                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DEFINITIONS (§ 56-576)

As used in this chapter:
		&#8220;Affiliate&#8221; means any person that controls, is controlled by, or
is under common control with an electric utility.
		&#8220;Aggregator&#8221; means a person that, as an agent or intermediary, (i)
offers to purchase, or purchases, electric energy or (ii) offers to arrange for,
or arranges for, the purchase of electric energy, for sale to, or on behalf of,
two or more retail customers not controlled by or under common control with such
person. The following activities shall not, in and of themselves, make a person
an aggregator under this chapter: (i) furnishing legal services to two or more
retail customers, suppliers or aggregators; (ii) furnishing educational,
informational, or analytical services to two or more retail customers, unless
direct or indirect compensation for such services is paid by an aggregator or
supplier of electric energy; (iii) furnishing educational, informational, or
analytical services to two or more suppliers or aggregators; (iv) providing
default service under § 56-585; (v) engaging in activities of a retail electric
energy supplier, licensed pursuant to § 56-587, which are authorized by such
supplier&#8217;s license; and (vi) engaging in actions of a retail customer, in
common with one or more other such retail customers, to issue a request for
proposal or to negotiate a purchase of electric energy for consumption by such
retail customers.
		&#8220;Business park&#8221; means a land development containing a minimum of
100 contiguous acres classified as a Tier 4 site under the Virginia Economic
Development Partnership&#8217;s Business Ready Sites Program that is developed
and constructed by a locality, an industrial development authority, or a similar
political subdivision of the Commonwealth created pursuant to § 15.2-4903 or
other act of the General Assembly, in order to promote business development.
		&#8220;Combined heat and power&#8221; means a method of using waste heat from
electrical generation to offset traditional processes, space heating, air
conditioning, or refrigeration.
		&#8220;Commission&#8221; means the State Corporation Commission.
		&#8220;Community in which a majority of the population are people of
color&#8221; means a U.S. Census tract where more than 50 percent of the
population comprises individuals who identify as belonging to one or more of the
following groups: Black, African American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native
American, other non-white race, mixed race, Hispanic, Latino, or linguistically
isolated.
		&#8220;Cooperative&#8221; means a utility formed under or subject to Chapter
9.1 (§ 56-231.15 et seq.).
		&#8220;Covered entity&#8221; means a provider in the Commonwealth of an
electric service not subject to competition but does not include default service
providers.
		&#8220;Covered transaction&#8221; means an acquisition, merger, or
consolidation of, or other transaction involving stock, securities, voting
interests or assets by which one or more persons obtains control of a covered
entity.
		&#8220;Curtailment&#8221; means inducing retail customers to reduce load
during times of peak demand so as to ease the burden on the electrical grid.
		&#8220;Customer choice&#8221; means the opportunity for a retail customer in
the Commonwealth to purchase electric energy from any supplier licensed and
seeking to sell electric energy to that customer.
		&#8220;Demand response&#8221; means measures aimed at shifting time of use of
electricity from peak-use periods to times of lower demand by inducing retail
customers to curtail electricity usage during periods of congestion and higher
prices in the electrical grid.
		&#8220;Distribute,&#8221;"distributing,&#8221; or &#8220;distribution
of&#8221; electric energy means the transfer of electric energy through a retail
distribution system to a retail customer.
		&#8220;Distributor&#8221; means a person owning, controlling, or operating a
retail distribution system to provide electric energy directly to retail
customers.
		&#8220;Electric distribution grid transformation project&#8221; means a
project associated with electric distribution infrastructure, including related
data analytics equipment, that is designed to accommodate or facilitate the
integration of utility-owned or customer-owned renewable electric generation
resources with the utility&#8217;s electric distribution grid or to otherwise
enhance electric distribution grid reliability, electric distribution grid
security, customer service, or energy efficiency and conservation, including
advanced metering infrastructure; intelligent grid devices for real time system
and asset information; automated control systems for electric distribution
circuits and substations; communications networks for service meters;
