Here, you’ll find general definitions of frequently used terms related to New England’s wholesale electricity markets and power system.
Precise legal definitions can be found in the following documents:
0-9 | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-M | N-Q | R-U | V-Z
| 0 - 9 | ||
| (2.5-; 10-) micron particulate matter | PM (2.5); PM(10) | Two sizes—2.5 microns (PM2.5) and 10 microns (PM10)—of particulate matter identified in the US Clean Air Act as considered harmful to human health, property, and ecosystems. |
| 10-minute nonspinning reserve | TMNSR | Operating reserve provided by off-line generation that can be electrically synchronized to the bulk electric power system and increase output within 10 minutes in response to a contingency; also called 10-minute nonsynchronized reserve. (Also see 10-minute spinning reserve.) |
| 10-minute nonsynchronized reserve | TMNSR | (See 10-minute nonspinning reserve, the more common term.) |
| 10-minute spinning reserve | TMSR | Operating reserve provided by on-line operating generation that can increase output within 10 minutes in response to a contingency; also called 10-minute synchronized reserve. (Also see 10-minute nonspinning reserve.) |
| 2 x 16; 2/16 | 2 days per week, 16 hours per day—typically the weekend peak hours of 6:01 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (aka, hour ending 7 to hour ending 22). | |
| 2 x 24; 2/24 | 2 days per week, 24 hours per day—typically weekend days. | |
| 24 x 7; 24/7; 24-7 | 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. | |
| 30-minute operating reserve | TMOR | Operating reserve provided by on-line or off-line operating-reserve generation that can either increase output within 30 minutes or be electrically synchronized to the bulk electric power system and increase output within 30 minutes in response to a contingency. (Also see spinning and nonspinning.) |
| 5 x 16 | 5 days per week, 16 hours per day. | |
| 5 x 16 | 5 x 16 | |
| 5 x 8; 5/8 | 5 days per week, 8 hours per day. | |
| 50/50 | 50/50 peak load | |
| 50/50 peak load | 50/50 | A peak load with a 50% chance of being exceeded because of weather conditions, expected to occur in the summer in New England at a weighted New England-wide temperature of 90.2°F, and in the winter, 7.0°F. |
| 7 x 8; 7/8 | 7 days per week, 8 hours per day—typically the off-peak hours of 10:01 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. (aka, hour ending 23 to hour ending 6). | |
| 90/10 | 90/10 peak load | |
| 90/10 peak load | 90/10 | A peak load with a 10% chance of being exceeded because of weather conditions, expected to occur in the summer in New England at a weighted New England-wide temperature of 94.2°F, and in the winter, 1.6°F. |
| A - C | ||
| A | ampere (current) | |
| Abnormal Conditions Alert | An ISO notice to applicable power system operations, maintenance, construction, and test personnel, and applicable market participants, about an existing abnormal condition affecting the reliability of the electric power system or about an anticipated abnormal condition. See Master/Local Control Center Procedure No. 2, Abnormal Conditions Alert. | |
| AC | alternating current | |
| ACE | area control error | |
| ACI | activated carbon injection | |
| Acid Rain Program | ARP | US Environmental Protection Agency "cap and trade" program applied to electric power plants to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide(s), primary components of acid rain. |
| ACP | alternative compliance payment | |
| activated carbon injection | ACI | A post-combustion mercury control system for a coal-fired electric power plant, which injects specially treated activated carbon into the flue gas where it absorbs mercury that a downstream particulate-control device then removes. |
| active demand capacity resource | ADCR | Installed measures (e.g., products, equipment, systems, services, practices and/or strategies) on end-use customer facilities that curtail electrical usage upon dispatch; includes load management and distributed generation. ADCRs can participate in the Forward Capacity Market to fulfill a market participant’s capacity supply obligation pursuant to Market Rule 1, Section III.13. ADCRs replace the resource type known as real-time demand response resources. Also see on-peak capacity resource and seasonal-peak capacity resource. |
| active power | (See real power.) | |
| actual reserve margin | ARM | Amount of regional reserve capacity available in a given year, calculated by ISO-NE for comparison against the planned reserve margin. A lower actual reserve margin than planned indicates an increase in potential reliability issues during peak periods or periods of regional emergencies. (Also see planned reserve margin.) |
| ADCR | active demand capacity resource | |
