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Coincident peak demand is the demand of a customer or group of customers at the time of the electric or gas system’s peak demand.
Combined heat and power, or CHP, is the concurrent production of useful thermal energy (heating and/or cooling) and electricity or mechanical po …
A highly efficient way to use gas to generate electricity is to combine a gas combustion turbine with a steam turbine in a power plant called a …
Gas and electric utility rate structures and regulatory rules typically classify commercial customers as a unique class. Commercial customers in …
A commodity is a product that is mass produced and unspecialized, and as such it is easily interchangeable with a similar product from another s …
Consumers or other affected parties can file a complaint with the relevant regulatory authority if they believe that a utility or other regulate …
Complete retail competition electric market model
Under complete retail competition the utility has been completely removed from the supply function and is simply a transporter of electricity th …
Concentrated solar power (CSP)
Concentrated solar power or CSP technology concentrates sunlight to create heat, and then it uses the heat to create mechanical power.
From a scientific standpoint, a conductor is any material that allows electrons to move easily from one atom to another, thereby facilitating el …
Transmission congestion occurs when there is insufficient transmission capacity to simultaneously accommodate all requests for transmission ser …
Construction work in progress (CWIP)
Construction work in progress, commonly called CWIP, is a balance sheet account in which all costs associated with the construction of new utili …
A contingency is an unexpected failure or outage of a system component such as generator, transmission line, circuit breaker, or other electrica …
The first step in the utility ratemaking process is to determine the utility’s authorized rate of return or its cost of capital. This is set b …
Cost-of-service ratemaking sets rates based on forecasted costs of providing service plus a “reasonable” rate of return on the equity invest …
A current transformer (CT) is used to reduce the current or voltage of an electric circuit so that the electric flow can be cost-effectively mea …
A customer charge (also called a service charge or facility charge) is a fixed monthly charge that is applied to each utility account.
End users of gas or electricity traditionally have been categorized according to the rate class they were placed in by their local utility. Comm …
Day-ahead energy refers to electricity scheduled in the day prior to the actual day of flow.