W. Va. Code R. § 150-34-2

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 50, December 13, 2024

Section 150-34-2 - Definitions

2.1. The Act. -- The Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act codified in Article 2F of Chapter 24 of the West Virginia Code, as it may be amended in the future.

2.2. Advanced Coal Technology. -- A technology that is used in a new or existing energy generating facility to reduce airborne carbon dioxide emissions associated with the combustion or use of coal and includes, but is not limited to, carbon dioxide capture and sequestration technology, supercritical technology, advanced supercritical technology as that technology is determined by the Public Service Commission, ultrasupercritical technology and pressurized fluidized bed technology and any other resource, method, project or technology certified by the Commission as advanced coal technology. For new energy generating facilities, in determining whether a particular technology constitutes "advanced coal technology," the Commission will include in its determination the baseline for determining reductions in airborne carbon dioxide emissions which shall be the most efficient coal-fired energy generating facility, measured in pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour of net generation, owned by a West Virginia utility in operation before July 1, 2009, as certified by a responsible utility officer.

2.3. Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard or Portfolio Standard. -- A requirement in any given year that requires an electric utility to own credits in an amount equal to a certain percentage of electric energy sold in the preceding calendar year by the electric utility to retail customers in this state.

2.4. Alternative Energy Resources. -- Any of the following resources, methods or technologies for the production or generation of electricity:

2.4.a. Advanced coal technology;

2.4.b. Coal bed methane;

2.4.c. Natural gas;

2.4.d. Fuel produced by a coal gasification or liquefaction facility;

2.4.e. Synthetic gas;

2.4.f. Integrated gasification combined cycle technologies;

2.4.g. Waste coal;

2.4.h. Tire-derived fuel;

2.4.i. Pumped storage hydroelectric projects;

2.4.j. Any other resource, method, project or technology certified as an alternative energy resource by the Public Service Commission.

2.5. Alternative and Renewable Energy Resource Credit or Credit. -- A tradable instrument that is used to establish, verify and monitor the generation of electricity from alternative and renewable energy resource facilities, energy efficiency or demand-side energy initiative projects, or greenhouse gas emission reduction or offset projects.

2.6. Alternative Energy Resource Facility. -- A facility or equipment that generates electricity from alternative energy resources.

2.7. Behind-the-meter Generator or BTM Generator. -- An alternative or renewable on-site generator within this state that is located behind a retail customer meter such that no utility-owned transmission or distribution facilities are used to deliver the energy from the generating unit to the on-site generator's load.

2.8. Certified Alternative and Renewable Energy Resource Credit or Certified Credit. -- A credit that the Public Service Commission certifies has met the definition of an alternative and renewable energy resource credit.

2.9. Certified Alternative or Renewable Energy Resource Facility. -- A generation facility or units that the Public Service Commission certifies as an alternative or renewable energy resource facility.

2.10. Commission or Public Service Commission. -- The Public Service Commission of West Virginia as continued pursuant to W. Va. Code § 24-1-3.

2.11. Compliance Year. -- The calendar year.

2.12. Customer-generator. -- An electric retail customer who owns or leases, and operates an alternative or renewable energy resource facility ("generation project") within this state that meets the following criteria: the generation project is located on the same tract of land as its metering point(s) or if the generation facility is located on contiguous tract(s), the generation project is located within two miles of the customer's metering point(s); the tract or contiguous tracts are owned, leased, or operated by the customer as a private residence or used by a commercial or industrial customer in the normal course of business; the generation project has a nameplate capacity of not greater than 25 kilowatts if installed at a residential service location, not greater than 500 kilowatts if installed at a commercial service location, or not greater than 2 megawatts if installed at an industrial service location; provided that the maximum nameplate capacity for a Customer-generator served by rural electric cooperatives, municipally-owned electric utilities or utilities serving less than thirty-thousand residential customers shall be 50 kilowatts unless such a utility consents to interconnection with a Customer-generator with a maximum nameplate capacity greater than 50 kilowatts and the generation project is designed and installed to operate in parallel with the electric utility distribution system without adversely affecting the operation of equipment and service of the electric utility and its customers and without presenting safety hazards to the electric utility and customers.

2.13. Electric Utility. -- Any electric distribution company or electric generation supplier that sells electricity to retail customers in this state.

