Section 465.5  Definitions

Terms defined in Section 16-102 of the Public Utilities Act (Act) [220 ILCS 5/16-102] shall have the same meaning for purposes of this Part as they have under Section 16-102 of the Act, unless further defined in this Part.

"Annual period" means the period of 12 consecutive monthly billing periods ending on the last day of either the net metering customer's April monthly billing period or its October monthly billing period, whichever was selected by the customer in connection with its application for net metering.

"Avoided costs" means the incremental costs to the electricity provider of electric energy or capacity or both, which, but for the purchase from an eligible customer, the electricity provider would generate itself or purchase from another source.

"Electric utility" means a public utility, as defined in Section 5/3‑105 [220 ILCS 5/3-105] of the Act, that has a franchise, license, permit or right to furnish or sell electricity or light, except when used solely for communications purposes, to retail customers within a service area, as both of these terms are defined in Section 5/16-102 of the Act.

"Electricity provider" means an electric utility, whether providing services within or outside of its service area, or an alternative retail electric supplier.

"Eligible customer" or "customer" means a retail customer that owns or operates a solar, wind, or other eligible renewable electrical generating facility with a rated capacity of up to 2,000 kilowatts that is located on the customer's premises and is intended primarily to offset the customer's own electrical requirements.

"Eligible renewable electrical generating facility" means a generator up to 2,000 kilowatts powered by solar electric energy, wind, dedicated crops grown for electricity generation, anaerobic digestion of livestock or food processing waste, fuel cells or microturbines powered by renewable fuels, or hydroelectric energy.

"Net electricity metering" or "net metering" means measurement during the billing period applicable to an eligible customer of the net amount of electricity supplied by an electricity provider to the customer's premises or provided to the electricity provider by the customer.

"Net purchaser of electricity" means that the total amount of generation produced by the customer is less than the customer's total usage during the applicable billing period.

"Net seller of electricity" means that the total amount of generation produced by the customer is greater than the customer's total usage during the applicable billing period.

"Time of use rate" means any contract or tariff under which the kWh price for electric power and energy supply is not uniform over all of the hours in a billing period.