| adjusted net interchange | ANI | The difference between a market participant’s resources and liabilities at a location, measured in megawatt-hours. Resources include generation entitlements, cleared incremental offers, external purchases of electric energy, and internal bilateral purchases for electric energy. Liabilities include load obligation, cleared decremental bids, external sales of electric energy, and internal bilateral sales for electric energy. |
| administrative export delist bid | A type of delist bid submitted during a Forward Capacity Auction for capacity exports associated with multiyear contracts but wanting to opt out of a capacity supply obligation, initiated using the same requirements as for export delist bids. | |
| ADR | alternative dispute resolution | |
| advanced metering infrastructure | AMI | Part of “smart grid" initiatives, the full measurement and collection system that includes meters ("smart meters") at an electricity customer’s site, communication networks between the customer and a service provider, and data reception and management systems that make the information available to the service provider. |
| AEO | Annual Energy Outlook (US DOE/EIA) | |
| AGC | automatic generation control, automatic generator control | |
| AGT | Algonquin Gas Transmission | |
| AIM | Algonquin Incremental Market (Spectra Energy project) | |
| Algonquin Gas Transmission | AGT | Natural gas pipelines owned by Spectra Energy Partners, supplying New England, New York, and New Jersey and connecting to the Texas Eastern Transmission and Maritimes and Northeast pipelines. |
| Algonquin Incremental Market (Spectra Energy project) | AIM | A Spectra Energy Partners project to expand the natural gas pipeline capacity of the existing Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline across New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. |
| alternating current | AC | A type of electric current that reverses direction many times per second at regular intervals; used by most electric utilities in the United States. (Compare with direct current.) |
| Alternative Capacity Price Rule | APR | Former rule in the Forward Capacity Market designed to address the potential price distortion effect of out-of-market resource participation; replaced with the Capacity Carry Forward Rule, circa December 2012. |
| alternative compliance payment | ACP | A state-established payment a retail electricity supplier makes to a state when its qualified renewable resources fall short of providing sufficient Renewable Energy Credits for meeting the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards. |
| alternative dispute resolution | ADR | A procedure by which a neutral individual or firm settles a dispute between two other parties as an alternative to litigation. Market Rule 1, Appendix D, outlines the ISO’s ADR procedure for settling disputes between a market participant and the ISO. |
| Alternative Portfolio Standard | APS | A program in Massachusetts (and other states outside New England) that provides incentives to retail electricity providers for developing alternative electricity technologies, as a complement to meeting the state’s standards for developing renewable sources of energy. Also called Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard; see Renewable Portfolio Standard. |
| Alternative Technology Regulation Pilot Program | ATR | A program run by ISO New England from 2008 to 2015 permitting resources using certain new, alternative technologies to provide and be paid for regulation service on a trial basis. The program was a response to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order No. 890, Preventing Undue Discrimination and Preference in Transmission Service (2007), and led to a redesign of New England’s Regulation Market in 2015 to permit participation by these technologies. |
| alternative technology regulation resource | ATRR | A power resource using storage-based or other unconventional technologies to provide frequency regulation services. (Also see energy-neutral signal.) |
| ambient air delist bid | A type of delist bid submitted for a thermal generator for opting out of a Forward Capacity Auction capacity supply obligation to reflect that the generator’s summer capability is less than its winter capability because high ambient air temperatures can reduce the generator’s capacity ratings. | |
| American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (US) | ARRA | A US law for making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and state and local fiscal stabilization, enacted on February 17, 2009. |
| AMI | advanced metering infrastructure | |
| ampere (current) | A | The rate of the flow of electrons through a material. |
| AMR | Annual Markets Report | |
| ancillary service | A service, other than electric power, provided to the electric power system, including load, regulation, reserve, and voltage support. | |
| Ancillary Services Markets project | ASM | A two-phase upgrade to Standard Market Design software that included upgrading the Forward Reserve Market (a real-time locational market for acquiring operating reserves) and the Regulation Market, a market for selecting and paying for generation needed to manage small changes in system electrical load. |
