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D.C. Municipal Regulations (Last Updated: September 13, 2017) |
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Title 15. PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CABLE TELEVISION |
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Chapter 15-36. ELECTRICITY QUALITY OF SERVICE STANDARDS |
Section 15-3699. DEFINITIONS
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3699.1When used in this chapter, the following terms and phrases shall have the meaning ascribed:
Abandoned Calls - a call received from a customer that a customer terminates after the customer selects the menu option and is placed in the queue, but before the call is answered by the utility customer representative or any other automated response system.
Call Abandonment Rate - the annual number of calls to the utility's call center or business office that were abandoned, divided by the total number of calls that the company received.
Call Answering - a process whereby a utility representative, voice response unit, or other automated operator system is ready to render assistance or ready to accept information necessary to process a customer's call. An acknowledgement that the customer is waiting on the line does not constitute an answer.
Composite Performance Index (CPI) - a measure of feeder performance that combines, in a single number, four measures of distribution feeder performance: (1) number of interruptions, (2) number of customer hours of interruption, (3) system average frequency of interruption, and (4) system average interruption duration.
Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) - a performance index that measures the average time required to restore service to the average customer experiencing a sustained interruption per sustained interruption. The measure is calculated by dividing the sum of all customer interruption durations (converted into hours) by the total number of customer sustained interruptions.
Electric Utility (or Utility) - the company that provides electric distribution service and is regulated by the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia.
Electricity Supplier - a person, including an aggregator, broker, or marketer, who generates electricity; sells electricity; or purchases, brokers, arranges or, markets electricity for sale to customers. The term excludes the following: (A) building owners, lessees, or managers who manage the internal distribution system serving such building and who supply electricity solely to occupants of the building for use by the occupants; (13)(I) any person who purchases electricity for its own use or for the use of its subsidiaries or affiliates; or (II) any apartment building or office building manager who aggregates electric service requirements for his or her building(s), and who does not: (i) take title to the electricity; (ii) market electric services to the individually-metered tenants of the building; or (iii) engage in the resale of electric services to others; (C) property owners who supply small amounts of power, at cost as an accommodation to lessors or licensees of the property; and (D) a consolidator.
Interruption duration - the period of time, truncated or rounded to the nearest minute, during which a sustained interruption occurs.
Major service outages - customer interruption occurrences and durations during time periods when 10,000 or more of the electric utility's District of Columbia customers are without service and the restoration effort due to this major service outage takes more than twenty-four (24) hours.
Manhole fire - incident in which flame is visible at holes in the manhole cover or around the cover's edge and the cover remains seated in its frame.
Manhole explosion - incident in which a release of energy from the manhole occurs and one or more manhole covers are dislodged from their respective frames, or other debris, such as cement or dirt, is projected into the air.
Momentary interruption - loss of electric service of a duration limited to the time required to restore electric service by automatic and supervisory-controlled switching operation or by manual switching at a location where an operator is immediately available. If the automatic, supervisory-controlled or manual switching is not completed within five (5) minutes of the initial loss of service, the interruption is considered a sustained interruption.
Non-major service outages - customer service outages caused by the failure of devices such as breakers, fuses, feeder lines, substation equipment, etc., lasting over eight (8) hours, regardless of how many customers are affected; or customer service outages affecting over 100 but less than 10,000 customers, regardless of duration.
Outside assistance - resources not routinely used by a utility for service restoration. Resources transferred among utility operating areas are not considered outside assistance.
Power quality - the characteristics of electric power received by the customer, with the exception of sustained interruptions and momentary event interruptions. Characteristics of electric power that detract from its quality include waveform irregularities and voltage variations, either prolonged or transient.
Smoking manhole - a manhole incident in which smoke, but no visible flame, is escaping from holes in the cover or around the cover's edge.
Sustained interruption - loss of electric service not classified as a momentary interruption.
System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) - a performance index that measures the average time customers are interrupted and is calculated by dividing the sum of all customer interruption durations (converted into hours) by the total number of customers served.
System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) - a performance index that measures the average frequency of interruptions per customer and is calculated by dividing the total number of customer sustained interruptions by the total number of customers served.
Telephone service factor - the percentage of calls answered within a specified amount of time. For example, if the service level time is set at thirty (30) seconds and 70 percent of calls are answered in less than 30 seconds, then the telephone service factor is 70.