Glossary of Terms - C

• Calendar Spread - An options position comprised of the purchase and sale of two options contracts of the same type that have the same strike prices but different expiration dates. Also known as a horizontal, or time spread.
• Call Option - An option that gives the buyer (holder) the right, but not the obligation, to buy a futures contract (enter into a long futures position) for a specified price within a specified period of time in exchange for a one-time premium payment. It obligates the seller (writer) of an option to sell the underlying futures contract (enter into a short futures position) at the designated price, should the option be exercised at that price.
• Calorie - The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit of water, at or near the temperature of maximum density, one degree Celsius (or Centigrade [C]); expressed as a "small calorie" (the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water one degree C), or as a "large calorie" or "kilogram calorie" (the amount of heat required to raise one kilogram [1,000 grams] of water one degree C); capitalization of the word calorie indicates a kilogram-calorie.
• Calorific Value - The heat liberated by the combustion of a unit quantity of a fuel under specific conditions; measured in calories.
• Cap - A supply contract between a buyer and a seller, whereby the buyer is assured that he will not have to pay more than a given maximum price. This type of contract is analogous to a call option.
• Capability - The maximum load that a generating unit, power plant, or other electrical apparatus can carry under specified conditions for a given period of time, without exceeding its approved limits of temperature and stress.
• Capability Margin - The difference between net electrical system capability and system maximum load requirements (peak load); the margin of capability available to provide for scheduled maintenance, emergency outages, system operating requirements and unforeseen loads.
• Capacitance - A measure of the electrical charge of a capacitor consisting of two plates separated by an insulating material.
• Capacitor - This is a device that helps improve the efficiency of the flow of electricity through distribution lines by reducing energy losses. It is installed in substations and on poles. Usually it is installed to correct an unwanted condition in an electrical system
• Capacity - The amount of electric power delivered or required for which a generator, turbine, transformer, transmission circuit, station, or system is rated by the manufacturer. The maximum load a generating unit, generating station, or other electrical apparatus is rated to carry by the user or the manufacturer or can actually carry under existing service conditions.
• Capacity Charge - An element in a two-part pricing method used in capacity transactions (energy charge is the other element). The capacity charge, sometimes called Demand Charge, is assessed on the amount of capacity being purchased.
• Capacity Factor - The amount of energy that the system produces at a particular site as a percentage of the total amount that it would produce if it operated at rated capacity during the entire year. For example, the capacity factor for a wind farm ranges from 20% to 35%. Thirty-five percent is close to the technology potential.
• Capital (Financial) - The line items on the right side of a balance sheet that include debt, preferred stock, and common equity. A net increase in assets must be financed by an increase in one or more forms of capital.
• Capital Costs - The amount of money needed to purchase equipment, buildings, tools, and other manufactured goods that can be used in production.
• Captive Customer - A customer who does not have realistic alternatives to buying power from the local utility, even if that customer had the legal right to buy from competitors.
• Carbon Dioxide - A colorless, odorless noncombustible gas with the formula CO2 that is present in the atmosphere. It is formed by the combustion of carbon and carbon compounds (such as fossil fuels and biomass), by respiration, which is a slow combustion in animals and plants, and by the gradual oxidation of organic matter in the soil.
• Carbon Monoxide - A colorless, odorless but poisonous combustible gas with the formula CO. Carbon monoxide is produced in the incomplete combustion of carbon and carbon compounds such as fossil fuels (i.e. coal, petroleum) and their products (e.g. liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline), and biomass.
• Carbon Zinc Cell Battery - A cell produces electric energy by the galvanic oxidation of carbon; commonly used in household appliances.
• Carnot Cycle - An ideal heat engine (conceived by Sadi Carnot) in which the sequence of operations forming the working cycle consists of isothermal expansion, adiabatic expansion, isothermal compression, and adiabatic compression back to its initial state.
• Carrying Charge - The total cost of storing a physical commodity over a period of time. Includes storage charges, insurance, interest, and opportunity costs.
• Cash Commodity - The actual physical commodity. Sometimes called a spot commodity or actuals.
• Cash Market - The market for a cash commodity where the actual physical product is traded.
• Casinghead Gas - Gas present in an oil well that is removed when it flows to the surface at the well's casing.
• Catalytic Converter - An air pollution control device that removes organic contaminants by oxidizing them into carbon dioxide and water through a chemical reaction using a catalysis, which is a substance that increases (or decreases) the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed itself; required in all automobiles sold in the United State, and used in some types of heating appliances.
