The Public Utilities Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, provides that the Commission shall have the power to make such reasonable regulations as it deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this law and any other law relating to the Commission. Application. These regulations apply to any electric utility operating within the State, under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission. Purpose. These regulations are intended to promote safe and adequate service to the public, to provide standards for uniform and reasonable practices by utilities, and to outline the responsibility of the public in requesting and receiving service from the utilities. Exemption. If unreasonable hardship to a utility or to a customer results from the application of any of these regulations, application may be made to the Commission for the modification of the regulation or for temporary or permanent exemption from its requirements. Modification. The adoption of these regulations does not preclude the Commission from altering or amending them, or from making such modifications with respect to their application as may be found necessary to meet exceptional conditions. Duties Under Other Statutes. These regulations do not relieve any utility from any of its duties under the laws of this State. In this subtitle, the following terms have the meanings indicated. Terms Defined. “Abandoned call” means a telephone call in which the customer has elected to speak to a customer service representative but the call is terminated before the customer service representative answers. “All-in vegetation management cost” means all vegetation management capital and operation and maintenance expenditures, including: All direct contractual costs and internal staffing associated with yearly scheduled cyclical trimming and all corrective work; and All indirect costs associated with vegetation management staff, supplies, and equipment. Answer. “Answer” means rendering assistance to a telephone caller or accepting information necessary to process a telephone call by a customer service representative or an automated voice response system. “Answer” does not include an acknowledgement that a telephone caller is waiting on the line. “Baseline annual usage” means: The total of an eligible customer-generator’s previous 12 months of electric energy use in kilowatt hours at the time of the installation or upgrade of an eligible customer-generator’s generating system; or An estimate of 12 months electric use in kilowatt hours based on a methodology approved by the Commission for an eligible customer-generator that does not have 12 months of electric energy use in kilowatt hours at the time of the installation or upgrade of an eligible customer-generator’s generating system. “Billing period” means the period of time covered by a bill issued by an electric company. “Bordering jurisdiction” means the District of Columbia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. “Commission” means the Public Service Commission of Maryland. “Contact voltage” means a voltage condition that may result in an object or surface being inadvertently energized. “Contact voltage risk zone (CVRZ)” means the portions of each electric company’s service territory that: Are served by an underground electric distribution plant; and Have substantial pedestrian traffic or population density, whether permanent, seasonal or varying by time of day. “Contact voltage survey” means a survey performed by an electric company to detect contact voltage consistent with the company’s Commission-approved voltage survey plan. “Corrective maintenance” means maintenance performed to correct system equipment or component conditions that render them incapable of performing their designed function. “Critical facilities” means a utility-specific list of electric system customers essential for public health and safety requiring restoration priority as determined in consultation with State and local jurisdictions. “Cultural control practices” means control of vegetation through the establishment of compatible stable plant communities or the use of crops, pastures, mulching, or other managed landscapes. “Customer” means a person, partnership, association, corporation, or governmental agency being supplied with electric service by a utility. “Customer average interruption duration index (CAIDI)” means the system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) divided by the system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI). “Customers experiencing multiple interruptions (CEMIn)” means the ratio of individual customers experiencing n or more sustained interruptions to the total number of customers served. “Customer interruption hours” means an amount of time calculated by multiplying a sustained interruption duration by the total number of customers affected by the sustained interruption. “Distribution transformer” has the meaning stated in 10 CFR §431.192, as amended, which is incorporated by reference. “Electric company” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §1-101, Annotated Code of Maryland. “Electric distribution” plant means all electric company plant used to distribute electricity to its customers, including covers and protective structures and excluding customer meters and meter enclosures. “Electric plant” means a plant and property owned by an electric utility, used in its business operations of providing electric service to its customers. “Eligible customer-generator” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-306, Annotated Code of Maryland. Environmental surcharge means the charge in dollars and cents billed by an electric company under Public Utilities Article, §7-203, Annotated Code of Maryland. “Excess generation” means the amount of electricity produced by an eligible customer-generator that exceeds the electricity used by the eligible customer-generator in a monthly billing period. “Feeder” means an electric plant that emanates from a substation, serves customers, and is normally electrically isolated at all endpoints. “Global ETR” means a single estimated time for restoration for the entire service territory or the area of the service territory affected by the major outage event and should represent the time when at least 90 percent of all affected customers will have been restored. “Government emergency responder” means fire and police personnel and government employees who: Are working at the direction of fire, police, or 911 emergency dispatcher personnel to respond to an emergency; or Have been identified by fire, police, or 911 dispatcher personnel as responding to an emergency. “Hazard tree” means a structurally unsound tree or tree limb that could strike poles, substations, or energized overhead electric plant when it falls. “Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) major event day” means a day determined to be a major event day using the IEEE method of determining excludable data for calculation of reliability indices under IEEE Std 1366TM 2003. “Interruption duration” means the period of time, truncated or rounded to the nearest minute, during which a sustained interruption occurs. “Maintenance” means an inspection, diagnostics test, and or physical maintenance performed with the intent of assessing or predicting equipment failure before it occurs or improving equipment condition and thus preventing an equipment component or sub-component performance failure. “Major outage event” means an event when the following occurs: Before January 1, 2020: More than 10 percent or 100,000, whichever is less, of the electric utility’s Maryland customers experience a sustained interruption of electric service and restoration of electric