Glossary of Terms - Q & R

• Quad - A measure of energy equal to one trillion Btus; an energy equivalent to approximately 172 million barrels of oil. One quadrillion Btu. (1,000,000,000,000,000 Btu)
• Qualification Test (PV) - A procedure applied to a selected set of PV modules involving the application of defined electrical, mechanical, or thermal stress in a prescribed manner and amount. Test results are subject to a list of defined requirements.
• Qualifying Facility - A category of electric power producer established under the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) of 1978, that includes small-power producers (SPP) who use renewable sources of energy such as biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity, solar (thermal and photovoltaic), and wind, or cogenerators who produce both heat and electricity using any type of fuel. PURPA requires utilities to purchase electricity from these power producers at a rate approved by a state utility regulatory agency under Federal guidelines. PURPA also requires utilities to sell electricity to these producers. Some states have developed their own programs for SPPs and utilities.
• Rack Price - Price charged by a supplier to a customer that buys transport truck lots at a terminal, on a free on board basis.
• Radiant Barrier - A thin, reflective foil sheet that exhibits low radiant energy transmission and under certain conditions can block radiant heat transfer; installed in attics to reduce heat flow through a roof assembly into the living space.
• Radiant Ceiling Panels - Ceiling panels that contain electric resistance heating elements embedded within them to provide radiant heat to a room.
• Radiant Energy - Energy that transmits away from its source in all directions.
• Radiant Floor - A type of radiant heating system where the building floor contains channels or tubes through which hot fluids such as air or water are circulated. The whole floor is evenly heated. Thus, the room heats from the bottom up. Radiant floor heating eliminates the draft and dust problems associated with forced air heating systems.
• Radiant Heating System - A heating system where heat is supplied (radiated) into a room by means of heated surfaces, such as electric resistance elements, hot water (hydronic) radiators, etc.
• Radiation - The transfer of heat through matter or space by means of electromagnetic waves.
• Radiative Cooling - The process of cooling by which a heat absorbing media absorbs heat from one source and radiates the heat away.
• Radioactive Waste - Materials left over from making nuclear energy. Radioactive waste can living organisms if it is not stored safely.
• Radon - A naturally occurring radioactive gas found in the U.S. in nearly all types of soil, rock, and water. It can migrate into most buildings. Studies have linked high concentrations of radon to lung cancer.
• Railroad and Railway Services - Railroad and railway services include electricity supplied and services rendered to railroads and interurban and street railways for general railroad use, including the propulsion of cars or locomotives, where such electricity is supplied under separate and distinct rate schedules.
• Rally - An advancing price movement following a decline in a market.
• Ramp Rate - The rate at which you can increase load on a power plant. The ramp rate for a hydroelectric facility may be dependent on how rapidly water surface elevation on the river changes.
• Ramp Up (Supply Side) - Increasing load on a generating unit at a rate called the ramp rate.
• Ramp-Up (Demand-Side) - Implementing a demand-side management program over time until the program is considered fully installed.
• Range - The difference between the highest and lowest prices recorded during a given trading period.
• Rankine Cycle - The thermodynamic cycle that is an ideal standard for comparing performance of heat-engines, steam power plants, steam turbines, and heat pump systems that use a condensable vapor as the working fluid; efficiency is measured as work done divided by sensible heat supplied.
• Rate Base - The value of property upon which a utility is permitted to earn a specified rate of return as established by a regulatory authority. The rate base generally represents the value of property used by the utility in providing service and may be calculated by any one or a combination of the following accounting methods: fair value, prudent investment, reproduction cost, or original cost. Depending on which method is used, the rate base includes cash, working capital, materials and supplies, and deductions for accumulated provisions for depreciation, contributions in aid of construction, customer advances for construction, accumulated deferred income taxes, and accumulated deferred investment tax credits.
• Rate Class - A group of customers identified as a class and subject to a rate different from the rates of other groups.