| ANI | adjusted net interchange | |
| ANN | artificial neural network | |
| Annual Energy Outlook (US DOE/EIA) | AEO | Annual report of the US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, presenting yearly projections and analysis of energy topics. |
| Annual Markets Report | AMR | Annual report presenting the ISO-NE internal market monitor’s most important findings, market outcomes, and market design changes of New England’s wholesale electricity markets. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., AMR15 for 2015 report). |
| annual reconfiguration auction | ARA | An auction that takes place before and during a Forward Capacity Auction commitment period to allow participants to buy and sell capacity supply obligations and adjust their positions for covering potential increases in the Installed Capacity Requirement, matching potential decreases in the ICR, and deferring capacity requirements associated with existing capacity delist bids. |
| Annual Reconfiguration Transaction | An agreement that seeks to achieve the equivalent of a fixed price private transfer based on the intent of one participant to shed a resource’s capacity supply obligation (the transferring party/resource) and the desire of another participant to acquire a CSO (the acquiring party/resource) in an annual reconfiguration auction (ARA) | |
| Annual Reliability Report | ARR | Report summarizing ISO-NE activities related to reliable system operations and system performance. Sections within the report meet the requirements of the Transmission Operating Agreement. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., ARR05 for 2005 report). |
| apparent power | The product of the voltage (volts) and current (amperes) that comprises active (real) and reactive power, measured in volt-amperes (VA), kilovolt-amperes (kVA), or megavolt-amperes (MVA). | |
| Appendix H | Appendix H of Market Rule 1, Operations during Cold Weather Conditions | |
| Appendix H of Market Rule 1, Operations during Cold Weather Conditions | Appendix H | Provisions for the coordination of the different scheduling timeframes between the natural gas and electric power systems and the formal processes needed among the ISO, owners of gas-fired generation, and the natural gas industry during cold weather conditions. |
| APR | Alternative Capacity Price Rule | |
| APR-1, 2, or 3 | First, second, or third Alternative Capacity Price Rule mechanism | |
| APS | Alternative Portfolio Standard | |
| ARA | annual reconfiguration auction | |
| ARD | asset-related demand | |
| area control error | ACE | The instantaneous difference between the net actual and scheduled interchange (i.e., transfer of electric energy between two balancing authority areas), accounting for the effects of frequency bias and correction for meter error. |
| ARM | actual reserve margin | |
| ARP | Acid Rain Program | |
| ARR | Auction Revenue Right | |
| ARR | automatic response rate | |
| ARR | Annual Reliability Report | |
| ARRA | American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (US) | |
| artificial neural network | ANN | Sophisticated computational system inspired by the way the human brain processes information. Applications include pattern recognition and predictive computations for use in weather forecasting and similar tasks that depend on a large number of variables. |
| ASM | Ancillary Services Markets project | |
| asset-related demand | ARD | A dispatchable or nondispatchable physical load that has been modeled within the ISO’s dispatch and settlement systems. |
| assigned meter reader | The entity that submits to the ISO the hourly and monthly megawatt-hours associated with the operation of an asset, which are used for settlement purposes. | |
| assumed marginal unit | An electric generating unit assumed to increase or decrease generation to economically meet a unit change in load, usually calculated for 1 MW. | |
| ATC | available transfer capability | |
| ATR | Alternative Technology Regulation Pilot Program | |
| ATRR | alternative technology regulation resource | |
| Auction Revenue Right | ARR | An entitlement to receive revenue generated by the sale of a Financial Transmission Right in a specific auction. |
| automatic generation control, automatic generator control | AGC | The automatic adjustment of a balancing authority area’s generation to match its interchange schedule plus frequency bias. |
| automatic response rate | ARR | For generating resources providing regulation service, the amount of the resource’s output, in megawatt-minutes, a market participant is willing to change between the resource’s regulation high and low limits. |
| automatic voltage regulator | AVR | A device used to automatically maintain a constant voltage, therefore regulating the output of a generator. |
