WAC 194-37-040   Definitions.  The definitions in chapter 19.285 RCW apply throughout this chapter. Some of those definitions are included here, in addition to rule-specific definitions, to assist in understanding this chapter.

     (1) "Auditor" means:

     (a) The Washington state auditor's office or its designee for consumer-owned utilities under its jurisdiction, such as a public utility district formed under Title 54 RCW, a municipal electric utility formed under Title 35 RCW, or any other public entity authorized by law to sell electricity for retail use;

     (b) An independent auditor selected by a utility that is not under the jurisdiction of the state auditor, such as a cooperative formed under chapter 23.86 RCW or an electric mutual corporation or association formed under chapter 24.06 RCW.

     (2) "Annual revenue requirement" means that portion of a utility's annual budget approved by its governing body for the target year that is intended to be recovered through retail electricity sales in the state of Washington in the target year, or as otherwise documented by the utility pursuant to WAC 194-37-150.

     (3) "Average water generation" means the average megawatt-hours of generation from a hydroelectric project over a period of ten consecutive years or more, taking into account differences in water flows from year to year.

     (4) "Biennial target" means a utility's biennial conservation target.

     (5) "BPA" means the Bonneville Power Administration.

     (6) "Conservation" means any reduction in electric power consumption resulting from increases in the efficiency of energy use, production, or distribution.

     (7) "Conservation calculator" means a spreadsheet or piece of software developed and maintained by the NWPCC to approximate a utility's ten-year potential. The conservation calculator will use methodologies consistent with the most recently published Power Plan. It is available at www.nwcouncil.org.

     (8) "Cost-effective" means, as defined in RCW 80.52.030, that a project or resource is forecast:

     (a) To be reliable and available within the time it is needed; and

     (b) To meet or reduce the electric power demand of the intended consumers at an estimated incremental system cost no greater than that of the least-cost similarly reliable and available alternative project or resource, or any combination thereof.

     (c) For purposes of this paragraph, the term "system cost" means an estimate of all direct costs of a project or resource over its effective life, including, if applicable, the costs of distribution to the consumer, and, among other factors, waste disposal costs, end-of-cycle costs, and fuel costs (including projected increases), and such quantifiable environmental costs and benefits as are directly attributable to the project or resource.

     (9) "Council" means the Washington state apprenticeship and training council within the department of labor and industries.

     (10) "Customer" means a person or entity that purchases electricity for ultimate consumption and not for resale.

     (11) "Department" means the department of community, trade, and economic development.

     (12) "Distributed generation" means an eligible renewable resource where the facility or any integrated cluster of generating units has a generating capacity of not more than five megawatts. If several five-megawatt or smaller projects are located in the same immediate area but are owned or controlled by different developers, each qualifies as a separate, independent distributed generation project. For the purposes of this rule, an eligible renewable resource or group of similar eligible renewable resources cannot be subdivided into amounts less than five megawatts solely to be considered distributed generation.

     (13) "Eligible renewable resource" means:

     (a) Electricity from a generation facility powered by a renewable resource other than fresh water that commences operation after March 31, 1999, where:

     (i) The facility is located in the Pacific Northwest; or

     (ii) The electricity from the facility is delivered into Washington state on a real-time basis without shaping, storage, or integration services (an eligible renewable resource within the Pacific Northwest may receive integration, shaping, storage or other services from sources outside the Pacific Northwest and remain eligible to count towards a utility's renewable resource target); or

     (b) Incremental electricity produced as a result of efficiency improvements completed after March 31, 1999, to a hydroelectric generation project owned by one or more qualifying utilities (see definition of qualifying utility in chapter 19.285 RCW) and located in the Pacific Northwest or to hydroelectric generation in irrigation pipes and canals located in the Pacific Northwest, where the additional electricity generated in either case is not a result of new water diversions or impoundments.

     (14) "Fifth power plan" means The Fifth Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Plan produced by the NWPCC. The power plan is available at www.nwcouncil.org.

     (15) "Incremental hydropower" means the incremental amount of kilowatt-hours of electricity generated from a base or constant amount of water.

     (16) "Integrated cluster" of eligible renewable resources means colocated projects owned or controlled by the same entity that feed into the same substation.

     (17) "Load" means the amount of kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered in the most recently completed year by a utility to its Washington retail customers.