• Rate Schedule - A mechanism used by electric utilities to determine prices for electricity; typically defines rates according to amounts of power demanded/consumed during specific time periods.
• Rate Structure - The design and organization of billing charges by customer class to distribute the revenue requirement among customer classes and rating period.
• Rate-Basing - The practice by utilities of allotting funds invested in utility Research Development Demonstration and Commercialization and other programs from ratepayers, as opposed to allocating these costs to shareholders.
• Rated Life - The length of time that a product or appliance is expected to meet a certain level of performance under nominal operating conditions; in a luminaire, the period after which the lumen depreciation and lamp failure is at 70% of its initial value.
• Rated Power - The power output of a device under specific or nominal operating conditions.
• Ratemaking Authority - A utility commissionÌs legal authority to fix, modify, approve, or disapprove rates, as determined by the powers given the commission by a State or Federal legislature.
• Rate-of-Return Rates - Rates set to the average cost of electricity as an incentive for regulated utilities to operate more efficiently at lower rates where costs are minimized.
• Ratepayer - This is a retail consumer of the electricity distributed by an electric utility. This includes residential, commercial and industrial users of electricity.
• Ratio Spread - Any spread where the number of long market contracts and the number of short market contracts are unequal.
• Rayleigh Frequency Distribution - A mathematical representation of the frequency or ratio that specific wind speeds occur within a specified time interval.
• Reactive Power - The electrical power that oscillates between the magnetic field of an inductor and the electrical field of a capacitor. Reactive power is never converted to non-electrical power. Calculated as the square root of the difference between the square of the kilovolt-amperes and the square of the kilowatts. Expressed as reactive volt-amperes.
• Real Price - The unit price of a good or service estimated from some base year in order to provide a consistent means of comparison.
• Real-time Pricing - The instantaneous pricing of electricity based on the cost of the electricity available for use at the time the electricity is demanded by the customer.
• Receiver - The component of a central receiver solar thermal system where reflected solar energy is absorbed and converted to thermal energy.
• Receiving Party - The entity receiving the capacity and/or energy transmitted by the Transmission Provider to the Point(s) of Delivery.
• Recirculation Systems - A type of solar heating system that circulate warm water from storage through the collectors and exposed piping whenever freezing conditions occur; obviously a not very efficient system when operating in this mode.
• Recombination - The action of a free electron falling back into a hole. Recombination processes are either radiative, where the energy of recombination results in the emission of a photon, or nonradiative, where the energy of recombination is given to a second electron which then relaxes back to its original energy by emitting phonons. Recombination can take place in the bulk of the semiconductor, at the surfaces, in the junction region, at defects, or between interfaces.
• Recovered Energy - Reused heat or energy that otherwise would be lost. For example, a combined cycle power plant recaptures some of its own waste heat and reuses it to make extra electric power.
• Rectifier - An electrical device for converting alternating current to direct current. The chamber in a cooling device where water is separated from the working fluid (for example ammonia).
• Recuperator - A heat exchanger in which heat is recovered from the products of combustion.
• Recurrent Costs - Costs that are repetitive and occur when an organization produces similar goods or services on a continuing basis.
• Recycle Mark - A design of three arrows that make up a circle. This mark tells you that you can recycle the product. It can also mean that the material is made from recycled materials.
• Recycling - The process of converting materials that are no longer useful as designed or intended into a new product.
• Refiner-Distributor - A company that acts as a wholesaler of gasoline, heating oil, or other products which operates its own refinery; may also retail and buy additional supplies to supplement its own refining output.
• Refinery - A plant used to process crude oil or metals. An oil refinery separates the fractions of crude oil and converts them into usable products. A metals refinery removes impurities, bringing the metal up to designated purity specifications.
• Reflectance - The amount (percent) of light that is reflected by a surface relative to the amount that strikes it.
