38.5.8401    DEFINITIONS

Terminology used in these rules has the following meanings, except where the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) "Applicant" means a person or entity that has filed an application to interconnect a customer-generator facility to an EDS. An applicant may include a third party who owns and operates a small generator facility under agreement with a customer or leases a small generator facility to a customer.

(2) "Area Network" means a type of electric system served by multiple transformers interconnected in an electrical network circuit.

(3) "Commission" means the Montana Public Service Commission.

(4) "Customer" means any entity connected to the utility system for the purpose of receiving electric power from the EDS.

(5) " Customer-generator" means a customer that generates electricity, typically on the customer's side of the meter.

(6) "Electric Distribution System" or "EDS" (i) means the infrastructure constructed and maintained by an EDC. (ii) Electric Distribution System has the same meaning as the term Area EPS, as defined in 3.1.6.1 of IEEE Standard 1547-2003.

(7) "Electric Distribution Company" or "EDC" means an electric utility that distributes electricity to end users within Montana and is subject to regulation by the commission.

(8) "Export" means power flows past the point of interconnection onto the EDS.

(9) "Good Standing" means a customer's account is not in arrears.

(10) "IEEE" means the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

(11) "IEEE Standards" means the standards published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

(12) "Interconnect" means to connect a utility customer's generator to the EDS.

(13) "Interconnection" is the result of connecting a utility customer's generator to the electric distribution company's electric distribution system.

(14) "Interconnection Customer" means an applicant that has entered into an interconnection agreement with an EDC to interconnect a small generator facility and has interconnected that small generator facility.

(15) "Line Section" means the portion of a radial distribution circuit to which an applicant seeks to interconnect and is bounded by automatic sectionalizing devices or the end of a distribution line.

(16) "Nameplate Capacity" means the maximum rated output of a generator, prime mover, or other electric power production equipment under specific conditions designated by the manufacturer and is usually indicated on a nameplate physically attached to the power production equipment.

(17) "Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory" or "NRTL" means a testing laboratory that is recognized by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration to test and certify interconnection equipment pursuant to the relevant codes and standards.

(18) "Premises" means the customer-generator's service address that is identified in a utility's billing system and that, in the case of net metering systems, is limited to one net metering system, with a maximum nameplate capacity of 50 kW, for each classification of electric service that is provided by the utility at that service address.

(19) "Radial Distribution Circuit" means a circuit configuration in which independent feeders branch out radially from a common source of supply. From the standpoint of a utility system, the area described is between the generating source or intervening substations and the customer's electric service entrance equipment. In a radial distribution system, power flows in one direction from the utility to the load.

(20) "Small Generator Facility" means an energy resource(s) for the production and/or storage of electricity that has an aggregate nameplate capacity that does not exceed 10 MW, and is designed to operate in parallel with the electric distribution system.

 

History: 69-3-103, MCA; IMP, 69-3-102, MCA; NEW, 2010 MAR p. 1801, Eff. 8/13/10; AMD, 2020 MAR p. 2147, Eff. 11/21/20.