| available transfer capability | ATC | A measure of the transfer capability remaining in the physical transmission network for further commercial activity over and above already committed uses. |
| AVR | automatic voltage regulator | |
| BA | balancing authority | |
| BAA | balancing authority area | |
| BACT | best-available control technology | |
| balancing authority | BA | The entity responsible for integrating ahead of time the resource plans for an area comprising a collection of generation, transmission, and loads within metered boundaries (defined by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation [NERC] to be a balancing authority area; BAA), maintaining the area’s load-resource balance, and supporting the area’s interconnection frequency in real time. The ISO is registered with NERC as a BA and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to BAAs. |
| balancing authority area | BAA | For compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation [NERC] reliability standards, an area comprising a collection of generation, transmission, and loads within metered boundaries for which a responsible entity (defined by NERC to be a balancing authority) integrates resource plans for that area, maintains the area’s load-resource balance, and supports the area’s interconnection frequency in real time. Balancing authority areas were formerly known as control areas. |
| Balancing Criteria for Design and Operation of Integrated Power Systems (NPCC) | Document A-02 | Former Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. (NPCC) criteria document addressing the ISO’s reliability requirement to not disconnect firm load due to resource deficiencies, on average, more than 0.1 day per year; replaced with NPCC Reference Directory #1. |
| Bangor Hydro Electric Company | BHE | A former regulated electric transmission and distribution utility in Maine, now owned by Emera, an energy company based in Nova Scotia, Canada. |
| Baseline Telemetry System | BLTS | The system the ISO uses to compute the baselines for demand-response resources, which represent the levels at which the resources are expected to consume energy during an operating day when not being dispatched by the ISO to reduce demand. |
| baseload generating unit | A generating unit that satisfies all or part of the minimum load of a system, producing electric energy continuously (typically more than 70% of the year), at a constant rate, and close to maximum output. These units usually are economic to operate day to day. | |
| BAT | best-available technology | |
| BBLS | Blue Barrels (42 gallons – oil barrel) | |
| BC | bilateral contract | |
| behind the meter | BTM | Refers to distributed generation installations located behind a customer load. |
| benchmark price | An estimate of the market-clearing price that would result if the buying and selling actions of each market participant did not affect the market price and the market operated with perfect efficiency. | |
| BES | bulk electric system, bulk electric power system, bulk electric power grid | |
| best-available control technology | BACT | A US Clean Air Act emissions limitation for a specific pollutant based on the maximum degree of control a regulated entity (i.e., major polluting source) can achieve, case by case, with consideration of energy, environmental, and economic impacts. BACTs can be add-on control equipment or a modification to a production process or methodology. Refer to best-available technology. |
| best-available technology | BAT | As defined by the US Clean Water Act, the best available, economically achievable performance of plants in a regulated industrial subcategory or category (e.g., power plants), as set by a permitting authority, with consideration of the costs to achieve BAT effluent reductions; the age of equipment and facilities involved; the process the industry employs and potential process changes; non-water-quality environmental impacts, including energy requirements; and other factors EPA deems appropriate, to minimize the adverse environmental impact of, for example, cooling water intake structures. |
| BHE | Northeastern Maine subarea | |
| BHE | Bangor Hydro Electric Company | |
| BHE | BHE subarea | |
| BHE subarea | BHE | Regional System Plan subarea comprising northeastern Maine. |
| bid | A request to purchase a certain amount of electric energy (megawatts) at a specific location on the system. | |
| bid-intercept price | An estimate of the price of electric energy using submitted supply offers but ignoring unit operating constraints. | |
| bilateral contract | BC | A contract between a buyer and seller of wholesale electricity, which provides price certainty for both parties. |
| bilateral trading | The purchase and sale of electric energy or regulation obligations between two market participants. The energy (megawatts) is traded through the ISO from one market participant to another. | |