• Reflective Coatings - Materials with various qualities that are applied to glass windows before installation. These coatings reduce radiant heat transfer through the window and also reflects outside heat and a portion of the incoming solar energy, thus reducing heat gain. The most common type has a sputtered coating on the inside of a window unit. The other type is a durable "hard-coat" glass with a coating, baked into the glass surface.
• Reforming Process - The use of heat and catalysts to effect the rearrangement of certain hydrocarbon molecules without altering their composition appreciably; for example, the conversion of low-octane naphthas or gasolines into high-octane number products.
• Refraction - The change in direction of a ray of light when it passes through one media to another with differing optical densities.
• Refrigerant - The compound (working fluid) used in air conditioners, heat pumps, and refrigerators to transfer heat into or out of an interior space. This fluid boils at a very low temperature enabling it to evaporate and absorb heat.
• Refrigeration - The process of the absorption of heat from one location and its transfer to another for rejection or recuperation.
• Refrigeration Capacity - A measure of the effective cooling capacity of a refrigerator, expressed in Btu per hour or in tons, where one (1) ton of capacity is equal to the heat required to melt 2,000 pounds of ice in 24 hours or 12,000 Btu per hour.
• Refrigeration Cycle - The complete cycle of stages (evaporation and condensation) of refrigeration or of the refrigerant.
• Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) - A solid fuel produced by shredding municipal solid waste (MSW). Noncombustible materials such as glass and metals are generally removed prior to making RDF. The residual material is sold as-is or compressed into pellets, bricks, or logs. RDF processing facilities are typically located near a source of MSW, while the RDF combustion facility can be located elsewhere. Existing RDF facilities process between 100 and 3,000 tons per day.
• Regenerative Cooling - A type of cooling system that uses a charging and discharging cycle with a thermal or latent heat storage subsystem.
• Regenerative Heating - The process of using heat that is rejected in one part of a cycle for another function or in another part of the cycle.
• Regional Power Exchange - An entity established to coordinate short-term operations to maintain system stability and achieve least-cost dispatch. The dispatch provides back-up supplies, short-term excess sales, reactive power support, and spinning reserve. The pool may own, manager and/or operate the transmission lines or be an independent entity that manages the transactions between entities.
• Regional Reliability Councils - Regional organizations charged with maintaining system reliability even during abnormal bulk power conditions such as outages and unexpectedly high loads.
• Regional Transmission Group - A voluntary organization of transmission owners, transmission users, and other entities approved by the Commission to efficiently coordinate transmission planning (and expansion), operation, and use on a regional (and interregional) basis.
• Regulation - The government function of controlling or directing economic entities through the process of rulemaking and adjudication.
• Regulatory Compact - Under this compact, utilities are granted service territories in which they have the exclusive right to serve retail customers. In exchange for this right, utilities have an obligation to serve all consumers in that territory on demand.
• Relamping - The replacement of a non-functional or ineffective lamp with a new, more efficient lamp.
• Relative Humidity - A measure of the percent of moisture actually in the air compared with what would be in it if it were fully saturated at that temperature. When the air is fully saturated, its relative humidity is 100 percent.
• Reliability - Electric system reliability has two components - adequacy and security. Adequacy is the ability of the electric system to supply the aggregate electric demand and energy requirements of the customers at all times, taking into account scheduled and unscheduled outages of system facilities. Security is the ability of the electric system to withstand sudden disturbances such as electric short circuits or unanticipated loss of system facilities.
• Reliability Councils - Regional reliability councils were organized after the 1965 northeast blackout to coordinate reliability practices and avoid or minimize future outages. They are voluntary organizations of transmission-owning utilities and in some cases power cooperatives, power marketers, and non-utility generators. Membership rules vary from region to region. They are coordinated through the North American Electric Reliability Council.
• Remote Systems - Systems off of the utility grid.
