1. ARESEP: Regulatory Authority for Public Services, created by Law Nº 7593 published in "La Gaceta" Nº 169 of September 5, 1996.
2. Self-producer (Autoproductor): Physical or legal person, holder or possessor by any legitimate title, of an electrical energy generation plant, whose production is destined for their own consumption at a single site.
3. Transformation Center (Centro de Transformación): Installations in which primary or secondary energy is subjected to processes that modify its original properties or nature, to transform it into end-use energy.
4. Assignment (Cesión): Is the transfer of a concession from its holder to another.
5. Final Customer (Cliente Final): Physical or legal person consumer or user of the public electricity service.
6. Public Service Concession (Concesión de Servicio Público): Is the administrative act by which the provision of the public service of electricity supply is authorized, in the stages of generation and distribution and commercialization for a determined term.
7. Final Consumption (Consumo Final): Is all the electrical energy supplied to the consumption sectors.
8. Interconnection Contract (Contrato de Interconexión): Agreement of wills signed between ICE, a concessionaire of the distribution and commercialization service and any public service concessionaire, that establishes the conditions for linking to the National Interconnected System, (Sistema Nacional Interconectado, SNI), approved by the ARESEP.
9. Distribution and commercialization (Distribución y comercialización): Activity whose object is the transport of electricity through the infrastructure built specifically to distribute and commercialize electrical energy, as well as its sale to final customers, which includes metering, reading, billing, collection for delivered energy and other activities related to serving all final customers in a sector or region, whether industrial, general or residential; as well as the public lighting service.
10. Distributor (Distribuidor): Physical or legal person, holder of a public service concession for distribution and commercialization of electrical energy.
11. Primary Energy (Energía Primaria): Energy sources such as they are obtained from nature, either directly as in the case of hydraulic or solar energy, or after an extraction process like oil, mineral coal or geothermal energy.
12. Secondary Energy (Energía Secundaria): Energy products that come from different transformation centers after undergoing a physical or biochemical process, whose destination is the different consumption sectors or another transformation center.
13. EsIA: Environmental Impact Study approved by SETENA.
14. Potential Electric Market Study (Estudio de Mercado Eléctrico Potencial): Quantification in kWh and kW of the needs for electrical energy by the different socioeconomic sectors, in a specific area of the national territory, during the next 5 years.
15. Environmental Impact Assessment (Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental, EIA): Process of analysis of the effects of a project defined in the Regulation on Procedures of SETENA.
16. Conventional Energy Sources (Fuentes Convencionales de Energía): The derivatives of petroleum, natural gas, mineral coal, nuclear materials and water used for electricity generation, on a commercial scale.
17. Non-Renewable Energy Sources (Fuentes de Energía no Renovables): Coal, petroleum and derivatives, and natural gas, used for electricity generation.
18. Non-Conventional Energy Sources (Fuentes no Convencionales de Energía): Renewable resources used for the production of electrical energy and that are not included in the previous category.
19. Primary Energy Source (Fuente Primaria de Energía): That which is obtained from nature, either directly, such as hydraulic or solar energy, or after an extraction process like petroleum, mineral coal or geothermal energy..
20. Renewable Energy Sources (Fuentes Renovables de Energía): The hydraulic, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar resources, used for electricity generation 21. Secondary Energy Source (Fuente Secundaria de Energía): Energy products that come from different transformation centers after undergoing a physical or biochemical process, whose destination is the different consumption sectors and other transformation centers.
22. ICE: Costa Rican Institute of Electricity 23. IGN: National Geographic Institute 24. Electrical Energy Generation (Generación de Energía Eléctrica): Is the process involving the construction, installation, operation and maintenance of electricity production plants, their respective connection lines to transmission or distribution networks and transformation equipment of the S.N.I., for the purpose of producing and selling bulk energy to the distributor.
25. MINAE: Ministry of Environment and Energy.
26. Integrated Operation (Operación Integrada): Service having the object of meeting, at every moment, the demand of the National Electric System, reliably, safely and with quality, through the optimal use of the available generation, transmission and distribution resources.
27. Electric Plants or Stations (Plantas o Centrales Eléctricas): Transformation centers that use any energy source to produce electrical energy.
28. Toll (Peaje): Rate set by the ARESEP to cover the costs of interconnection and transport of electrical energy through the transmission or distribution networks of the SNI.
29. Producer (Productor): Physical or legal person who legitimately owns and operates one or more electric stations for the generation of electrical energy.
30. Energy Resource (Recurso Energético): Primary or secondary energy source used for the production of electrical energy.
31. SETENA: National Environmental Technical Secretariat.
32. Isolated System (Sistema Aislado): Electrical system not connected to the SNI.
33. National Electric System (Sistema Eléctrico Nacional, SEN): Set of electricity generation stations in the national territory, transmission networks, transformer substations and transmission and distribution networks, and the electrical loads of users, which make up the National Interconnected System and isolated systems, established in the national territory, intended for public service, or international transfers of electrical energy.
34. National Interconnected System (Sistema Nacional Interconectado, SNI): Set of generating stations, transmission lines, transformer substations and distribution lines, interconnected with each other, which allows the transfer of electrical energy between various points, or international exchanges.
35. Transmission (Transmisión): Activity whose object is the transport of electrical energy at high voltage and the transformation linked to it, from the delivery point of said electricity, to the receipt point.
36. User (Usuario): Physical or legal person consumer of the electrical energy supplied by an authorized provider of the public electricity supply service.
37. Distributed generation for self-consumption (Generación distribuida para autoconsumo): the alternative for subscribers to generate electricity through renewable sources for the purpose of meeting their needs, operating in parallel with the electrical distribution network, under the concept of energy deposit and return.
(Thus added the previous subsection by Article 47 of the Regulation for distributed generation for self-consumption with renewable sources, simple net metering contracting model, approved by executive decree N° 39220 of September 14, 2015)