• Cathode - The negative pole or electrode of an electrolytic cell, vacuum tube, etc., where electrons enter (current leaves) the system; the opposite of an anode.
• Cathode Disconnect Ballast - An electromagnetic ballast that disconnects a lamp's electrode heating circuit once is has started; often called "low frequency electronic" ballasts.
• Cell - A component of a electrochemical battery. A 'primary' cell consists of two dissimilar elements, known as 'electrodes,' immersed in a liquid or paste known as the 'electrolyte.' A direct current of 1-1.5 volts will be produced by this cell. A 'secondary' cell or accumulator is a similar design but is made useful by passing a direct current of correct strength through it in a certain direction. Each of these cells will produce 2 volts; a 12 volt car battery contains six cells.
• Cell Barrier - A very thin region of static electric charge along the interface of the positive and negative layers in a photovoltaic cell. The barrier inhibits the movement of electrons from one layer to the other, so that higher-energy electrons from one side diffuse preferentially through it in one direction, creating a current and thus a voltage across the cell. Also called depletion zone, cell junction, or space charge.
• Cell junction - The area of immediate contact between two layers (positive and negative) of a photovoltaic cell. The junction lies at the center of the cell barrier or depletion zone.
• Central Power - The generation of electricity in large power plants with distribution through a network of transmission lines (grid) for sale to a number of users. Opposite of distributed power.
• Central Power Plant - A large power plant that generates power for distribution to multiple customers.
• Central Receiver Solar Power Plants - Also known as "power towers," these use fields of two-axis tracking mirrors known as heliostats. Each heliostat is individually positioned by a computer control system to reflect the sun's rays to a tower-mounted thermal receiver. The effect of many heliostats reflecting to a common point creates the combined energy of thousands of suns, which produces high-temperature thermal energy. In the receiver, molten nitrate salts absorb the heat energy. The hot salt is then used to boil water to steam, which is sent to a conventional steam turbine-generator to produce electricity.
• Cetane Number - A measure of a fuel's (liquid) ease of self-ignition.
• CF/D - Cubic feet per day. Usually used to quantify the rate of flow of a gas well or pipeline.
• CFTC - See Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• Char - A byproduct of low-temperature carbonization of a solid fuel.
• Charcoal - A material formed from the incomplete combustion or destructive distillation (carbonization) of organic material in a kiln or retort, and having a high energy density, being nearly pure carbon. (If produced from coal, it is coke.) Used for cooking, the manufacture of gunpowder and steel (notably in Brazil), as an absorbent and decolorizing agent, and in sugar refining and solvent recovery.
• Charge Carrier - A free and mobile conduction electron or hole in a semiconductor.
• Charting - The use of graphs and charts in the analysis of market behavior, so as to plot trends of price movements, average movements of price, volume, and open interest, in the hope that such graphs and charts will help one to anticipate and profit from price trends. Contrasts with fundamental analysis.
• Chemical Energy - The energy liberated in a chemical reaction, as in the combustion of fuels.
• Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) - A method of depositing thin semiconductor films used to make certain types of solar photovoltaic devices. With this method, a substrate is exposed to one or more vaporized compounds, one or more of which contain desirable constituents. A chemical reaction is initiated, at or near the substrate surface, to produce the desired material that will condense on the substrate.
• Chiller - A device for removing heat from a gas or liquid stream for air conditioning/cooling.
• Chimney - A masonry or metal stack that creates a draft to bring air to a fire and to carry the gaseous byproducts of combustion safely away.
• Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) - A family of chemicals composed primarily of carbon, hydrogen, chlorine, and fluorine whose principal applications are as refrigerants and industrial cleansers and whose principal drawback is the tendency to destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer.
• CIF - Cost, Insurance, Freight. Term refers to a sale in which the buyer agrees to pay a unit price that includes the free on board (FOB) value at the port of origin plus all costs of insurance and transportation. This type of transaction differs from a "delivered" agreement in that it is generally ex-duty, and the buyer accepts the quantity and quality at the loading port rather than paying for quality and quantity as determined at the unloading port. Risk and title are transferred from the seller to the buyer at the loading port, although the seller is obliged to provide insurance in a transferable policy at the time of loading.
• Circuit - A device, or system of devices, that allows electrical current to flow through it and allows voltage to occur across positive and negative terminals.