• Renewable Energy - Energy derived from resources that are regenerative or for all practical purposes can not be depleted. Types of renewable energy resources include moving water (hydro, tidal and wave power), thermal gradients in ocean water, biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy, and wind energy. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is also considered to be a renewable energy resource.
• Replacements - The substitution of a unit for another unit generally of a like or improved character.
• Reportable Position - The number of futures contracts, as determined by the Exchange or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, above which a customer must be identified daily to the Exchange and to the Commission with regard to the size of his position by commodity, by delivery month, and by purpose of the trading.
• Repowered Plant - This is an existing power facility that has been substantially rebuilt to extend its useful life.
• Reregulation - The design and implementation of regulatory practices to be applied to the remaining regulated entities after restructuring of the vertically-integrated electric utility. The remaining Regulated entities would be those that continue to exhibit characteristics of a natural monopoly, where imperfections in the market prevent the realization of more competitive results, and where, in light of other policy considerations, competitive results are unsatisfactory in one or more respects. Reregulation could employ the same or different regulatory practices as those used before restructuring.
• RES - Acronym for the Residential Experiment Stations.
• Resellers - Companies that purchase utility service from a wholesaler and resell it to consumers.
• Reserve Capacity - Capacity in excess of that required to carry peak load.
• Reserve Generating Capacity - The amount of power that can be produced at a given point in time by generating units that are kept available in case of special need. This capacity may e used when unusually high power demand occurs, or when other generating units are off-line for maintenance, repair or refueling.
• Reserve Margin (Operating) - The amount of unused available capability of an electric power system at peak load for a utility system as a percentage of total capability.
• Residential - The residential sector is defined as private household establishments which consume energy primarily for space heating, water heating, air conditioning, lighting, refrigeration, cooking, and clothes drying. The classification of an individual consumerÌs account, where the use is both residential and commercial, is based on principal use.
• Residual Fuel Oil - The topped crude of refinery operation, includes No. 5 and No. 6 fuel oils as defined in ASTM Specification D396 and Federal Specification VV-F-815C; Navy Special fuel oil as defined in Military Specification MIL-F-859E including Amendment 2 (NATO Symbol F-77); and Bunker C fuel oil. Residual fuel oil is used for the production of electric power, space heating, vessel bunkering, and various industrial purposes. Imports of residual fuel oil include imported crude oil burned as fuel.
• Resistance - The inherent characteristic of a material to inhibit the transfer of energy. In electrical conductors, electrical resistance results in the generation of heat. Electrical resistance is measured in Ohms. The heat transfer resistance properties of insulation products are quantified as the R-value.
• Resistance Heating - A type of heating system that provides heat from the resistance of an electrical current flowing through a conductor.
• Resistive Voltage Drop - The voltage developed across a cell by the current flow through the resistance of the cell.
• Resistor - An electrical device that resists electric current flow.
• Resource Recovery - The process of converting municipal solid waste to energy and/or recovering materials for recycling.
• Resting Order - An order away from the market, waiting to be executed.
• Restricted-Universe Census - This is the complete enumeration of data from a specifically defined subset of entities including, for example, those that exceed a given level of sales or generator nameplate capacity.
• Restructuring - The process of changing the structure of the electric power industry from one of guaranteed monopoly over service territories, as established by the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, to one of open competition between power suppliers for customers in any area.
• Retail - Sales covering electrical energy supplied for residential, commercial, and industrial end-use purposes. Other small classes, such as agriculture and street lighting, also are included in this category.
• Retail Competition - A system under which more than one electric provider can offer to sell to retail customers, and retail customers are allowed to choose more than one provider from whom to purchase their electricity.
• Retail Transaction - The sale of electric power from a generating company or wholesale entity to the customer.
• Retail Wheeling - A term for the process of transmitting electricity over transmission lines not owned by the supplier of the electricity to a retail customer of the supplier. With retail wheeling, an electricity consumer can secure their own supply of electricity from a broker or directly from the generating source. The power is then wheeled at a fixed rate, or at a regulated "non-discriminatory" rate set by a utility commission.