| binding constraint | A system or transmission limitation that affects price formation in one of the ISO’s wholesale electricity markets for either all of New England or within a specific area affected by the constraint. | |
| blackout | The unplanned and emergency loss of electricity due to a failure of the generation, transmission, or distribution system. | |
| blackstart | When a generating unit goes from a shutdown condition to an operating condition without electrical support from the grid after a system blackout. | |
| black-start unit | A generating unit that has the ability to quickly go from a shutdown condition to an operating condition using its own batteries or compressed air, not electricity from the power system it is connected to. | |
| BLTS | Baseline Telemetry System | |
| BOSTON (all caps) | BOSTON subarea | |
| BOSTON subarea | BOSTON (all caps) | Regional System Plan subarea of Greater Boston, including the North Shore. |
| bottled generation | The situation when electricity produced in one area cannot be transmitted to other areas because of a transmission constraint. | |
| BPS | bulk power system, bulk power grid | |
| British thermal unit | Btu | A measurement of the heat content of fuels; also the power of heating and cooling systems, such as furnaces and air conditioners. |
| BTM | behind the meter | |
| Btu | British thermal unit | |
| bulk electric system, bulk electric power system, bulk electric power grid | BES | The interconnected electrical generating resources, transmission facilities, tie lines with neighboring systems, and associated equipment used to produce electric energy, generally operated at 100 kV or higher. (ISO Operations, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC], and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation) |
| bulk power system, bulk power grid | BPS | An interconnected electrical system consisting of generation and transmission facilities on which faults (short circuits) or disturbances (severe oscillations or changes of current, voltage, or frequency) can have significant adverse impacts outside a local area. (Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. [NPCC] and ISO System Planning) |
| Bunker | Bunkering is the supply of fuel (or "bunkers") for use by ships, and includes the shipboard logistics of loading fuel and distributing it among available bunker tanks. | |
| bus | An electrical node or point of interconnection to the electric power system where power is available for transmission. Also, an electrical conductor that serves as a common connection for two or more electrical circuits. | |
| busbar | A large rigid conductor typically used in a substation to feed and direct electric power to two or more circuits. | |
| C&LM | conservation and load-management | |
| C4 | four largest competitors | |
| C8 | eight largest competitors | |
| CA | control area | |
| CAA | Clean Air Act (US) | |
| CAAA | Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (US) | |
| CAGR | compound annual growth rate | |
| CAIR | Clean Air Interstate Rule (US EPA) | |
| CAMR | Clean Air Mercury Rule (US EPA) | |
| CAMS | Customer and Asset Management System | |
| capability period | One of two specific time periods within a power year. The summer period is June 1 through September 30; the winter period is October 1 through May 31. | |
| capability year | See capacity commitment period. | |
| capacitor | A passive two-terminal electrical component that stores potential energy in an electric field. | |
| capacity | The rated and continuous load-carrying ability, expressed in megawatts or megavolt-amperes, of generation, transmission, or other electrical equipment. (Also see reserve capacity.) | |
| Capacity Capability Interconnection Standard | An ISO capacity and energy requirement to ensure intrazonal deliverability by avoiding the redispatch of other capacity network resources; includes the same criteria as the Network Capability Interconnection Standard. | |
| capacity commitment period | CCP | The one-year period from June 1 through May 31 of the following year for which Forward Capacity Market capacity supply obligations are assumed and payments are made; same as a power year. |
| capacity export through import-constrained zone | CETICZ | Per Market Rule 1, Section III.1.10.7(f), an external energy market transaction that receives priority scheduling and curtailment in real time (as set forth in the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (Section II.44), which meets the following criteria: (1) exports occur across an external interface located in an import-constrained capacity zone that cleared in the Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) with price separation; (2) the transaction is directly associated with an export bid or administrative export delist bid that cleared in the FCA, and the megawatt amount of the external transaction is less than or equal to the megawatt amount of the cleared export bid; (3) the external node associated with the cleared bid is connected to the import-constrained capacity zone and not to a non-export-constrained capacity zone; (4) the resource, or portion of the resource, associated with the cleared bid is not located in the import-constrained capacity zone; (5) the external transaction has been submitted and cleared in the Day-Ahead Energy Market; (6) a matching external transaction has also been submitted into the Real-Time Energy Market by the end of the reoffer period for self-scheduled external transactions and [in accordance with Section III.1.10.7(a)], by the offer-submission deadline for the Day-Ahead Energy Market for priced external transactions. |
