Electric and Gas
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
Last Revised: 11/21/05
Acronym / Definition/DescriptionAET / Annual Electric True-up – a late in the year regulatory process where PG&E will true-up the balances in many different balancing accounts
AMI / AdvancedMetering Infrastructure – PG&E’s system for reading electric and gas meters daily or more often, and electronically communicating reads automatically to the utility.
APD / Abnormal Peak Day -- an extremely cold day with about 1 in 90 year probability, used for planning core gas reliability (or Alternative Proposed Decision at the CPUC)
BPP / Balanced Payment Plan: System of establishing (and regularly adjusting) a “levelized” monthly payment amount for residential and some commercial customers
Balancing Account / Account established to track the costs and revenues associated with a specific category
BCAP / Biennial Cost Allocation Proceeding – the proceeding in which PG&E’s gas distribution costs (generally approved in a GRC) are allocated among customers.
BTU / British Thermal Unit (100,000 BTUs equals one therm)
CARE / California Alternate Rates for Energy – bill discounts for qualified low-income customers
Ccf / 100 cubic feetof natural gas, approximately equal to one therm.
CEC / California Energy Commission. Funding for the CEC derived through and billed as the Energy Commission Tax (ECT)
CGA / Cogeneration Gas Allowance (the volume of gas allowed for cogeneration per kilowatt-hour of net electricity generation)
COC / Cost of Capital
CPP / Critical Peak Pricing
CPUC / California Public Utilities Commission
CTC / Competition Transition Charge (also known as Ongoing CTC). The cost of over-market purchased power agreements signed prior to 12/20/95and a portion of electric industry restructuring implementation costs
DA / Direct Access – can refer to both gas and electric commodity procurement directly by a customer, through an ESP
DACRS / Direct Access Cost Responsibility Surcharge. Generation or generation-related costs the CPUC has determined (most) DA customers remain responsible for even though they procure their generation (commodity) from a third party
Dth / Decatherm (10 therms)
DWR / California Department of Water Resources
ECRA / Energy Cost Recovery Amount. Revenues that pay the principal, interest and other costs of the Energy Recovery Bonds (ERBs). The ERBs refinanced the previous “Regulatory Asset”
ESP / Energy Service Provider – third party energy supplier for DA customers – gas or electric
FERC / Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
FFS / Franchise Fee Surcharge: surcharge that PG&E is required to collect fromelectric DA customers to recover franchise fees that would otherwise be lost to cities and counties from PG&E’s reduction in revenues resulting from direct access. The gas equivalent is G-SUR
Gen / Generation-related costs of the electric commodity incurred by PG&E or DWR
GRC / General Rate Case: major regulatory proceeding for California utilitiesoccurring every three years. In Phase 1, the CPUC examines in depth the utility’s costs and operations as part of an overall process to establish the Company’s total revenue requirement to be collected in rates. Phase 2 determines the allocation of costs among customer groups as well as various rate design matters
kW / kilowatt;measure of electrical power (billed as “demand”)
kWh / kilowatt-hour; measure of electrical energy (billed as “usage”)
Load factor / Percentage expression of actual use divided by maximum potential use over time for a facility or piece of equipment
Mcf / 1,000 cubic feet– for natural gas, very roughly, one decatherm.
MDth / 1,000 decatherms (10,000 therms)
MMcf / 1,000,000 cubic feet
Mmbtu / 1,000,000 BTUs – 1 Dth
ND / Nuclear Decommissioning: rates required to fund site restoration when PG&E’s nuclear plants (DiabloCanyonand Humboldt Bay) are removed from service
Non-Gen / The components of rates or customer bills unrelated to producing, and buying power or acting as DWR’s agent
OIR / Order Instituting Rulemaking – CPUC proceeding which usually results in changes in CPUC policy
PGA / Purchased Gas Account (gas commodity balancing account)
PPA / Power Purchase Agreements – wholesale energy purchasing agreements
PPP / Public Purpose Programs: rates which fund state-mandated assistance programs for low income customers and for PG&E’s energy efficiencyprograms. For gas, now separately stated as Public Purpose Program Surcharge.
QF / Qualifying Facility: A power producer or cogenerator that meets certain guidelines and thereby qualifies to supply generation capacity and energy to electric utilities, which must purchase this power at prices approved by regulators
RD&D / Research Development and Demonstration – process of bringing new and emerging technology to the point of application
RRB / Rate Reduction Bond:
Bonds issued in 1997 to refinance a portion of residential CTCs equal to the forecasted 10% rate reduction
RRBMA / Rate Reduction Bond Memorandum Account:
a memorandum account which keeps track of certain benefits associated with the RRBs which will ultimately go to reduce residential/small commercial rates
RRQ / Revenue requirement: The amount of money a utility must collect from customers to pay operating and capital expenses, including a return on investment
SCE / Southern California Edison Company
Sempra / Holding company that owns SoCal Gas and SDG&E
SoCal Gas / Southern California Gas Company
SDG&E / San Diego Gas and Electric Company
Th / Therm: The metered unit of natural gas energy. 1Th equals 100,000 BTUs
TOU / Time-of-use: usually a rate schedule with prices which vary by time of day to correspond to utility costs to procure/produce power
TRA / Transition Revenue Account
TTA or (FTA) / Trust Transfer Amount (Fixed Transition Asset): charge assessed residential and small commercial customers to repay the RRBs
URG / Utility-retained generation – costs associated with PG&E’s remaining power plants
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