• Circuit Lag - As time increases from zero at the terminals of an inductor, the voltage comes to a particular value on the sine function curve ahead of the current. The voltage reaches its negative peak exactly 90 degrees before the current reaches its negative peak thus the current lags behind by 90 degrees.
• Circulating Fluidized Bed - A type of furnace or reactor in which the emission of sulfur compounds is lowered by the addition of crushed limestone in the fluidized bed thus obviating the need for much of the expensive stack gas clean-up equipment. The particles are collected and recirculated, after passing through a conventional bed, and cooled by boiler internals.
• City Gate - Generally refers to the location at which gas changes ownership or transportation responsibility from a pipeline to a local distribution company or gas utility.
• Class of Options - All call options, or all put options, exercisable for the same underlying futures contract and which expire on the same expiration date.
• Class of Service - A utility's sales categories such as residential, commercial, industrial, other, and sales for resale.
• Clean Cargo - Refined products such as kerosene, gasoline, home heating oil, and jet fuel carried by tankers, barges, and tank cars. All refined products except bunker fuels, residual fuel oil, asphalt, and coke.
• Clearing Member - Clearing members of the New York Mercantile Exchange accept responsibility for all trades cleared through them, and share secondary responsibility for the liquidity of the Exchange's clearing operation. They earn commissions for clearing their customers' trades, and enjoy special margin privileges. Original margin requirements for clearing members are lower than for non-clearing members and customers, and clearing members may use letters of credit posted with the clearinghouse as original margin for customer accounts as well as for their own trades. Clearing members must meet a minimum capital requirement.
• Clearinghouse - An Exchange-associated body charged with the function of insuring the financial integrity of each trade. Orders are "cleared" by means of the clearinghouse acting as the buyer to all sellers and the seller to all buyers.
• Climate Change - A term used to describe short and long-term affects on the Earth's climate as a result of human activities such as fossil fuel combustion and vegetation clearing and burning.
• Close Coupled - An energy system in which the fuel production equipment is in close proximity, or connected to, the fuel using equipment.
• Closed Cycle - A system in which a working fluid is used over and over without introduction of new fluid, as in a hydronic heating system or mechanical refrigeration system.
• Closed Loop Biomass - As defined by the Comprehensive National Energy Act of 1992 (or the Energy Policy Act; EPAct): any organic matter from a plant which is planted for the exclusive purpose of being used to produce energy." This does not include wood or agricultural wastes or standing timber.
• Closed-Loop - A type of heating system in which the heat transfer fluid circulates from the heating component to a heat exchanger that is immersed in a heat storage media, passing its heat to the storage media without physically contacting it.
• Closing Range - A range of prices at which transactions took place at the closing of the market; buying and selling orders during the closing period might have been filled at any point within such a range.
• Coal - A black or brownish-black solid combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without access to air. The rank of coal, which includes anthracite, bituminous coal, subbituminous coal, and lignite, is based on fixed carbon, volatile matter, and heating value. Coal rank indicates the progressive alteration from lignite to anthracite. Lignite contains approximately 9 to 17 million Btu per ton. The contents of subbituminous and bituminous coal range from 16 to 24 million Btu per ton and from 19 to 30 million Btu per ton, respectively. Anthracite contains approximately 22 to 28 million Btu per ton.
• Coefficient of Heat Transmission (U-Value) - A value that describes the ability of a material to conduct heat. The number of Btu that flow through 1 square foot of material, in one hour. It is the reciprocal of the R-Value (U-Value = 1/R-Value).
• Coefficient of Performance (COP) - A ratio of the work or useful energy output of a system versus the amount of work or energy inputted into the system as determined by using the same energy equivalents for energy in and out. Is used as a measure of the steady state performance or energy efficiency of heating, cooling, and refrigeration appliances. The COP is equal to the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) divided by 3.412. The higher the COP, the more efficient the device.
• Cofiring - The use of two or more different fuels (e.g. wood and coal) simultaneously in the same combustion chamber of a power plant.
• Cogenerator - A facility that produces electricity and/or other energy for heating and cooling. A class of energy producer that produces both heat and electricity from a single fuel. A generating facility that produces electricity and another form of useful thermal energy (such as heat or steam) used for industrial, commercial, heating, or cooling purposes. To receive status as a qualifying facility (QF) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), the facility must produce electric energy and another form of useful thermal energy through the sequential use of energy, and meet certain ownership, operating, and efficiency criteria established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). (See the code of Federal Regulations, Title 18, Part 292.)
