  |
          |
 | |
     |
|
|
Aggregator or Buying Group: Any marketer, broker, public agency, city, county or special district that combines the loads of multiple consumers in facilitating the sale and purchase of electric energy, transmission, and other services on behalf of these consumers.
Capacity: The amount of power available from a generation facility at any time to meet the electric demands of consumers, usually measured in kW (kilowatts) or kVA (kilovolt-amperes).
Basic Service: Electric energy service available from the local electric utility to distribution service customers who for any reason do not receive power from their chosen electric energy supplier or to new business customers before they choose.
Demand: The amount of power required by a consumer at any given time to meet the consumer’s electricity needs, usually measured in kW (kilowatts) or kVA kilowatt-amperes. (Note: Ten 100 watt light bulbs operating simultaneously constitute a demand for 1kW of electric power.) Commercial and industrial customers are often charged for a portion of their electric service in dollars per kW or dollars per kVA.
Distribution Service: The delivery of electric energy to consumers’ homes and businesses.
Electric Energy Brokers: Companies that act as middlemen in a marketplace in which electric power is priced, purchased, and traded. Brokers do not generate, purchase or sell electric energy but facilitate the transactions between electric energy buyers and sellers.
Energy Conservation: Reducing the amount of energy used. The term may also be referred to as energy efficiency.
Energy Suppliers: Companies that sell energy to consumers in a competitive market.
FERC: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the agency responsible for regulating the price, terms, and conditions of transactions in the U.S. wholesale electricity market, and any other interstate electricity issues. Intrastate electricity issues and retail electric transactions are regulated primarily by state public utility commissions.
Generation: The manufacture of electric energy at power plants which convert nuclear, fossil, hydro or other energy forms to electricity.
Grid: Industry jargon referring to the interconnected power lines that constitute the transmission/distribution networks of a region. In New England, the transmission grid is controlled and operated by ISO New England.
IOU: Investor-owned utilities are shareholder-owned, publicly traded corporations that are taxed like other private businesses but regulated strictly by both state and federal agencies. Historically, IOUs were granted monopolies via express government actions that simultaneously protected their service territory from competition while guaranteeing a reasonable opportunity to earn a profit commensurate with market and financial risks, and obligated them to provide service to all consumers on demand and at the lowest reasonable cost.
ISO: An independent system operator established to operate a transmission grid independent from all the owners of the transmission facilities to ensure open access by all parties to the grid on comparable terms.
kWh: Acronym for kilowatt hour, the most common unit of measure for electric energy consumption. (Note: operating ten 100 watt light bulbs for one hour consumes 1kWh of electric energy.) Consumers are charged for electric service in cents per kilowatt hour or ¢ per kWh.
Load: The aggregate amount of power demanded of the grid by electricity consumers at any given time which must be satisfied by the total operating capacity of generation companies.
Power Marketer: A company that buys and resells electric energy but does not own its own generating facilities.
Stranded Costs: The financial obligations incurred by an IOU in providing electric service to its customers that may become uneconomical as a result of restructuring and providing consumers with choice of electric energy service suppliers (e.g., investments in generation facilities or pre-established, long-term, contractual obligations for power supplies). Stranded costs are recovered through the transition charge.
Energy Service Charge (NH) or Standard Offer Service (MA):Electric energy service provided by the consumer’s local electric utility to those customers who do not wish to choose a competitive supplier.
Transmission Service: Movement of power and/or electric energy from its source to consumer areas on high voltage lines.
Unbundling: The process of separating electricity into components, and the separate pricing of each individual part. Traditionally, the services, such as generation, transmission and distribution, had been tied together and offered to customers as a single, bundled product.
Aggregator or Buying Group: Any marketer, broker, public agency, city, county or special district that combines the loads of multiple consumers in facilitating the sale and purchase of electric energy, transmission, and other services on behalf of these consumers.
Bundling: Providing a combination of products and services in a single package, with no consumer choice to accept less than the entire package.
Burnertip: The ultimate point where natural gas is used by the customer. The burnertip refers to the gas-fueled equipment used by the customer.
City Gate: Physical connection of an interstate pipeline and the pipes of local gas utilities.
Deregulation: The process of modifying or ending government control over how and at what price natural gas is sold.
Distribution System: The pipes and service equipment that carry or control the supply of natural gas from the point of local supply, or city gate, to the customer’s meter.
Firm Service: Sales and/or transportation service provided without interruption throughout the year. Uninterrupted seasonal services are also available for fewer than 365 days. Firm services are generally provided under filed rate tariffs.
Gas Marketer/Broker: A non-regulated, competitive buyer and seller of natural gas.
Gas Supply: Gas provided to customers by a distributor or marketer.
Local Distribution Company (LDC): A utility that owns and operates a natural gas distribution system for the delivery of gas supplies from interstate pipelines at the city gate to the customer.
Local Transportation Service: The transportation of natural gas from the city gate to the customer’s burnertip.
Merchant Function: The purchasing and reselling of natural gas.
Monopoly: Exclusive control of a commodity or service by a group.
Non-Firm Service: Sales and transportation service that is offered at both a lower cost and lower level of reliability. Under this service, gas companies can interrupt customers on short notice, typically during peak service days in the winter season. Non-firm services are provided through individually negotiated contracts and, in most cases, the price and availability charged takes into account the price of the customer’s alternative fuel.
Optional Rates: Tariff rates that are available to customers who are willing to accept certain limited or restricted delivery options, such as non-firm service.
Peak Service Days: Days in the winter months when demand for gas is at its highest level.
Performance-Based Regulation (PBR): A method for setting rates that provides the gas utility with added incentive to control costs, while ensuring optimal levels of service. Rates are determined by how well the company measures up to standards approved by the state regulators.
Pipeline: All physical equipment through which gas is moved in transportation, including pipes, valves and other attachments.
Tariff: A list of terms, conditions and rate information applied to various types of gas service, filed and approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the state regulators.
Therm: A unit of heating value equivalent to 100,000 British thermal units (BTUs).
Throughput: Total of transportation volumes and tariff sales; all gas volumes delivered.
Unbundling: The process of separating natural gas services into components, and the separate pricing of each individual part. Traditionally, numerous gas services, such as sales, local transportation and storage, had been tied together and offered to customers as a single, bundled product
Variable Costs: Costs that vary according to the volume of gas transported or purchased.
Wellhead: This is the point of origin in the gas supply process.
The term actually refers to the valves and controls of the well containing the reservoir of natural gas.