and induced market effects.
"Net-to-gross" means a factor representing net program savings divided by gross program savings that is applied to gross program impacts to convert them into net program impacts. The factor shall be made up of a variety of factors that create differences between gross and net savings, and commonly consider the effects of free riders and spillover.
"Program" means an organized set of activities or measures directed toward the common purpose of energy efficiency that a utility undertakes or proposes to undertake to reduce future natural gas usage or growth in natural gas usage; for example, a general offer to assist homeowners in weatherizing their homes is a program.
"Program cost" means the expenditures including expenditures paid to a third-party to deliver a program, incurred by a utility to achieve natural gas savings through Demand Programs. Expenditures made by customers or third parties are not included. Programs costs must be reported in nominal dollars in the year in which they are incurred, regardless of when the savings occur. The utility's Demand Program costs are all Administrative Costs, Education costs, labor, equipment, inducement, marketing, monitoring, measurement and evaluation, and other program delivery expenditures incurred by the utility for operation of the Demand Programs, regardless of whether the costs are expensed or capitalized.
"Program implementer" means the person who puts a Demand Program into practical effect.
"Projected incentives" means the amount of estimated annual incentives calculated at the time the Demand Portfolio is submitted to the Commission for initial approval, or subsequent modification, of the Demand Portfolio.
"Projected savings" means the values reported by a natural gas utility prior to the implementation of the Demand Programs. These are typically estimates of savings prepared for Demand Program and/or Demand Portfolio design or planning purposes. These values are based on pre-program or Demand Portfolio estimates of factors such as per-unit savings values, operating hours, Net-to-Gross ratios, installation rates, and savings persistence rates. These values can be indicated as first year, annual energy savings, and/or lifetime energy values. These values can also be indicted as Gross savings and/or Net savings. Projected savings are reflected in the goal reduction as set in this Subchapter.
"Research and development" means a planned activity aimed at discovering new knowledge with the hope of developing new or improved energy efficiency processes, products, or services and the translation of these research findings into a plan or design for new or improved energy efficiency processes, products, and services.
"Savings" means a reduction in the use of natural gas or rate of growth of natural gas use, as measured in dekatherms or thousand cubic feet.
"Spillover" means the reductions in energy consumption caused by the presence of a Demand Program, beyond the Demand Program-related gross savings of the participants and without financial or technical assistance from the program. Spillover can be applied to participants, consumers directly participating in a Demand Program, and/or non-participants.
"Standard offer" means a Demand Program available to a group of customers or customers generally on the same terms and without customization.
"Trade allies" means contractors, builders, developers, retailers, skilled laborers, service providers, and wholesale distributors who support Demand Programsthrough sale or installation of goods and services.
"Transportation Customer" means any customer who buys gas on the open market from any provider, and engages a regulated utility's pipeline to transport the gas to the customer's facility.
"Verified savings" means values reported by a natural gas utility after review by an independent third-party evaluator. The third party evaluator shall be chosen by the utility and such costs shall be determined to be a Program cost. These values should reflect all adjustments including corrections for any known data errors and actual installation rates, and should also be adjusted by revised values for known factors such as per-unit savings values, operating hours, savings persistence rates, and net to gross adjustments.
Okla. Admin. Code § 165:45-23-3