                                 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.