intelligent grid devices and other distribution equipment; distribution system
hardening projects for circuits, other than the conversion of overhead tap lines
to underground service, and substations designed to reduce service outages or
service restoration times; physical security measures at key distribution
substations; cyber security measures; energy storage systems and microgrids that
support circuit-level grid stability, power quality, reliability, or resiliency
or provide temporary backup energy supply; electrical facilities and
infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicle charging systems; LED
street light conversions; and new customer information platforms designed to
provide improved customer access, greater service options, and expanded access
to energy usage information.
		&#8220;Electric utility&#8221; means any person that generates, transmits, or
distributes electric energy for use by retail customers in the Commonwealth,
including any investor-owned electric utility, cooperative electric utility, or
electric utility owned or operated by a municipality.
		&#8220;Electrification&#8221; means measures that (i) electrify space heating,
water heating, cooling, drying, cooking, industrial processes, and other
building and industrial end uses that would otherwise be served by onsite,
nonelectric fuels, provided that the electrification measures reduce site energy
consumption; (ii) to the maximum extent practical, seek to combine with
federally authorized customer rebates for heat pump technology; and (iii) for
those measures that provide measurable and verifiable energy savings to
low-income customers or elderly customers, to the maximum extent practical, seek
to combine with either contemporaneously installed measures or previously
installed measures that are or were provided under federally funded
weatherization programs or state-provided, locality-provided, or
utility-provided energy efficiency programs.
		&#8220;Energy efficiency program&#8221; means a program that reduces the total
amount of energy that is required for the same process or activity implemented
after the expiration of capped rates but does not include electrification of any
process or activity primarily fueled by natural gas. Energy efficiency programs
include equipment, physical, or program change designed to produce measured and
verified reductions in the amount of site energy required to perform the same
function and produce the same or a similar outcome. Energy efficiency programs
may include (i) electrification; (ii) programs that result in improvements in
lighting design, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, appliances,
building envelopes, and industrial and commercial processes; (iii) measures,
such as the installation of advanced meters, implemented or installed by
utilities, that reduce fuel use or losses of electricity and otherwise improve
internal operating efficiency in generation, transmission, and distribution
systems; and (iv) customer engagement programs that result in measurable and
verifiable energy savings that lead to efficient use patterns and practices.
Energy efficiency programs include demand response, combined heat and power and
waste heat recovery, curtailment, or other programs that are designed to reduce
site energy consumption so long as they reduce the total amount of site energy
that is required for the same process or activity. Utilities shall be authorized
to install and operate such advanced metering technology and equipment on a
customer&#8217;s premises; however, nothing in this chapter establishes a
requirement that an energy efficiency program be implemented on a
customer&#8217;s premises and be connected to a customer&#8217;s wiring on the
customer&#8217;s side of the inter-connection without the customer&#8217;s
expressed consent. Electricity consumption increases that result from
Commission-approved electrification measures shall not be considered as a
reduction in energy savings under the energy savings requirements set forth in
subsection B of § 56-596.2. Utilities may apply verified total site energy
reductions that are attributable to Commission-approved electrification measures
to the energy savings requirements set forth in subsection B of § 56-596.2,
subject to a conversion of British thermal unit-based energy savings to an
equivalent kilowatt-hour-based energy savings, which conversion shall be subject
to Commission approval.
		&#8220;Generate,&#8221;"generating,&#8221; or &#8220;generation of&#8221;
electric energy means the production of electric energy.
		&#8220;Generator&#8221; means a person owning, controlling, or operating a
facility that produces electric energy for sale.
		&#8220;Geothermal electric generating resource&#8221; means an electric
generating unit that is powered by geothermal energy as defined in § 45.2-2000.
		&#8220;Geothermal heating and cooling system&#8221; means a system that:

1. Exchanges thermal energy from groundwater or a shallow ground source to
generate thermal energy through an electric geothermal heat pump or a system of
electric geothermal heat pumps interconnected with any geothermal extraction
facility that is (i) a closed loop or a series of closed loop systems in which
fluid is permanently confined within a pipe or tubing and does not come in
contact with the outside environment or (ii) an open loop system in which ground
or surface water is circulated in an environmentally safe manner directly into
the facility and returned to the same aquifer or surface water source;

2. Meets or exceeds the current federal Energy Star product specification
standards;

3. Replaces or displaces less efficient space or water heating systems,
regardless of fuel type;

4. Replaces or displaces less efficient space cooling systems that do not meet
federal Energy Star product specification standards; and

5. Does not feed electricity back to the grid.
			&#8220;Historically economically disadvantaged community&#8221; means (i) a
community in which a majority of the population are people of color or (ii) a
low-income geographic area.
			&#8220;Incremental annual savings&#8221; means the total combined
kilowatt-hour savings achieved by electric utility energy efficiency and demand
response programs and measures in the program year in which they are installed.
			&#8220;Incumbent electric utility&#8221; means each electric utility in the
Commonwealth that, prior to July 1, 1999, supplied electric energy to retail
customers located in an exclusive service territory established by the
Commission.
			&#8220;Independent system operator&#8221; means a person that may receive or
has received, by transfer pursuant to this chapter, any ownership or control of,
or any responsibility to operate, all or part of the transmission systems in the
Commonwealth.
			&#8220;In the public interest,&#8221; for purposes of assessing energy
efficiency programs prior to the 2029 program year, describes an energy
efficiency program if the Commission determines that the net present value of
the benefits exceeds the net present value of the costs as determined by not
less than any three of the following four tests: (i) the Total Resource Cost
Test; (ii) the Utility Cost Test (also referred to as the Program Administrator
Test); (iii) the Participant Test; and (iv) the Ratepayer Impact Measure Test.
Such determination shall include an analysis of all four tests, and a program or
portfolio of programs shall be approved if the net present value of the benefits
exceeds the net present value of the costs as determined by not less than any
three of the four tests. For programs proposed for the 2029 program year and all
subsequent years, the Commission shall establish targets pursuant to subdivision
B 4 of &#xA7; 56-596.2, and a program shall be approved if the Commission
determines it is cost-effective pursuant to applicable Commission regulations
and that the net present value of the benefits exceeds the net present value of
the costs as determined by the Total Resource Cost Test. If the Commission
determines that an energy efficiency program or portfolio of programs is not in
the public interest, its final order shall include all work product and analysis
conducted by the Commission&#8217;s staff in relation to that program, including
testimony relied upon by the Commission&#8217;s staff, that has bearing upon the
Commission&#8217;s decision. If the Commission reduces the proposed budget for a
program or portfolio of programs, its final order shall include an analysis of
the impact such budget reduction has upon the cost-effectiveness of such program
or portfolio of programs. An order by the Commission (a) finding that a program
or portfolio of programs is not in the public interest or (b) reducing the
proposed budget for any program or portfolio of programs shall adhere to
existing protocols for extraordinarily sensitive information. In addition, an
energy efficiency program may be deemed to be &#8220;in the public
interest&#8221; if the program (1) provides measurable and verifiable energy
savings to low-income customers or elderly customers or (2) is a pilot program
of limited scope, cost, and duration, that is intended to determine whether a
new or substantially revised program or technology would be cost-effective.
			&#8220;Low-income geographic area&#8221; means any locality, or community
within a locality, that has a median household income that is not greater than
80 percent of the local median household income, or any area in the Commonwealth
designated as a qualified opportunity zone by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
via his delegation of authority to the Internal Revenue Service.
			&#8220;Low-income utility customer&#8221; means any person or household whose
income is no more than 80 percent of the median income of the locality in which
the customer resides. The median income of the locality is determined by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
			&#8220;Measured and verified&#8221; means a process determined pursuant to
methods accepted for use by utilities and industries to measure, verify, and
validate energy savings and peak demand savings. This may include the protocol
established by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Federal Energy
Management Programs, Measurement and Verification Guidance for Federal Energy
Projects, measurement and verification standards developed by the American
Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), or
engineering-based estimates of energy and demand savings associated with
specific energy efficiency measures, as determined by the Commission.
			&#8220;Municipality&#8221; means a city, county, town, authority, or other
political subdivision of the Commonwealth.
			&#8220;New underground facilities&#8221; means facilities to provide
underground distribution service. &#8220;New underground facilities&#8221;
includes underground cables with voltages of 69 kilovolts or less, pad-mounted
devices, connections at customer meters, and transition terminations from
existing overhead distribution sources.
			&#8220;Peak-shaving&#8221; means measures aimed solely at shifting time of
use of electricity from peak-use periods to times of lower demand by inducing
retail customers to curtail electricity usage during periods of congestion and
higher prices in the electrical grid.
			&#8220;Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) eligible utility
customer&#8221; means any person or household whose income does not exceed 150
percent of the federal poverty level.
			&#8220;Person&#8221; means any individual, corporation, partnership,
association, company, business, trust, joint venture, or other private legal
entity, and the Commonwealth or any municipality.