| capacity factor | The ratio of the electrical energy a generating unit produced for a certain period to the electrical energy it could have produced at full operation during the same period. | |
| capacity load obligation | CLO | The quantity of capacity for which a market participant is financially responsible, equal to that participant’s capacity requirement, if any, adjusted to account for any relevant capacity load obligation bilateral contract through which the participant may transfer all or a portion of its CLO to another entity, per Market Rule 1, Section III.13.5. |
| capacity load obligation bilateral | CLOB | A bilateral contract through which a market participant may transfer all or a portion of its capacity load obligation to another entity, per Market Rule 1, Section III.13.5. |
| capacity market | A market where generators and demand capacity resources receive compensation for investing in capacity resources. Load-serving entities, the market participants that secure electric energy, transmission service, and related services to serve the demand of their customers, make capacity payments to generators and demand capacity resources to ensure the long-term availability of sufficient capacity for the reliable operation of the bulk power grid (see Installed Capacity Market and Forward Capacity Market). | |
| capacity network resource | CNR | That portion of a generating facility interconnected to the transmission system under the Capacity Capability Interconnection Standard, which includes the criteria for interconnecting a generating facility seeking capacity network resource interconnection service, or an elective transmission upgrade seeking capacity network import interconnection service, in way that avoids any significant adverse effect on the reliability, stability, and operability of the New England transmission system. |
| capacity network resource capability | CNRC | Determined for a Forward Capacity Auction by a resource’s capacity supply obligation (CSO) and whether the resource was obtained in an FCA, a reconfiguration auction, or a CSO bilateral period, a resource’s Forward Capacity Market qualifications regarding (1) the interconnection rights it must maintain, (2) whether it requires an interconnection request for a proposed capability increase, or (3) whether a proposed increase in output from an existing generating capacity resource requires an initial interconnection analysis. (Also see potential capacity network resource capability.) |
| capacity supply obligation | CSO | A requirement for a resource to provide capacity, or a portion of capacity, to satisfy a portion of the ISO’s Installed Capacity Requirement acquired through a Forward Capacity Auction, a reconfiguration auction, or a CSO bilateral contract through which a market participant may transfer all or part of its obligation to another entity. |
| capacity supply obligation bilateral | CSOB | A bilateral contract through which a market participant may transfer all or a part of its capacity supply obligation to another entity, as described in Market Rule 1, Section III.13.5.1. |
| capacity transfer right | CTR | A Forward Capacity Market capacity commitment period settlement calculation for distributing excess revenue to capacity resources in a capacity zone resulting from differences in payment rates between constrained and unconstrained zones. |
| capacity value | A demand capacity resource’s monthly demand-reduction value multiplied by the transmission and distribution loss factor (T&D loss factor) and the reserve margin factor identified for a capacity commitment period. | |
| capacity zone | Determined before each Forward Capacity Auction, a geographic subregion of the New England Balancing Authority Area that may represent an export-constrained load zone (having a maximum capacity limit), an import-constrained load zone (having a local sourcing requirement), or a contiguous load zone—neither export nor import constrained. These limits and requirements are based on network models using transmission lines in service no later than the first day of the relevant capacity commitment period. | |
| capital funding charge | CFC | The costs of budgeted capital items, which the ISO collects from market participants for costs the ISO does not finance. |
