LAW
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Ohio Laws and Rules
(A) "Alternative rate plan" means a method, alternate to the method provided in section 4909.15 of the Revised Code, for establishing rates and charges for a distribution service or for a commodity sales service or ancillary service that is not exempt pursuant to section 4929.04 of the Revised Code. Alternative rate plans may include, but are not limited to, methods that provide adequate and reliable natural gas services and goods in this state; minimize the costs and time expended in the regulatory process; tend to assess the costs of any natural gas service or goods to the entity, service, or goods that cause such costs to be incurred; afford rate stability; promote and reward efficiency, quality of service, or cost containment by a natural gas company; or provide sufficient flexibility and incentives to the natural gas industry to achieve high quality, technologically advanced, and readily available natural gas services and goods at just and reasonable rates and charges. Alternative rate plans also may include, but are not limited to, automatic adjustments based on a specified index or changes in a specified cost or costs.
(B) "Affiliate", when used in relation to any entity, means another entity which controls, is controlled by, is under common control with, or shares common ownership, with the regulated entity.
(C) "Alternative provider" means a seller, other than the applicant, who provides the same or functionally equivalent product.
(D) "Ancillary service" means a service that is ancillary to the receipt or delivery of natural gas to consumers including, but not limited to, storage, pooling, balancing, and transmission.
(E) "Commodity sales service" means the sale of natural gas to consumers, exclusive of any distribution or ancillary service.
(F) "Comparable service" means any regulated service or goods whose availability, quality, price, terms, and conditions are the same as or better than those of the services or goods that the natural gas company provides to a person with which it is affiliated or which it controls, or, as to any consumer, that the natural gas company offers to that consumer as part of a bundled service that includes both regulated and exempt services or goods.
(G) "Consumer" means any person or association of persons purchasing, delivering, storing, or transporting, or seeking to purchase, deliver, store, or transport, natural gas, including industrial consumers, commercial consumers, and residential consumers, but not including natural gas companies.
(H) "Control" (including the terms "controlling," "controlled by," and "under common control with") includes, but is not limited to, the possession, directly or indirectly, of the authority to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of a company. A voting interest of ten per cent or more creates a presumption of control.
(I) "Distribution service" means the delivery of natural gas to a consumer at the consumer's facilities, by and through the instrumentalities and facilities of a natural gas company, regardless of the party having title to the natural gas.
(J) "Four firm concentration ratio" means a measure of market concentration consisting of the sum of the market shares of the four largest firms in the market.
(K) "Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI)" means a measure of market concentration which is calculated by summing the squares of the individual market shares of all suppliers in a relevant market.
(L) "Lerner index" is a measure of market power which is calculated as: L = (P - C)/P, where L is the Lerner index for a given firm and P and C are price and marginal cost, respectively, at that firm's profit-maximizing output.
(M) "Market" means the set of all actual and potential buyers and sellers of a particular product.
(N) "Product" means commodity sales and/or ancillary goods or services.
(O) "Reasonably available alternatives" means buyers have access to a product that is available soon enough, priced low enough, with quality high enough, under comparable terms and conditions to permit its substitution as an alternative.
(P) "Relevant market" means the market for the product that is the subject of the application for exemption or alternative rate making.
(Q) "Transmission" means the act or process of transporting the commodity in bulk from a source or sources of supply to principal parts of the system or to other utility systems.
Replaces: 4901:1-19-02
Effective: 11/10/2006
R.C.
119.032 review dates: 09/30/2011
Promulgated Under:
111.15
Statutory
Authority:
4929.10
Rule
Amplifies:
4909.04,
4909.05
Prior
Effective Dates: 3/24/97