• Cogenerator - A generating facility that produces electricity and another form of useful thermal energy (such as heat or steam), used for industrial, commercial, heating, or cooling purposes.
• Coil - As a component of a heating or cooling appliance, rows of tubing or pipe with fins attached through which a heat transfer fluid is circulated and to deliver heat or cooling energy to a building.
• Coincidence Factor - The ratio of the coincident, maximum demand or two or more loads to the sum of their noncoincident maximum demand for a given period; the reciprocal of the diversity factor, and is always less than or equal to one.
• Coincident Demand - The demand of a consumer of electricity at the time of a power supplier's peak system demand.
• Coincidental Peak Load - The sum of two or more peak loads that occur in the same time interval.
• Coke (Petroleum) - A residue high in carbon content and low in hydrogen that is the final product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in cracking. This product is reported as marketable coke or catalyst coke. The conversion factor is 5 barrels (42 U.S. gallons each) per short ton.
• Collar - A supply contract between a buyer and seller of a commodity, whereby the buyer is assured that he will not have to pay more than some maximum price, and whereby the seller is assured of receiving some minimum price. This is analogous to an option fence, also known as a range forward.
• Collector - The component of a solar energy heating system that collects solar radiation, and that contains components to absorb solar radiation and transfer the heat to a heat transfer fluid (air or liquid).
• Collector Efficiency - The ratio of solar radiation captured and transfered to the collector (heat transfer) fluid.
• Collector Fluid - The fluid, liquid (water or water/antifreeze solution) or air, used to absorb solar energy and transfer it for direct use, indirect heating of interior air or domestic water, and/or to a heat storage medium.
• Collector Tilt - The angle that a solar collector is positioned from horizontal.
• Combination Utility - A utility which provides both gas and electric service.
• Combined Cycle - An electric generating technology in which electricity is produced from otherwise lost waste heat exiting from one more gas (combustion) turbines. The exiting heat is routed to a conventional boiler or to a heat recovery steam generator for utilization by a steam turbine in the production of electricity. This process increases the efficiency of the electric generating unit. Similar to the combustion turbine simple cycle, but includes a heat recovery steam generator that extracts heat from the combustion turbine exhaust flow to produce steam. This steam in turn powers a steam turbine engine.
• Combined Cycle Plant - An electric generating station that uses waste heat from its gas turbines to produce steam for conventional steam turbines.
• Combined Cycle Unit - An electric generating unit that consists of one or more combustion turbines and one or more boilers with a portion of the required energy input to the boiler(s) provided by the exhaust gas of the combustion turbine(s).
• Combined Pumped-Storage Plant - A pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant that uses both pumped water and natural streamflow to produce electricity.
• Combined-Cycle Power Plant - A power plant that uses two thermodynamic cycles to achieve higher overall system efficiency; e.g.: the heat from a gas-fired combustion turbine is used to generate steam for heating or to operate a steam turbine to generate additional electricity.
• Combustion - The process of burning; the oxidation of a material by applying heat, which unites oxygen with a material or fuel.
• Combustion Power Plant - A power plant that generates power by combusting a fuel.
• Combustion Turbine - A fossil-fuel-fired power plant that uses the conversion process known as the Brayton cycle. The fuel, oil, or gas is combusted and drives a turbine-generator.
• Commercial Operation - Commercial operation begins when control of the loading of the generator is turned over to the system dispatcher.
• Commercialization - Programs or activities that increase the value or decrease the cost of integrating new products or services into the electric sector.
• Commission - The fee charged by a futures broker for the execution of an order.
• Commission House - An organization that trades commodities and/or futures and options contracts for customer accounts in return for a fee.
• Commission Merchant - One who makes a trade, either for another member of an exchange or for a non-member client, but who makes the trade in his own name and becomes liable as principal to the other.
• Commissioning - The process by which a power plant, apparatus, or building is approved for operation based on observed or measured operation that meets design specifications.
• Commitment or Open Interest - The number of open or outstanding contracts for which an individual or entity is obligated to the Exchange because that individual or entity has not yet made an offsetting sale or purchase, an actual contract delivery, or, in the case of options, exercised the option.
• Commodity - As defined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, specifically enumerated agricultural commodities, all other goods and articles, except onions, and all services, rights, and interests in which contracts for future delivery are presently, or in the future may be, dealt.
