3. Understanding Organized Electricity Markets and Efficiency

Question 1

Peak load

Answer 1

The demand (load) of the electricity system at its near maximum

Question 2

Intermediate load

Answer 2

The portion of the load that predictably rises from the low to high point

Question 3

Base load

Answer 3

The portion of the load that is constantly being demanded

Question 4

Generation

Answer 4

Process of generating electric power from primary energy sources. Fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday

Question 5

Transmission

Answer 5

Initial mass transport of the produced electricity to the region where the load is

Question 6

Distribution

Answer 6

Final stage of power delivery where individual buildings are connected to the grid

Question 7

Stranded Costs

Answer 7

cost of investments made previously that may have become redundant over time

Question 8

Control Area

Answer 8

An electric power system or combination of electric power systems to which a common automatic control scheme is applied in order to

Question 9

IOUs

Answer 9

An investor-owned utility or IOU is a business organization, providing a product or service regarded as a utility (often termed a public utility regardless of ownership), and managed as private enterprise rather than a function of government or a utility cooperative

Question 10

RTOs

Answer 10

regional transmission organizations, responsible for transmission & distribution

Question 11

Reliability

Answer 11

The likelihood that the asset will be in service when needed.

Question 12

Intermittency

Answer 12

a particular type of resource availability risk relating to kinetic energies such as those from wind, sun, and wave sources.

Question 13

Dispatchability

Answer 13

The utility’s ability to dispatch generators to meet the load

Question 14

Resilience

Answer 14

The ability of the grid to withstand external effects without breaking down, including, but not limited to, external shocks.

Question 15

FERC

Answer 15

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – oversees wholesale generation, power and transmission

Question 16

Hardening

Answer 16

Increasing the resilience of the grid. For example storm/weather hardening to protect from weather related outages, including physical hardening of key components - flood walls around transistors - or in general increase physical resilience of the transmission & distribution assets.

Question 17

ISO

Answer 17

Independent System Operator: An independent organization that handles transmission and distribution assets, usually formed by regulations that break up larger utility monopolies

Question 18

Load-following

Answer 18

generators that supply the increasing intermediate load

Question 19

Operating reserves

Answer 19

Generating capacity available to the system operator within a short interval of time to meet demand in case a generator goes down or there is another disruption to the supply.

Question 20

PUC

Answer 20

public utilities commission: a governing body that regulates the rates and services of a public utility

Question 21

Reserve margin

Answer 21

A measure of available capacity over and above the capacity needed to meet normal peak demand levels

Question 22

Spinning reserves

Answer 22

generation assets that are required to be available and deployed in synchronization to replace any unexpectedly lost generation

Question 23

Vertically integrated

Answer 23

utilities that incorporate generation, transmission, and distribution systems

Question 24

Smart Grid

Answer 24

an “intelligent” grid system designed to automate and self-regulate

Question 25

Natural Monopoly

Answer 25

Also referred to as declining cost industries - where the long term average cost to deliver goods or services is perpetually declining for a single firm and therefore the lowest cost can only occur when one firm is the provider of the good or service

Question 26

Coal by Wire

Answer 26

Coal by wire refers to electric energy originally sourced from a coal power plant

Question 27

PUHCA

Answer 27

Public Utility Holding Company Act 1935 – law passed to facilitate regulation of electric utilities, by either limiting their operations to a single state, and thus subjecting them to effective state regulation, or forcing divestitures so that each became a single integrated system serving a limited geographic area

Question 28

PURPA

Answer 28

Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978 which required utilities to buy electricity and capacity from IPPs who met the test of being a qualified facility

Question 29

Deregulation

Answer 29

Process to change the structures of regulated utilities. It means to move away from the regulated utility model and to allow for the market-setting of some components of rates in electricity bills, rather than through a regulatory process

Question 30

NERC

Answer 30

North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit sanctioned by FERC to ensure Bulk Power System reliability, which includes all of the generators and delivery systems of wholesale electric power. Establishes guidelines & enforces standards prescribed by law on all utility operators

Question 31

POU

Answer 31

Publicly owned utilities are utilities owned by state or municipal government agencies

Question 32

Scheduling

Answer 32

Understanding/planning the generation sources to meet the anticipated load changes and variation patterns.