service to any of these customers takes more than 24 hours; or The federal, State, or local government declares an official state of emergency in the utility’s service territory and the emergency involves interruption of electric service; or Beginning January 1, 2020: More than 10 percent or 100,000, whichever is less, of the electric utility’s Maryland customers experience a sustained interruption of electric service; and Restoration of electric service to any of these customers takes more than 24 hours. “Major outage event interruption data” means all electric customer interruption occurrence and duration information collected by the utility during a major outage event. “Mature tree” means a tree, whether or not previously pruned by the utility, that is well-established with a defined crown and that is at least 20 feet tall or 6 inches in diameter at breast height. Mature tree does not include a hazard tree. “Meter” means unless otherwise qualified, a device of the utility used in measuring watts, watt-hours, vars, var-hours, volt-amperes, or volt-ampere-hours. “Micro combined heat and power” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-306, Annotated Code of Maryland. “Momentary average interruption frequency index (MAIFIE)” means the ratio of the total number of customer momentary interruption events divided by the total number of customers served. Momentary Interruption. “Momentary interruption” means the loss of electric service of a duration limited to the time required to restore electric service by: Automatic or supervisory-controlled switching operations; or Manual switching at locations where an operator is immediately available. “Momentary interruption” does not include a loss of electric service which takes more than 5 minutes to restore. “Net energy metering” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-306, Annotated Code of Maryland. “Net Excess Generation” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-306, Annotated Code of Maryland. “Normal conditions” means conditions other than a major outage event. “Number of customer interruptions” means the number of customers without electric service during a sustained interruption. “Off right-of-way tree” means a tree or part of a tree where the utility does not typically perform routine tree trimming maintenance and may not have the rights to perform tree trimming to improve electric service reliability. “On right-of-way tree” means a tree or part of a tree where the utility typically performs routine tree trimming maintenance and may or may not have the rights to perform tree trimming to improve electric service reliability. “Operating district” means a distinct geographic area for which a cooperatively owned electric utility provides customer services from a decentralized office. Outside Assistance. “Outside assistance” means resources not routinely used by a utility for service restoration. “Outside assistance” does not include resources transferred among utility operating areas. “PJM” has the meaning stated in COMAR 20.52.01.02B. “Premises” means a tract of land or real estate, including buildings and other appurtenances on it. “Primary distribution system” means the alternating current distribution lines supplying the primaries of distribution transformers. “Protective devices” means substation breakers and reclosers, line reclosers, line sectionalizing equipment, and line fuses. “Resilience plan” means a plan or plans to prepare for and recover from pandemics, physical attacks, cyber attacks, electric supply shortages, weather events, significant infrastructure failures, and other credible disturbances with the potential to lead to large and widespread electric outages or loss of critical facilities essential for public health and safety. “Secondary distribution system” means the alternating current system which connects the secondaries of distribution transformers to the customers' services. “Sustained interruption” means the loss of electric service that is not classified as a momentary interruption. “System average interruption duration index (SAIDI)” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-213(a)(2), Annotated Code of Maryland. “System average interruption frequency index (SAIFI)” has the meaning stated in Public Utilities Article, §7-213(a)(3), Annotated Code of Maryland. “Test current” means the current marked on the nameplate of a watt-hour meter by the manufacturer (identified as “TA” on meters manufactured since 1960). This is the current in amperes which is used as the base for adjusting and determining the accuracy of a watt-hour meter at heavy and light loads. “Time-varying rate” means a base or commodity rate structure that includes more than one rate, each of which is applicable to a different time period during the billing cycle and excludes hourly priced rates for which the rate is derived from hourly energy costs from the PJM market. “Total number of customers served” means the number of customers provided with electric service by the distribution facility on the last day of the time period for which a reliability index is being calculated. “Utility” means an electric company as defined in Public Utilities Article, §1-101, Annotated Code of Maryland. ” Utility crew” means personnel and equipment routinely used by a utility for service restoration. “Voltage survey plan” means an electric company plan approved by the Commission governing the electric company’s contact voltage detection and testing equipment and voltage detection and testing procedures to be used when conducting contact voltage surveys. “Vulnerable individual” means a customer who is certified to the utility as having a serious illness or the need for life support pursuant to COMAR 20.31.03.01. “Zonal ETR” means the estimated time for restoration when at least 90 percent of all affected customers in the sub-area will have been restored to service. If an electric company itemizes the environmental surcharge on a customer's bill, the electric company shall bill the environmental surcharge to each customer as required by Public Utilities Article, §7-203, Annotated Code of Maryland. An electric company shall remit to the State Comptroller the amount equal to the environmental surcharge billed under §A of this regulation. When calculating the amount billed to a customer for the environmental surcharge in a billing period, an electric company shall follow the following rounding practices: If the amount calculated using the environmental surcharge rate and total kilowatt hour usage for the billing period results in an amount ending in $0.005 or greater, the amount shall be rounded up to the next whole cent; and If the amount calculated using the environmental surcharge rate and total kilowatt hour usage for the billing period results in an amount ending in less than $0.005, the amount shall be rounded down to the next whole cent. The Commission may waive a regulation in this subtitle for good cause shown. Public Utilities Article, §§2-113, 2-121, 5-101, 5-303, and 7-213, Annotated Code of Maryland Effective date: May 22, 1942 (Order No. 38330) Chapter revised effective May 18, 1960 (Order No. 54348) Chapter revised effective June 1, 1965 (Order No. 55819) Regulation .03 amended effective September 16, 2024 (51:18 Md. R. 810) Regulation .03B amended effective April 15, 2002 (29:7 Md. R. 622); July 2, 2007 (34:13 Md. R. 1152); September 21, 2009 (36:19 Md. R. 1438); November 28, 2011 (38:24 Md. R. 1503); February 20, 2012 (39:3 Md. R. 260); May 28, 2012 (39:10 Md. R. 661); December 2, 2019 (46:24 Md. R. 1104); August 21, 2023 (50:16 Md. R. 728); Regulation .04 adopted effective July 2, 2007 (34:13 Md. R. 1152) Regulation .05 adopted effective February 20, 2012 (39:3 Md. R. 260)