			&#8220;Previously developed project site&#8221; means any property, including
related buffer areas, if any, that has been previously disturbed or developed
for non-single-family residential, non-agricultural, or non-silvicultural use,
regardless of whether such property currently is being used for any purpose.
			&#8220;Previously developed project site&#8221; includes a brownfield as
defined in &#xA7; 10.1-1230 or any parcel that has been previously used (i) for
a retail, commercial, or industrial purpose; (ii) as a parking lot; (iii) as the
site of a parking lot canopy or structure; (iv) for mining, which is any lands
affected by coal mining that took place before August 3, 1977, or any lands upon
which extraction activities have been permitted by the Department of Energy
under Title 45.2; (v) for quarrying; or (vi) as a landfill.
			&#8220;Qualified waste heat resource&#8221; means (i) exhaust heat or flared
gas from an industrial process that does not have, as its primary purpose, the
production of electricity and (ii) a pressure drop in any gas for an industrial
or commercial process.
			&#8220;Renewable energy&#8221; means energy derived from sunlight, wind,
falling water, biomass, sustainable or otherwise, (the definitions of which
shall be liberally construed), energy from waste, landfill gas, municipal solid
waste, wave motion, tides, geothermal heating and cooling systems, and
geothermal electric generating resources and does not include energy derived
from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power. &#8220;Renewable energy&#8221;
also includes the proportion of the thermal or electric energy from a facility
that results from the co-firing of biomass. &#8220;Renewable energy&#8221; does
not include waste heat from fossil-fired facilities or electricity generated
from pumped storage but includes run-of-river generation from a combined
pumped-storage and run-of-river facility.
			&#8220;Renewable thermal energy&#8221; means the thermal energy output from
(i) a renewable-fueled combined heat and power generation facility that is (a)
constructed, or renovated and improved, after January 1, 2012, (b) located in
the Commonwealth, and (c) utilized in industrial processes other than the
combined heat and power generation facility or (ii) a solar energy system,
certified to the OG-100 standard of the Solar Ratings and Certification
Corporation or an equivalent certification body, that (a) is constructed, or
renovated and improved, after January 1, 2013, (b) is located in the
Commonwealth, and (c) heats water or air for residential, commercial,
institutional, or industrial purposes.
			&#8220;Renewable thermal energy equivalent&#8221; means the electrical
equivalent in megawatt hours of renewable thermal energy calculated by dividing
(i) the heat content, measured in British thermal units (BTUs), of the renewable
thermal energy at the point of transfer to a residential, commercial,
institutional, or industrial process by (ii) the standard conversion factor of
3.413 million BTUs per megawatt hour.
			&#8220;Renovated and improved facility&#8221; means a facility the components
of which have been upgraded to enhance its operating efficiency.
			&#8220;Retail customer&#8221; means any person that purchases retail electric
energy for its own consumption at one or more metering points or nonmetered
points of delivery located in the Commonwealth.
			&#8220;Retail electric energy&#8221; means electric energy sold for ultimate
consumption to a retail customer.
			&#8220;Revenue reductions related to energy efficiency programs&#8221; means
reductions in the collection of total non-fuel revenues, previously authorized
by the Commission to be recovered from customers by a utility, that occur due to
measured and verified decreased consumption of electricity caused by energy
efficiency programs approved by the Commission and implemented by the utility,
less the amount by which such non-fuel reductions in total revenues have been
mitigated through other program-related factors, including reductions in
variable operating expenses.
			&#8220;Rooftop solar installation&#8221; means a distributed electric
generation facility, storage facility, or generation and storage facility
utilizing energy derived from sunlight, with a rated capacity of not less than
50 kilowatts, that is installed on the roof structure of an incumbent electric
utility&#8217;s commercial or industrial class customer, including host sites on
commercial buildings, multifamily residential buildings, school or university
buildings, and buildings of a church or religious body.
			&#8220;Solar energy system&#8221; means a system of components that produces
heat or electricity, or both, from sunlight.
			&#8220;Supplier&#8221; means any generator, distributor, aggregator, broker,
marketer, or other person who offers to sell or sells electric energy to retail
customers and is licensed by the Commission to do so, but it does not mean a
generator that produces electric energy exclusively for its own consumption or
the consumption of an affiliate.
			&#8220;Supply&#8221; or &#8220;supplying&#8221; electric energy means the
sale of or the offer to sell electric energy to a retail customer.
			&#8220;Total annual energy savings&#8221; means (i) the total combined
kilowatt-hour savings achieved by electric utility energy efficiency and demand
response programs and measures installed in that program year, as well as
savings still being achieved by measures and programs implemented in prior
years, or (ii) savings attributable to newly installed combined heat and power
facilities, including waste heat-to-power facilities, and any associated
reduction in transmission line losses, provided that biomass is not a fuel and
the total efficiency, including the use of thermal energy, for eligible combined
heat and power facilitates must meet or exceed 65 percent and have a nameplate
capacity rating of less than 25 megawatts.
			&#8220;Transmission of,&#8221;"transmit,&#8221; or &#8220;transmitting&#8221;
electric energy means the transfer of electric energy through the
Commonwealth&#8217;s interconnected transmission grid from a generator to either
a distributor or a retail customer.
			&#8220;Transmission system&#8221; means those facilities and equipment that
are required to provide for the transmission of electric energy.
			&#8220;Waste heat to power&#8221; means a system that generates electricity
through the recovery of a qualified waste heat resource.

HISTORY: 1999, c. 411; 2000, c. 991; 2001, c. 421; 2007, cc. 888, 933; 2008, cc.
272, 883; 2009, cc. 748, 824; 2012, cc. 46, 200, 210, 821; 2013, c. 494; 2014,
cc. 212, 548; 2018, c. 296; 2019, cc. 535, 741; 2020, cc. 1193, 1194, 1225;
2021, Sp. Sess. I, cc. 308, 532; 2022, c. 216; 2024, cc. 597, 607, 794, 818,
607, 794, 818; 2025, c. 714.