Aggregator
A person or group that combines multiple retail customers or single customers with multiple sites into one or more buying groups. A broker or aggregator can perform this function and then negotiate a service contract with an AES on behalf of an aggregated customer group.
Alternative Electric Supplier (AES)
The name given to certain competitive suppliers of retail electric services.
Billing Cycle
The period of days in which a utility or supplier totals customer energy use and generates the customer’s bill. The most common billing cycle is 30 days.
Broker
An agent or intermediary that arranges for the purchase and sale of electricity, transmission, and other services between buyers and sellers.
Bundled Service
A service in which customers are billed for electric generation, transmission, distribution, and related support functions as a combined service.
Capacity
A measure of the quantity of instantaneous energy use. The term is applied to the amount of electric power delivered or required for which a generator, turbine, transformer, transmission circuit, station, or system is rated by the manufacturer. See also Demand and Load.
Capacity Charge
An element in a two-part pricing method used in capacity transactions. The capacity charge, sometimes called “demand charge” or “system use charge,” is assessed on the maximum or peak amount of electricity used. Often, the charge is based on the maximum amount of electricity used at any time in the previous 12 months.
Cramming
Adding services and charges to a customer’s bill without the customer’s knowledge or consent.
Customer Charge
A recurring charge for the basic administrative activities associated with a utility maintaining a customer account. Typically, these activities include billing, metering, and meter reading.
Customer Choice
The opportunity for retail customers of a public utility to select from among competing suppliers of electric, gas, and associated services. Delivery of electricity will continue to be performed by the local utility regardless of the customers selection of AES.
Demand
The amount of power required to meet the customer's load at a given instant or averaged over any designated interval of time.
Demand Charge
(see Capacity Charge)
Distributed Generation (DG)
Any small scale electric generation that is located at or near the point of end use. It may be owned and operated by a customer, a utility, or a non-utility company.
Distribution
The delivery of electricity to a retail customer’s home or business through distribution lines and wires.
Distribution Charge
A charge for delivering electricity from a customer’s chosen supplier to their residence or business, and may include a customer charge, demand charge, or energy charge.
Distribution Company
A regulated utility company that is responsible for maintaining and operating a distribution system. This type of company may also be called a “local distribution company (LDC).”
Electric Meter
A device that measures the amount of electricity a customer uses.
Electric Utility
A person, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity who distributes electricity.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
The U.S. government agency that regulates the price, terms, and conditions of transmission services and wholesale sales of electricity. For example, FERC sets and enforces the wholesale electric rates that investor-owned utility generators charge their wholesale customers.
Generation
The process of producing electricity by converting other forms of energy into electricity.
Investor-Owned Utility (IOU)
A stockholder-owned utility company that provides public utility services to retail customers for a profit.
Kilowatt (kW)
Equals one thousand watts; a standard measure of demand for power or capacity.
Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
The standard unit of measurement for electricity.
Load
This is the general term used for any end-use device or group of devices drawing energy from the electric system.
Load Profile
An allocation of electricity usage over a period of time. A load profile may be used to estimate electric supply requirements and determine the cost of service to a customer.
Megawatt (MW)
Equals one thousand kilowatts, or one million watts.
Megawatt-hour (MWh)
Equals one thousand kilowatts supplied for a period of one hour.
Minimum Charge
The total of all the payments a customer will owe for electric services, regardless of how much electricity the customer uses during a billing period. Generally, it is the total of all customer service charges, demand charges, and any other fees that are assessed regardless of the amount of energy used during any one billing period.
Municipal Utility
A provider of utility services owned and operated by a city government.
Provider of Last Resort
A legal obligation, traditionally assigned to utilities, to provide service to any customer who requests it at any time.
Renewable Energy Resource
A source of electricity generated from solar, wind, biomass, small hydroelectric facilities, and other resources that can be naturally replenished.
Restructuring
The process of changing regulations to permit the price of electric generation to be determined in competitive markets. Restructuring allows customers to purchase electricity from an AES and pay their local distribution company to deliver the electric power to their home or business. The delivery or distribution charge is regulated by the PUC. To facilitate competition, utility costs are separated into categories such as generation, transmission, distribution, and customer services.
Slamming
The unauthorized switching of a customer’s account to another utility or AES without the customer's consent.
Supplier
Any person or company that sells electric generation and/or distribution services to retail customers. The term "supplier" may include an aggregator, an AES, a broker, a distribution company, an electric utility, a municipal utility, a retailer, or a rural electric cooperative.
Transition Charge
A fee paid by customers to their local distribution company when they elect to purchase generation services from an AES. It allows the utility to recover stranded costs and implementation costs. Stranded costs are utility charges that were to be recovered over time through regulated rates that would not otherwise be collected from customers that buy their generation services from an AES.
Transmission
The bulk transport of high-voltage power, typically over long distances, between generation plants and distribution systems.