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission - A federal regulatory agency authorized under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 to regulate futures trading in all commodities. The commission is comprised of five commissioners, one of whom is designated as chairman, all appointed by the President, subject to Senate confirmation. The CFTC is independent of the Cabinet departments.
• Commodity Pool - A venture, usually a limited partnership, in which funds contributed by a number of investors are combined for the purpose of trading futures. Also called a commodity fund or a futures fund.
• Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) - Acts as a general partner of commodity pools. CPOs hire independent Commodity Trading Advisors to handle daily trading decisions. Responsible for the pool's administration, structure, and selecting and monitoring the traders who conduct transactions using the fund's money.
• Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) - Directs trading in the managed accounts of a commodity pool. Professional money managers who manage client assets on a discretionary basis, using global futures markets as an investment medium.
• Compact Fluorescent - A smaller version of standard fluorescent lamps which can directly replace standard incandescent lights. These lights consist of a gas filled tube, and a magnetic or electronic ballast.
• Comparability - When a transmission owner provides access to transmission services at rates, terms and conditions equal to those the owner incurs for its own use.
• Competitive Bidding - This is a procedure that utilities use to select suppliers of new electric capacity and energy. Under competitive bidding, an electric utility solicits bids from prospective power generators to meet current or future power demands. When offers from independent power producers began exceeding utility needs in the mid-1908's, utilities and state regulators began using competitive bidding systems to select more fairly among numerous supply alternatives.
• Competitive Franchise - A process whereby a municipality (or group of municipalities) issues a franchise to supply electricity in the community to the winner of a competitive bid process. Such franchises can be for bundled electricity and transmission/distribution, or there can be separate franchises for the supply of electricity services and the transmission and distribution function. Franchises can be, but typically are not, exclusive licenses.
• Competitive Transition Charge (CTC) - A "nonbypassable" charge generally placed on distribution services to recover utility costs incurred as a result of restructuring (stranded costs - usually associated with generation facilities and services) and not recoverable in other ways.
• Comprehensive National Energy Policy Act - Federal legislation in 1992 that opened the U.S. electric utility industry to increase competition at the wholesale level and left authority for retail competition to the states.
• Compressed Air Storage - The storage of compressed air in a container for use to operate a prime mover for electricity generation.
• Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) - Natural gas (methane) that has been compressed to a higher pressure gaseous state by a compressor; used in CNG vehicles.
• Compressed-Air Energy Storage (CAES) - CAES plants use off-peak electrical energy to compress air into underground storage reservoirs for storage until times of peak or intermediate electricity demand. Wind power offers a good opportunity for charging CAES storage. The storage is typically underground in natural aquifers, depleted oil or gas fields, mined salt caverns, or excavated or natural rock caverns. To generate power, the compressed air is first heated by gas burners, then passed through a turbine.
• Compression Chiller - A cooling device that uses mechanical energy to produce chilled water.
• Compressor - A device used to compress air for mechanical or electrical power production, and in air conditioners, heat pumps, and refrigerators to pressurize the refrigerant and enabling it to flow through the system.
• Concentrator (module, array, or collector) - A solar collector that uses reflective surfaces to concentrate sunlight onto a small area, where it is absorbed and converted to heat or, in the case of solar photovoltaic (PV) devices, into electricity. Concentrators can increase the power flux of sunlight hundreds of times. The principal types of concentrating collectors include: compound parabolic, parabolic trough, fixed reflector moving receiver, fixed receiver moving reflector, Fresnel lense, and central receiver. A PV concentrating module uses optical elements (Fresnel lense) to increase the amount of sunlight incident onto a PV cell. Concentrating PV modules/arrays must track the sun and use only the direct sunlight because the diffuse portion cannot be focused onto the PV cells.
• Condensate - The liquid resulting when water vapor contacts a cool surface; also the liquid resulting when a vaporized working fluid (such as a refrigerant) is cooled or depressurized.
• Condensation - The process by which water in air changes from a vapor to a liquid due to a change in temperature or pressure; occurs when water vapor reaches its dew point (condensation point); also used to express the existence of liquid water on a surface.
• Condenser Coil - The device in an air conditioner or heat pump through which the refrigerant is circulated and releases heat to the surroundings when a fan blows outside air over the coils. This will return the hot vapor that entered the coil into a hot liquid upon exiting the coil.
