Definitions for KRS 278.010 to 278.450, 278.541 to 278.544, 278.546 to 278.5462, and 278.990
KRS 278.010
in effect278.010. Definitions for KRS 278.010 to 278.450, 278.541 to 278.544, 278.546 to 278.5462, and 278.990
As used in KRS 278.010 to 278.450, 278.541 to 278.544, 278.546 to 278.5462, and 278.990, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "Corporation" includes private, quasipublic, and public corporations, and all boards, agencies, and instrumentalities thereof, associations, joint-stock companies, and business trusts;
(2) "Person" includes natural persons, partnerships, corporations, and two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest;
(3) "Utility" means any person except a regional wastewater commission established pursuant to KRS 65.8905 and, for purposes of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), and (f) of this subsection, a city or a municipal interlocal gas utility, who owns, controls, operates, or manages any facility used or to be used for or in connection with:
(a) The generation, production, transmission, or distribution of electricity to or for the public, for compensation, for lights, heat, power, or other uses;
(b) The production, manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, or furnishing of natural or manufactured gas, or a mixture of same, to or for the public, for compensation, for light, heat, power, or other uses;
(c) The transporting or conveying of gas, crude oil, or other fluid substance by pipeline to or for the public, for compensation;
(d) The diverting, developing, pumping, impounding, distributing, or furnishing of water to or for the public, for compensation;
(e) The transmission or conveyance over wire, in air, or otherwise, of any message by telephone or telegraph for the public, for compensation; or
(f) The collection, transmission, or treatment of sewage for the public, for compensation, if the facility is a subdivision collection, transmission, or treatment facility plant that is affixed to real property and is located in a county containing a city of the first class or is a sewage collection, transmission, or treatment facility that is affixed to real property, that is located in any other county, and that is not subject to regulation by a metropolitan sewer district or any sanitation district created p ursuant to KRS Chapter 220;
(4) "Retail electric supplier" means any person, firm, corporation, association, or cooperative corporation, excluding municipal corporations, engaged in the furnishing of retail electric service;
(5) "Certified territory" shall mean the areas as certified by and pursuant to KRS 278.017;
(6) "Existing distribution line" shall mean an electric line which on June 16, 1972, is being or has been substantially used to supply retail electric service and includes all lines from the distribution substation to the electric consuming facility but does not include any transmission facilities used primarily to transfer energy in bulk;
(7) "Retail electric service" means electric service furnished to a consumer for ultimate consumption, but does not include wholesale electric energy furnished by an electric supplier to another electric supplier for resale;
(8) "Electric-consuming facilities" means everything that utilizes electric energy from a central station source;
(9) "Generation and transmission cooperative" or "G&T" means a utility formed under KRS Chapter 279 that provides electric generation and transmission services;
(10) "Distribution cooperative" means a utility formed under KRS Chapter 279 that provides retail electric service;
(11) "Facility" includes all property, means, and instrumentalities owned, operated, leased, licensed, used, furnished, or supplied for, by, or in connection with the business of any utility;
(12) "Rate" means any individual or joint fare, toll, charge, rental, or other compensation for service rendered or to be rendered by any utility, and any rule, regulation, practice, act, requirement, or privilege in any way relating to such fare, toll, charge, rental, or other compensation, and any schedule or tariff or part of a schedule or tariff thereof;
(13) "Service" includes any practice or requirement in any way relating to the service of any utility, including the voltage of electricity, the heat units and pressure of gas, the purity, pressure, and quantity of water, and in general the quality, quantity, and pressure of any commodity or product used or to be used for or in connection with the business of any utility, but does not include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service;
(14) "Adequate service" means having sufficient capacity to meet the maximum estimated requirements of the customer to be served during the year following the commencement of permanent service and to meet the maximum estimated requirements of other actual customers to be supplied from the same lines or facilities during such year and to assure such customers of reasonable continuity of service;
(15) "Commission" means the Public Service Commission of Kentucky;
(16) "Commissioner" means one (1) of the members of the commission;
(17) "Demand-side management" means any conservation, load management, or other utility activity intended to influence the level or pattern of customer usage or demand, including home energy assistance programs;
(18) "Affiliate" means a person that controls or that is controlled by, or is under common control with, a utility;
(19) "Control" means the power to direct the management or policies of a person through ownership, by contract, or otherwise;
(20) "CAM" means a cost allocation manual which is an indexed compilation and documentation of a company's cost allocation policies and related procedures;
(21) "Nonregulated activity" means the provision of competitive retail gas or electric services or other products or services over which the commission exerts no regulatory authority;
(22) "Nonregulated" means that which is not subject to regulation by the commission;
(23) "Regulated activity" means a service provided by a utility or other person, the rates and charges of which are regulated by the commission;
(24) "USoA" means uniform system of accounts which is a system of accounts for public utilities established by the FERC and adopted by the commission;
(25) "Arm's length" means the standard of conduct under which unrelated parties, each party acting in its own best interest, would negotiate and carry out a particular transaction;
(26) "Subsidize" means the recovery of costs or the transfer of value from one (1) class of customer, activity, or business unit that is attributable to another;
(27) "Solicit" means to engage in or offer for sale a good or service, either directly or indirectly and irrespective of place or audience;
(28) "USDA" means the United States Department of Agriculture;
(29) "FERC" means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
(30) "SEC" means the Securities and Exchange Commission;
(31) "Commercial mobile radio services" has the same meaning as in 47 C.F.R. sec. 20.3 and includes the term "wireless" and service provided by any wireless real time two
(2) way voice communication device, including radio-telephone communications used in cellular telephone service, personal communications service, and the functional or competitive equivalent of a radio-telephone communications line used in cellular telephone service, a personal communications service, or a network radio access line;
(32) "Voice over Internet Protocol" or "VoIP" has the same meaning as in federal law; and
(33) "Municipal interlocal gas utility" has the same meaning as in KRS 65.230.
Effective: July 15, 2026
History: Amended 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 161, sec. 120, effective July 15, 2026. -- Amended 2011 Ky. Acts ch. 98, sec. 20, effective June 8, 2011. -- Amended 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 239, sec. 5, effective July 12, 2006. -- Amended 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 109, sec. 2, effective June 20, 2005. -- Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 365, sec. 15, effective April 24 2002. -- Amended 2001 Ky. Acts ch. 11, sec. 1, effective June 21, 2001. -- Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 101, sec. 5, effective July 14, 2000; ch. 118, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2000; and ch. 511, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2000. -- Amended 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 188, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1998. -- Amended 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 238, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1994. -- Amended 1982 Ky. Acts ch. 82, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1982. -- Amended 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 379, sec. 1, effective April 1, 1979. -- Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 118, sec. 1. -- Amended 1972 Ky . Acts ch. 83, sec. 1. -- Amended 1964 Ky. Acts ch. 195, sec. 1. -- Amended 1960 Ky. Acts ch. 209, sec. 1. -- Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat. sec. 3952 -1.
Source: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (legislature.ky.gov)URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57960Fetched: 10/20/2026