Energy Market Acronyms and Terms with Definitions

AMR Meter / Automated meter read meter – used for large commercial natural gas accounts to measure daily and inter-day usage
Ancillary Costs / PJM and other grid operators must match supply with demand at all times in order to avoid blackouts. Ancillary charges cover the cost of grid reliability and keeping supply and demand balanced across the transmission system.
ARR/FTR / Auction Revenue Rights/Financial Transmission Rights
ATC / Around-the-clock
Basis / The amount that natural gas suppliers charge for interstate pipeline costs (transportation) and supplier margin
Block Index / An electric purchase structure whereby a buyer/user purchases electricity at hourly rates and purchases wholesale fixed rate block purchases to stabilize portions of the electric price
Block Purchase / Amount of power purchased in MWs for a defined time of the day (on peak, off peak or RTC) and term length (1 month, summer period, 1 year, 2 years, etc.) at a fixed rate per MW. Block purchase of $60MW for 1MW RTC for 1 year is 1,000 kilowatts purchased at $.06kWh for each hour for one year.
Broker / Party that sells or arranges the sale of energy commodity and is directly compensated by an energy supplier
Capacity / Amount of electric generation available
CCF / One hundred cubic feet = 100CF
DAM / Day Ahead Market – Hourly electric prices set a day ahead of time, an alternative to buying on the real time hourly market.
Default Rate / See utility default rate
Distribution Cost / Local utility charges for delivering electricity or natural gas through the local distribution system – represents a portion of the total electric and/or gas bill.
DOE / Department of Energy
Deka therm
(dth) / Quantity of natural gas = 10 therms, unit quantity priced on NYMEX, NYMEX trades in 10,000 dth quantities
Electric Demand / Amount of electricity that flows to a customer meter at a point in time. Measured in Kilowatts (kw)
ELRP / Emergency Load Response Program
ERCOT / RTO that manages power grid in Texas
ESCO / Energy Service Company
Forward Market / Prices of energy today for delivery in the future – Prices available on futures exchanges such as NYMEX
Fuel Oil / Diesel fuel (undyed) used for heating
Full Requirements / Contract structure whereby supplier provides all usage requirements for a specific term at a fixed price
Hedge / Fixed rate commitment for future delivery of energy
Independent Consultant / Energy consultant who is objective and is compensated directly and solely by the end user and not the supplier
Interval Meter / Meter used to measure electric flow every 15 minutes. Usually required for large commercial electric accounts and for all standalone accounts for demand response and hourly priced contracts.
Kilowatt (kw) / One thousand watts – metric for measuring the electricity flow to a customer meter
Kilowatt Hour (kWh) / The amount of kilowatts used in one hour. If a customer uses 100kw an hour for two hours the total kilowatt hours for the two hour period would be 200 kWh
LMP / Local Marginal Price – PJM hourly energy price for a specific delivery zone within PJM
LNG / Lower Natural Gas
Low Sulphur Diesel / Fuel grade typically used for heating and over the road vehicles
LSE / Load Serving Entity – Entity qualified by PJM to provide electric supply to the PJM system
LSP / Licensed Service Provider – Energy service provider licensed with a state/region who provides access to wholesale energy market sand billing services for end users/buyers
MCF / Thousand cubic feet = 1MCF = 1Dth = 10 therms
MEA / Maryland Energy Administration
Mega Watts (MW) / Equal to 1000 kw – Quantity used to trade in wholesale markets
NERC / National Energy Regulatory Commission – Overseas the RTO’s around the country
NYISO / Organization that manages the power grid in New York City and State
NYMEX / New York Mercantile Exchange – An organization that provides markets and market clearing house for trading futures such as electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and other commodities
Off Peak / Per NERC definition – all times not covered by On Peak (see below)
On Peak / Per NERC definition – electricity consumed between 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. M-F excluding 6 FERC holidays
OPC / Office of People’s Counsel
PJM / Organization that manages the power grid in the mid-Atlantic region. Covers from Virginia to New Jersey to Illinois
PLC / Peak Load Contribution – Similar to demand, a measure of an electric account’s demand relative to the entire RTO demand during RTO peak load periods. An account’s PLC in PJM is determined by its demand during the 5 highest peak hours of the PJM system (each hour occurring on a different day)
PLC Predictor / Service provided by EnerNOC to predict peak load hours with PJM
PoLR / Provider of Last Resort – Electric supply rate charged by local electric utility for end users who do not contract with a supplier, used interchangeably with SOS and default rate
Portfolio Block Index / Electric procurement and risk management program developed by EnerNOC for aggregations/buying consortiums such as governments, schools, hospitals, etc.
PSC / Public Service Commission
Reverse Auction / Process where suppliers bid on full requirements fixed rate contracts through internet based auction process
RTC / Round the Clock – term used to describe 24 hours in a day time period that lock purchase are made
RTO / Regional Transmission Organization – Organization that manages a regional power grid – PJM, NYISO or ERCOT
SOS / Standard offer Service – see utility default rate
SRC / South River Consulting
Supplier / Licensed energy supplier who provides energy supply in deregulated markets
Supplier Margin / Amount of profit suppliers earn after hedge costs on fixed rate full requirement contracts
Supply Cost / Cost of energy commodity delivered to the local utility on a buyer’s behalf. For electricity, supply cost includes energy, UCAP, transmission, congestion, supplier margin and other related costs. For natural gas, supply cost includes commodity cost, transportation (interstate pipeline costs) and supplier margin.
Therm / Measure of quantity of natural gas – 1 therm = 100,000 BTU’s
Trans Cap / Transmission Capacity – Amount of transmission capacity (in KW or MW) that supplier has to purchase as a component of electric supply sold to end users
UBI / Utility Bill Information – a web based utility bill tracking and management tool offered by EnerNOC
UCAP / Unforced Capacity Obligation – Amount of generation capacity (in KW or MW) that supplier has to purchase as a component of electric supply sold to end users