• Condensing Furnace - A type of heating appliance that extracts so much of the available heat content from a combusted fuel that the moisture in the combustion gases condenses before it leaves the furnace. Also this furnace circulates a liquid to cool the furnace's heat exchanger. The heated liquid may either circulate through a liquid-to-air heat exchanger to warm room air, or it may circulate through a coil inside a separate indirect-fired water heater.
• Condensing Unit - The component of a central air conditioner that is designed to remove heat absorbed by the refrigerant and transfer it outside the conditioned space.
• Conduction - The transfer of heat through a material by the transfer of kinetic energy from particle to particle; the flow of heat between two materials of different temperatures that are in direct physical contact.
• Conduction Band - An energy band in a semiconductor in which electrons can move freely in a solid, producing a net transport of charge.
• Conductivity (Thermal) - This is a positive constant, k, that is a property of a substance and is used in the calculation of heat transfer rates for materials. It is the amount of heat that flows through a specified area and thickness of a material over a specified period of time when there is a temperature difference of one degree between the surfaces of the material.
• Conductor - An object or substance which conducts or leads electric current. A wire, cable, busbar, rod, or tube can serve as a path for electricity to flow. The most common conductor is an electrical wire.
• Conduit - A tubular material used to encase and protect one or more electrical conductors.
• Congressional (Energy) Committees - House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment - This committee has legislative jurisdiction and general and special oversight and investigative authority on all matters relating to energy and environmental research and development and demonstration.
• Connected Load - The sum of the ratings of the electricity consuming apparatus connected to a generating system.
• Connection - The physical connection (e.g. transmission lines, transformers, switch gear, etc.) between two electric systems permitting the transfer of electric energy in one or both directions.
• Connection Charge - An amount paid by a customer for being connected to an electricity supplier's transmission and distribution system.
• Conservation - A foregoing or reduction of electric usage for the purpose of saving natural energy resources and limiting peak demand in order to ultimately reduce the capacity requirements for plant and equipment.
• Conservation and Other DSM - This Demand-Side Management category represents the amount of consumer peak load reduction at the time of system peak due to utility programs that reduce consumer load during many hours of the year. Examples include utility rebate and shared savings activities for the installation of energy efficient appliances, lighting and electrical machinery, and weatherization materials. In addition, this category includes all other Demand-Side Management activities, such as thermal storage, time-of-use rates, fuel substitutions, measurement and evaluation, and any other utility-administered Demand-Side Management activity designed to reduce demand and/or electricity use.
• Conservation Cost Adjustment - A means of billing electric power consumers to pay for the costs of demand side management/energy conservation measures and programs. (See also Benefits Charge.)
• Constant-Speed Wind Turbines - Wind turbines that operate at a constant rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) and are optimized for energy capture at a given rotor diameter at a particular speed in the wind power curve.
• Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) - The balance shown on a utility's balance sheet for construction work not yet completed but in process. This balance line item may or may not be included in the rate base.
• Consumer Education - Efforts to provide consumers with skills and knowledge to use their resources wisely in the marketplace.
• Consumption (Fuel) - The amount of fuel used for gross generation, providing standby service, start-up and/or flame stabilization.
• Consumption Charge - The part of an energy utility's charge based on actual energy consumed by the customer; the product of the kilowatt-hour rate and the total kilowatt-hours consumed.
• Contango Market - A market situation in which prices are higher in the succeeding delivery months than in the nearest delivery month. Opposite of backwardation.
• Contingency Order - An order which becomes effective only upon the fulfillment of some condition in the marketplace.
• Continuous Fermentation - A steady-state fermentation process.
• Contract - 1) A term of reference describing a unit of trading for a commodity future or option. 2) An agreement to buy or sell a specified commodity, detailing the amount and grade of the product and the date on which the contract will mature and become deliverable.
• Contract Grade - That grade of product established in the rules of a commodity futures exchange as being suitable for delivery against a futures contract.
• Contract Path - The most direct physical transmission tie between two interconnected entities. When utility systems interchange power, the transfer is presumed to take place across the "contract path" , notwithstanding the electric fact that power flow in the network will distribute in accordance with network flow conditions. This term can also mean to arrange for power transfer between systems.
• Contract Price - Price of fuels marketed on a contract basis covering a period of 1 or more years. Contract prices reflect market conditions at the time the contract was negotiated and therefore remain constant throughout the life of the contract or are adjusted through escalation clauses. Generally, contract prices do not fluctuate widely.
• Contract Receipts - Purchases based on a negotiated agreement that generally covers a period of 1 or more years.
