General rule. Terms defined in the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) shall have the same meaning for purposes of this part as they have under PURPA, unless further defined in this part.

Definitions. The following definitions apply for purposes of this part.

Qualifying facility means a cogeneration facility or a small power production facility that is a qualifying facility under Subpart B of this part.

A qualifying facility may include transmission lines and other equipment used for interconnection purposes (including transformers and switchyard equipment), if:

Such lines and equipment are used to supply power output to directly and indirectly interconnected electric utilities, and to end users, including thermal hosts, in accordance with state law; or

Such lines and equipment are used to transmit supplementary, standby, maintenance and backup power to the qualifying facility, including its thermal host meeting the criteria set forth in Union Carbide Corporation, 48 FERC ¶ 61,130, reh'g denied, 49 FERC ¶ 61,209 (1989), aff'd sub nom., Gulf States Utilities Company v. FERC, 922 F.2d 873 (D.C. Cir. 1991); or

If such lines and equipment are used to transmit power from other qualifying facilities or to transmit standby, maintenance, supplementary and backup power to other qualifying facilities.

The construction and ownership of such lines and equipment shall be subject to any applicable Federal, state, and local siting and environmental requirements.

Purchase means the purchase of electric energy or capacity or both from a qualifying facility by an electric utility.

Sale means the sale of electric energy or capacity or both by an electric utility to a qualifying facility.

System emergency means a condition on a utility's system which is likely to result in imminent significant disruption of service to customers or is imminently likely to endanger life or property.

Rate means any price, rate, charge, or classification made, demanded, observed or received with respect to the sale or purchase of electric energy or capacity, or any rule, regulation, or practice respecting any such rate, charge, or classification, and any contract pertaining to the sale or purchase of electric energy or capacity.

Avoided costs means the incremental costs to an electric utility of electric energy or capacity or both which, but for the purchase from the qualifying facility or qualifying facilities, such utility would generate itself or purchase from another source.

Interconnection costs means the reasonable costs of connection, switching, metering, transmission, distribution, safety provisions and administrative costs incurred by the electric utility directly related to the installation and maintenance of the physical facilities necessary to permit interconnected operations with a qualifying facility, to the extent such costs are in excess of the corresponding costs which the electric utility would have incurred if it had not engaged in interconnected operations, but instead generated an equivalent amount of electric energy itself or purchased an equivalent amount of electric energy or capacity from other sources. Interconnection costs do not include any costs included in the calculation of avoided costs.

Supplementary power means electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility, regularly used by a qualifying facility in addition to that which the facility generates itself.

Back-up power means electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility to replace energy ordinarily generated by a facility's own generation equipment during an unscheduled outage of the facility.

Interruptible power means electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility subject to interruption by the electric utility under specified conditions.

Maintenance power means electric energy or capacity supplied by an electric utility during scheduled outages of the qualifying facility.