2.14. Energy Efficiency or Demand-side Energy Initiative Project. -- A project in this state that promotes customer energy efficiency or the management of customer consumption of electricity through the implementation of one or more of the following:

2.14.a. Energy efficiency technologies, equipment, management practices or other strategies utilized by residential, commercial, industrial, institutional or government customers that reduce electricity consumption by those customers;

2.14.b. Load management or demand response technologies, equipment, management practices, interruptible or curtailable tariffs, energy storage devices or other strategies in residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and government customers that shift electric load from periods of higher demand to periods of lower demand;

2.14.c. Industrial by-product technologies consisting of the use of a by-product from an industrial process, including, but not limited to, the reuse of energy from exhaust gases or other manufacturing by-products that can be used in the direct production of electricity at the customer's facility;

2.14.d. Customer-sited generation, demand-response, energy efficiency or peak demand reduction capabilities, whether new or existing, that the customer commits for integration into the electric utility's demand-response, energy efficiency or peak demand reduction programs; or

2.14.e. Infrastructure and modernization projects that help promote energy efficiency, reduce energy losses or shift load from periods of higher demand to periods of lower demand, including the modernization of metering and communications (also known as "smart grid"), distribution automation, energy storage, excluding pumped storage hydroelectric projects as defined in 2.4.i., distributed energy resources and investments to promote the electrification of transportation.

2.15. Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction or Offset Project. -- A project to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions from sources in this state other than the electric utility's own generating and energy delivery operations. Greenhouse gas emission reduction or offset projects include, but are not limited to:

2.15.a. Methane capture and destruction from landfills, coal mines or farms, except that when the methane is also used to produce electricity the project cannot also qualify as an alternative energy resource under Rule 2.4, or a renewable energy resource under Rule 2.22;

2.15.b. Forestation, afforestation or reforestation;

2.15.c. Nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide sequestration through reduced fertilizer use or no-till farming.

2.16. Generation Attribute Tracking System or GATS. -- The environmental and emissions attributes tracking system for electric generation that is owned and operated by PJM-Environmental Information Services, Inc. (PJM-EIS).

2.17. Net Metering. -- The means of measuring the difference between electricity supplied by an electric utility and electricity generated from an alternative or renewable energy resource facility owned or operated by an electric retail customer when any portion of the electricity generated from the alternative or renewable energy resource facility is used to offset part or all of the electric retail customer's requirements for electricity.

2.18. Net Generation. -- The amount of gross generation less the electrical energy consumed at the generating facility for facility service or auxiliaries or transformation to transmission levels at the facility busbar.

2.19. PJM or PJM Interconnection. -- The regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in the PJM region, or its successors at law, and manages the transmission systems in this state.

2.20. PJM Region. -- The area within which the movement of wholesale electricity is coordinated by PJM interconnection. The PJM region is as described in the Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of PJM, including future supplements and amendments.

2.21. Reclaimed Surface Mine. -- A surface mine, as that term is defined in W. Va. Code § 22-3-3, that is reclaimed or is being reclaimed in accordance with state or federal law.

2.22. Renewable Energy Resource. -- Any of the following resources, methods, projects or technologies for the production or generation of electricity:

2.22.a. Solar photovoltaic or other solar electric energy;

2.22.b. Solar thermal energy;

2.22.c. Wind power;

2.22.d. Run of river hydropower -- A hydropower facility that, during normal operating conditions, does not utilize storage and that has outflow from the project that approximates the inflow of the project. The flow regime below a run of the river hydropower project will essentially be the river's natural regime, except in special circumstances such as might follow reinstallation of flashboards, project shutdowns, or as required pursuant to flood control and navigation control requirements of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the terms and conditions of the facility's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license to promote the environment, recreation, or fish habitat. Under those circumstances, a change in storage contents is necessary, and outflow is reduced below inflow for a period. Another circumstance is the flow transition after an idle station is brought online, causing initial flows downstream to exceed inflow.

2.22.e. Geothermal energy, which means a technology by which electricity is produced by extracting hot water or steam from geothermal reserves in the earth's crust to power steam turbines that drive generators to produce electricity.

2.22.f. Biomass energy, which means a technology by which electricity is produced from a nonhazardous organic material that is available on a renewable or recurring basis, including pulp mill sludge.

2.22.g. Biologically derived fuel including methane gas, ethanol, or biodiesel fuel.

2.22.h. Fuel cell technology, which means any electrochemical device that converts chemical energy in a hydrogen-rich fuel directly into electricity, heat and water without combustion.

2.22.i. Recycled energy, which means useful thermal, mechanical or electrical energy produced from:

(i) exhaust heat from any commercial or industrial process;

(ii) waste gas, waste fuel or other forms of energy that would otherwise be flared, incinerated, disposed of or vented; and

(iii) electricity or equivalent mechanical energy extracted from a pressure drop in any gas, excluding any pressure drop to a condenser that subsequently vents the resulting heat.

2.22.j. Any other resource, method, project or technology certified by the Commission as a renewable energy resource.

2.23. Renewable Energy Resource Facility. -- A facility or equipment that generates electricity from renewable energy resources.

2.24. Retail Customer. -- A customer that receives retail electricity in West Virginia.

2.25. Waste Coal. -- A technology by which electricity is produced by the combustion of the by-product, waste or residue created from processing coal (such as gob).

W. Va. Code R. § 150-34-2