• Contract Trading Volume - Daily trading volume.
• Control Area - An electric power system or combination of electric power systems to which a common automatic control scheme is applied in order to: (1) match, at all times, the power output of the generators within the electric power system(s) and capacity and energy purchased from entities outside the electric power system(s), with the load in the electric power system(s); (2) maintain, within the limits of Good Utility Practice, scheduled interchange with other Control Areas; (3) maintain the frequency of the electric power system(s) within reasonable limits in accordance with Good Utility Practice; and (4) provide sufficient generating capacity to maintain operating reserves in accordance with Good Utility Practice.
• Control Area Operator - An electric entity that operates generating capacity to meet area demand, monitors actual interchange (electric energy flowing between control areas), and can dispatch generating resources to ensure that actual interchange equals scheduled interchange.
• Convection - The transfer of heat by means of air currents.
• Conventional Fuel - The fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas.
• Conventional Heat Pump - This type of heat pump is known as an air-to air system.
• Conversion - A delta-neutral arbitrage transaction involving a long futures contract, a long put option, and a short call option. The put and call options have the same strike price and same expiration date.
• Conversion Efficiency - The amount of energy produced as a percentage of the amount of energy consumed.
• Conversion Efficiency (Cell or Module) -The ratio of the electric energy produced by a photovoltaic device (under one-sun conditions) to the energy from sunlight incident upon the cell.
• Converter - Any technology that changes the potential energy in fuel into a different form of energy such as heat or motion. The term also is used to mean an apparatus that changes the quantity or quality of electric energy.
• Cooling Degree Day - A value used to estimate interior air cooling requirements (load) calculated as the number of degrees per day (over a specified period) that the daily average temperature is above 65 degrees Fahrenheit (or some other, specified base temperature). The daily average temperature is the mean of the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded for a specific location for a 24 hour period.
• Cooling Load - That amount of cooling energy to be supplied (or heat and humidity removed) based on the sensible and latent loads.
• Cooling Pond - A body of water used to cool the water that is circulated in an electric power plant.
• Cooling System - Energy Efficiency program promotion aimed at improving the efficiency of the cooling delivery system, including replacement, in the residential, commercial, or industrial sectors.
• Cooling Tower - A structure used to cool power plant water; water is pumped to the top of the tubular tower and sprayed out into the center, and is cooled by evaporation as it falls, and then is either recycled within the plant or is discharged.
• Cooperative - A group organized under law into a utility company that will generate, transmit, or distribute supplies of electric energy to a specified area not being serviced by another utility. Typically, a co-op is a not- for-profit organization.
• Cooperative Electric Utility - An electric utility legally established to be owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its service. The utility company will generate, transmit, and/or distribute supplies of electric energy to a specified area not being serviced by another utility. Such ventures are generally exempt from Federal income tax laws. Most electric cooperatives have been initially financed by the Rural Electrification Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Coordination Transactions - Short-term transactions undertaken primarily to maintain the integrity of an electricity distribution system.
• Coproducts - The potentially useful byproducts of ethanol fermentation process.
• Coulomb - A unit for the quantity of electricity transported in 1 second by a current of 1 ampere.
• Counterflow Heat Exchanger - A heat exchanger in which two fluids flow in opposite directions for transfer heat energy from one to the other.
• Counterparty Risk - The risk that the other party in an agreement will default. In an option contract, the risk to the option buyer that the writer will not buy or sell the underlier as agreed.
• Cover - To offset a short futures or options position.
• Covered Writing - The sale of an option against an existing position in the underlying futures contract. For example, short call and long futures.
• Crack Spreads - The simultaneous purchase or sale of crude oil against the sale or purchase of refined petroleum products. These spread differentials which represent refining margins are normally quoted in dollars per barrel by converting the product prices into dollars per barrel (multiply the cents-per-gallon price by 42) and subtracting the crude oil price.
• Credit Risk - Possibility of default. Failure to make required payments on a timely basis or to comply with other conditions of an obligation or agreement.
• Credit Worthiness - Financial accountability.
• Critical Compression Pressure - The highest possible pressure in a fuel-air mixture before spontaneous ignition occurs.
• Cross Trade - Offsetting match by a broker of the buy order of one customer against the sell order of another, or a match of a trade made by a broker with his customer, a practice that is permissible only when executed in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act, Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulations, and rules of the contract market. Neither NYMEX Division nor COMEX Division members are permitted to take the opposite side of a customer's order, except, under certain circumstances, for trades involving long-dated (nine months or more forward) COMEX Division copper futures.