     (18) "Nonpower attributes" means all environmentally related characteristics, exclusive of energy, capacity, reliability, and other electrical power service attributes, that are associated with the generation of electricity from a renewable resource, including but not limited to the facility's fuel type, geographic location, vintage, qualification as an eligible renewable resource, and avoided emissions of pollutants to the air, soil, or water, and avoided emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

     (19) "NWPCC" means Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council also known as the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Its calculation of avoided costs and publications are available at www.nwcouncil.org.

     (20) "Pacific Northwest" means the area consisting of:

     (a) The states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the portion of the state of Montana west of the Continental Divide, and such portions of the states of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming as are within the Columbia River drainage basin; and

     (b) Any contiguous areas, not in excess of seventy-five air miles from the area referred to in (a) of this subsection, which are a part of the service area of a rural electric cooperative customer served by the BPA on December 5, 1980, which has a distribution system from which it serves both within and without such region.

     (21) "Qualified incremental hydropower efficiency improvements" means the installation or modification of equipment and structures, or operating protocols that increase the amount of electricity generated from the same amount of water. These may include rewinding of existing generators, replacing turbines with more efficient units and changing control systems to optimize electricity generation, and improvements to hydraulic conveyance systems that decrease head loss. They do not include additions to capacity by increasing pondage or elevation head, or diverting additional water into the project.

     (22) "Qualifying utility" means an electric utility, as the term "electric utility" is defined in RCW 19.29A.010, that serves more than twenty-five thousand customers in the state of Washington.

     (23) "Regional technical forum" or "RTF" means a voluntary advisory committee that reports to the executive director of the NWPCC and whose members are appointed by the NWPCC's chair.

     (24) "Renewable energy credit" or "REC" means a tradable certificate of proof of at least one megawatt-hour of an eligible renewable resource where the generation facility is not powered by fresh water, the certificate includes all of the nonpower attributes associated with that megawatt-hour of electricity, and the certificate is verified by the renewable energy credit tracking system chosen by the department.

     (25) "Renewable resource" means:

     (a) Water;

     (b) Wind;

     (c) Solar energy;

     (d) Geothermal energy;

     (e) Landfill gas;

     (f) Wave, ocean, or tidal power;

     (g) Gas from sewage treatment facilities;

     (h) Biodiesel fuel as defined in RCW 82.29A.135 that is not derived from crops raised on land cleared from old growth or first-growth forests where the clearing occurred after December 7, 2006; and

     (i) Biomass energy based on animal waste or solid organic fuels from wood, forest, or field residues, or dedicated energy crops that do not include:

     (i) Wood pieces that have been treated with chemical preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or copper chrome arsenic;

     (ii) Black liquor by-product from paper production;

     (iii) Wood from old growth forests; or

     (iv) Municipal solid waste.

     (26) "Substitute resource" means reasonably available electricity or generating facilities, of the same contract length or facility life as the eligible renewable resource the utility invested in to comply with chapter 19.285 RCW requirements, that otherwise would have been used to serve a utility's retail load in the absence of chapter 19.285 RCW requirements to serve that retail load with eligible renewable resources.

     (27) "Target year" means the specific year for which a renewable energy target must be met.

     (28) "Ten-year potential" means the ten-year cost effective conservation resource potential.

     (29) "Utility" means a consumer-owned electric utility, as the term consumer-owned utility is defined in RCW 19.29A.010, that serves more than twenty-five thousand retail customers in the state of Washington. The number of customers served shall be based on data reported by a utility in Form EIA - 861, "Annual Electric Power Industry Report," filed with the Energy Information Administration, United States Department of Energy.

     A consumer-owned electric utility whose number of retail customers grows beyond twenty-five thousand over the course of a year shall be subject to the requirements of this chapter, or per chapter 19.285 RCW shall become a qualifying utility, starting January 1 of the following year. All applicable target dates, per chapter 19.285 RCW will be delayed by the same number of years as there are between January 1, 2007, and the year in which the utility becomes a qualifying utility.

     (30) "Weather-adjusted load" means load calculated after variations in peak and average temperatures from year to year are taken into account.

     (31) "WREGIS" means the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System. WREGIS is an independent, renewable energy data base for the region covered by the Western Interconnection. WREGIS creates renewable energy certificates, WREGIS certificates, for verifiable renewable generation from units that register in the data base. The department selects WREGIS as the renewable energy credit tracking system to issue verified RECs per RCW 19.285.030(17) in WAC 194-37-210.

     (32) "Year" means the twelve-month period commencing January 1 and ending December 31.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 19.285.080(2). 08-07-079, § 194-37-040, filed 3/18/08, effective 4/18/08.]