Commercial EnergyGlossary

The local network of lower-voltage lines that delivers energy to your building.

The high-voltage network that moves electricity long distances across a region.

The maximum amount of power the grid must be able to generate to meet peak demand.

The portion of your bill that pays for generation kept on standby to meet peak demand.

The rate at which your facility draws electricity at a given moment, measured in kilowatts (kW).

Charges based on your highest sustained power draw during a billing period.

A ratio showing how steadily you use electricity relative to your peak demand.

The single highest interval of power draw recorded during a period.

The regulated company that owns the wires/pipes and delivers energy to your facility.

The competitive company that sells you the energy commodity in a deregulated market.

Market structure that lets customers choose their energy supplier.

A unit of natural gas energy equal to 100,000 BTU, used for commercial gas billing.

The cost of the actual energy you consume — the competitive part of your bill.

The regulated cost of transporting energy to your facility.

A contract that locks your commodity rate for the full term.

A contract where your rate floats with a wholesale market index.

A blended structure that fixes part of your load and floats the rest.

Systems that store electricity for later use, supporting grid reliability.

A localized energy system that can operate connected to or independent of the grid.

Tradable certificates representing the environmental attributes of renewable generation.

A unit of power equal to 1,000 watts — a measure of rate, not total energy.

The standard unit of electrical energy — using 1 kW for one hour.

A unit of power equal to 1,000 kilowatts, used for large loads and generation.