"Account and usage information" means customer information contained in the records a utility keeps for each customer to provide and bill for utility service including, but not limited to, the customer's name, account number, address where service is provided, customer contact information, services the utility is providing or has provided to the customer, energy usage, customer financial information, bills the utility has issued, payment history, and medical or low-income status.

"Affiliated interest" means a person or corporation as defined in RCW 80.16.010.

"Aggregate data" means any collection of customer data by a utility from which identifiable customer information has been removed or modified so that the information cannot be attributed to any individual customer.

"Applicant" means any person, corporation, partnership, government agency, or other entity that applies, or is named in an application as a person having joint responsibility, for service with a gas utility or who reapplies for service at a new or existing location after service has been disconnected if the utility requires the person to reapply for service.

"British thermal unit" (Btu) means the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water at 60° Fahrenheit and standard pressure, one degree Fahrenheit.

"Business day" means Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., except for official state holidays.

"Commission" means the Washington utilities and transportation commission.

"Control" means the possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a company, whether through the ownership of voting shares, by contract, or otherwise.

"Cubic foot of gas" means a volumetric unit of measure used in sales and testing.

"Customer" means any person, corporation, partnership, government agency, or other entity that applied, or is named as a person having joint responsibility, for service and that has been accepted for, and is currently receiving or is entitled to receive such service. "Customer" for purposes of this chapter may also include a person or other entity whose service has been involuntarily disconnected and that person or entity then seeks to have the utility reconnect service.

"Customer information" means private customer information and proprietary customer information as defined in RCW 19.29A.010 and personal information as defined in chapter 19.255 RCW.

"Gas" means any fuel or process gas, whether liquid petroleum gas, manufactured gas, natural gas, or any mixture of these.

"Gas utility (utility)" means any business entity (e.g., corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or partnership) or person, including a lessee, trustee, or court appointed receiver, that is subject to the commission's jurisdiction and that owns, controls, operates, or manages any gas plant in Washington and manufactures, transmits, distributes, sells, or furnishes gas to the public for compensation.

"Liquefied petroleum gas" means a gas consisting of vapors of one or more of the paraffin hydrocarbons, or a combination of one or more of these vapors with air.

"Manufactured gas" means any gas produced artificially by any process.

"Natural gas" means a mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons (chiefly methane) and nonhydrocarbons that occur naturally in the earth.

"Primary purpose" means a business need to provide regulated utility services as required by state or federal law, or as specifically authorized in the utility's effective tariff or by the commission.

"Sales volume" means a cubic foot of gas for billing purposes is the amount of gas that occupies a volume of one cubic foot under the temperature and pressure conditions existing in the customer's meter. Temperature and/or pressure recording or compensating devices may be used to reflect temperature or pressure base conditions for computing the volume sold. Temperature and/or pressure compensation factors may be used to compute the volume of gas sold as provided in the utility's tariff.

"Subsidiary" means any company in which the gas utility owns directly or indirectly five percent or more of the voting securities, unless the utility demonstrates it does not have control.

"Testing volume" means a cubic foot of gas for testing purposes is the amount that occupies a volume of one cubic foot at a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit and pressure of 14.73 pounds per square inch absolute.

"Therm" means a unit of heat equal to 100,000 Btus.

"Written consent" means permission or authorization in writing, whether electronic or paper.

Other terms. Terms used in this chapter and defined in the public service laws of Washington state (i.e., principally Title 80 RCW) have the same meaning here as in the statutes. Terms not defined in these rules or the applicable statutes have the meaning generally accepted in the gas industry, or their ordinary meaning if there is no meaning generally accepted in the gas industry.