• Retrofit - The process of modifying a building's structure.
• Return Duct - The central heating or cooling system contains a fan that gets its air supply through these ducts, which ideally should be installed in every room of the house. The air from a room will move towards the lower pressure of the return duct.
• Revenue - The total amount of money received by a firm from sales of its products and/or services, gains from the sales or exchange of assets, interest and dividends earned on investments, and other increases in the ownerÌs equity except those arising from capital adjustments.
• Reversing Valve - A component of a heat pump that reverses the refrigerant's direction of flow, allowing the heat pump to switch from cooling to heating or heating to cooling.
• Ribbon (Photovoltaic) Cells - A type of solar photovoltaic device made in a continuous process of pulling material from a molten bath of photovoltaic material, such as silicon, to form a thin sheet of material.
• Rigid Insulation Board - An insulation product made of a fibrous material or plastic foams, pressed or extruded into board-like forms. It provides thermal and acoustical insulation strength with low weight, and coverage with few heat loss paths.
• Risk - The quantifiable likelihood of loss or less-than-expected returns. Examples: currency risk, inflation risk, principal risk, country risk, economic risk, mortgage risk, liquidity risk, market risk, opportunity risk, income risk, interest rate risk, prepayment risk, credit risk, unsystematic risk, call risk, business risk, counterparty risk, purchasing-power risk, event risk.
• Risk Management - Control and limitation of the risks faced by an organization due to exposure to changes in financial market variables (i.e. foreign exchange and intereste rates), equity and commodity prices or counterparty creditworthiness. Frequently risk management involves: identifying the source of exposure, quanifying the exposure, assessing the capability to manage the exposure internally, selecting appropriate risk management products.
• Rock Bin - A container that holds rock used as the thermal mass to store solar energy in a solar heating system.
• Rolling Blackouts - A controlled and temporary interruption of electrical service. These are necessary when a utility is unable to meet heavy peak demands because of an extreme deficiency in power supply.
• Rollover - A special futures straddle trading procedure involving the shift of one month of a straddle into another future month while maintaining the other contract month of the original spread position. The shift can take place in either the long or short straddle month.
• Roof Pond - A solar energy collection device consisting of containers of water located on a roof that absorb solar energy during the day so that the heat can be used at night or that cools a building by evaporation at night.
• Rotor - An electric generator consists of an armature and a field structure. The armature carries the wire loop, coil, or other windings in which the voltage is induced, whereas the field structure produces the magnetic field. In small generators, the armature is usually the rotating component (rotor) surrounded by the stationary field structure (stator). In large generators in commercial electric power plants the situation is reversed. In a wind energy conversion device, the blades and rotating components.
• Round Lot - A quantity of a commodity equal in size to the corresponding futures contract for the commodity, as distinguished from a job lot, which may be larger or smaller than the contract.
• Roundturn - The completion of both a purchase and sale of a commodity futures contract.
• Running and Quick-Start Capability - The net capability of generating units that carry load or have quick-start capability. In general, quick-start capability refers to generating units that can be available for load within a 30-minute period.
• Run-of-River Hydropower - A type of hydroelectric facility that uses the river flow with very little alteration and little or no impoundment of the water.
• Rural Electric Cooperative - A nonprofit, customer-owned electric utility that distributes power in a rural area.
• Rural Electrification Administration (REA) - An agency of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture that makes loans to states and territories in the U.S. for rural electrification and the furnishing of electric energy to persons in rural areas who do not receive central station service. It also furnishes and improves electric and telephone service in rural areas, assists electric borrowers to implement energy conservation programs and on-grid and off-grid renewable energy systems, and studies the condition and progress of rural electrification.
• R-Value - A measure of the capacity of a material to resist heat transfer. The R-Value is the reciprocal of the conductivity of a material (U-Value). The larger the R-Value of a material, the greater its insulating properties.