• Cross-subsidization - This refers to the transfer of assets or services from the regulated portion of an electric utility to its unregulated affiliates to produce an unfair competitive advantage. Also, cross-subsidization can refer to one rate class (such as industrial customers) subsidizing the rates of another class (such as residential customers).
• Crude Oil - A mixture of hydrocarbons that exists as a liquid in natural underground reservoirs and remains liquid at atmospheric pressure after passing through surface separating facilities. Crude is the raw material which is refined into gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, propane, petrochemicals, and other products.
• Crude Oil (Petroleum) - A naturally occurring, oily, flammable liquid composed principally of hydrocarbons. Crude oil is occasionally found in springs or pools but usually is drilled from wells beneath the earth's surface.
• Cube Law - In reference to wind energy, for any given instant, the power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity; when wind speed doubles, the power availability increases eight times.
• Cubic Foot - The most common measure of gas volume, referring to the amount of gas needed to fill a volume of one cubic foot at 14.73 pounds per square inch absolute pressure and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. One cubic foot of natural gas contains, on average, 1,027 Btus.
• Cubic Foot (of Natural Gas) - A unit of volume equal to 1 cubic foot at a pressure base of 14.73 pounds standard per square inch absolute and a temperature base of 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Current (Electric) - A flow of electrons in an electrical conductor. The strength or rate of movement of the electricity is measured in amperes.
• Current at Maximum Power (Imp) - The current at which maximum power is available from a module. [UL 1703]
• Current Delivery Month - The futures contract which matures and becomes deliverable during the present month or the month closest to delivery. Also called the spot month.
• Current Transformers - These are used in conjunction with metering equipment. They are designed to permit measurement of currents beyond the range of a meter.
• Cushion Gas - The amount of gas required in a storage pool to maintain sufficient pressure to keep the working gas recoverable.
• Customer Assistance Programs - Alternative collection program set up between a utility company and a customer that allows customers to pay utility bills on a percentage-of-the-bill they owe or percentage-of-customer-income instead of paying the full amount owed. These programs are for low-income people who can't pay their bills. These customers must agree to make regular monthly payments based on their new payment plans.
• Customer Charge - An amount to be paid for energy periodically by a customer without regard to demand or energy consumption.
• Customer Class - A distinction between users of electric energy. Customer class is usually defined by usage patterns, usage levels, and conditions of service. Classes are usually categorized generically by customer activity (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, street lighting).
• Customer Costs - Costs that are related to and vary with the number of customers. Customer costs include meters, meter readers, or service equipment costs.
• Customer Service Charge - That portion of the customer's bill which remains the same from month to month. The charge is determined separately from the amount of energy used. It is based on the costs associated with connecting a customer to the company's distribution system, including the service connection and metering equipment. This charge also recovers expenses such as meter reading, billing costs, customer accounting expenses records and collections, and a portion of general plant items such as office space for customer service personnel.
• Customer Service Protection - The rules governing grounds for denial of service, credit determination, deposit and guarantee practices, meter reading and accuracy, bill contents, billing frequency, billing accuracy, collection practices, notices, grounds for termination of service, termination procedures, rights to reconnection, late charges, disconnection/reconnection fees, access to budget billing and payment arrangements, extreme weather, illness or other vulnerable customer disconnection protections, and the like. In a retail competition model, would include protections against "slamming" and other hard-sell abuses.
• Cut-In-Speed - The lowest wind speed at which a wind turbine begins producing usable power.
• Cut-Out-Speed - The highest wind speed at which a wind turbine stops producing power.
• Cycle - In alternating current, the current goes from zero potential or voltage to a maximum in one direction, back to zero, and then to a maximum potential or voltage in the other direction. The number of complete cycles per second determines the current frequency; in the U.S. the standard for alternating current is 60 cycles.
• Cycle Life - Number of discharge-charge cycles that a battery can tolerate under specified conditions before it fails to meet specified criteria as to performance (e.g., capacity decreases to 80-percent of the nominal capacity).
• Cycling Losses - The loss of heat as the water circulates through a water heater tank and inlet and outlet pipes.
• Cyclone Burner - A furnace/combustion chamber in which finely ground fuel is blown in spirals in the combustion chamber to maximize combustion efficiency.