| carbon dioxide leakage | Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from lower-cost electric energy generated outside the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) region and imported into the region, offsetting, in part, the reduced CO2 emissions by generators within the RGGI states. | |
| cascading outage | The uncontrolled successive loss of bulk electric system facilities that interrupts electric service and cannot be restrained from spreading beyond a predetermined area, triggered by an incident (or condition) at any location on the system. (Also see interconnection-reliability operating limit.) | |
| CASPR | Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources | |
| CATR | Comprehensive Area Transmission Review | |
| CATR | Clean Air Transport Rule (US EPA) | |
| CB | customer baseline | |
| CC | combined cycle | |
| CCGT | combined-cycle gas turbine | |
| CCP | capacity commitment period | |
| CCRP | Central Connecticut Reliability Project | |
| CCRR | Coal Combustion Residue Rule (US EPA) | |
| CEII | Critical Energy Infrastructure Information | |
| CELT Report | Forecast Report of Capacity, Energy, Loads, and Transmission | |
| Central Connecticut Reliability Project | CCRP | A 345 kV transmission line upgrade between North Bloomfield and Frost Bridge, Connecticut. |
| Central Massachusetts/Northeastern Massachusetts subarea | CMA/NEMA | Regional System Plan subarea comprising central Massachusetts and northeastern Massachusetts. |
| CEP | Comprehensive Energy Plan (VT) | |
| Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity | CPCN | A type of regulatory compliance certification a private company requires from a federal or state public board or commission before it can construct the facilities or provide services deemed in the public interest. |
| Certificate of Public Good (VT) | CPG | A license the Vermont Public Service Board issues to utilities and cable operators that impose conditions for providing those services. |
| CES | Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CT) | |
| CES | Clean Energy Standard (MA) | |
| CETICZ | capacity export through import-constrained zone | |
| CFC | capital funding charge | |
| CFLA | critical facility loading assessment | |
| CFR | Code of Federal Regulations | |
| CHP | combined heat and power | |
| CIP | critical infrastructure protection | |
| circular mil | CM | A unit of area used to measure the cross section of a wire or cable. One circular mil equals the area of a circle whose diameter is 0.001 (10-3) inch. |
| claim 10 | The generation output level, expressed in megawatts, a resource can reach within 10 minutes from an off-line state after receiving a dispatch instruction. Or, the amount of reduced consumption, expressed in megawatts, a dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resource can reach within 10 minutes after receiving a dispatch instruction. | |
| claim 30 | The generation output level, expressed in megawatts, a resource can reach within 30 minutes from an off-line state after receiving a dispatch instruction. Or, the amount of reduced consumption, expressed in megawatts, a dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resource can reach within 30 minutes after receiving a dispatch instruction. | |
| claimed capability | A generator’s maximum production or output. | |
| Clean Air Act (US) | CAA | A federal law that regulates air emissions from stationery and mobile sources and authorizes the US Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for protecting public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. |
| Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (US) | CAAA | Revisions to Section 112 of the US Clean Air Act that required the US Environmental Protection Agency to issue technology-based standards for major sources of air pollution (i.e., a stationary source or group of sources that emit or have the potential to emit 10 tons per year or more of a hazardous air pollutant or 25 tons or more of a combination of hazardous air pollutants) and certain nonmajor stationary sources. |
| Clean Air Interstate Rule (US EPA) | CAIR | A US Environmental Protection Agency rule, replaced by the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (US EPA), that addressed the regional interstate transport of fine particulate matter and ozone by requiring 28 eastern states to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that contributed to unhealthy levels of these pollutants in downwind states. |
| Clean Air Mercury Rule (US EPA) | CAMR | A US Environmental Protection Agency rule of 2005, vacated by the DC Circuit Court in 2008, which established mercury performance standards for new and existing coal-fired utilities for reducing their mercury emissions, regulating these emissions through a cap-and-trade program under Clean Air Act, Section 111 (refer to Mercury and Air Toxics Standard; MATS). |
| Clean Air Transport Rule (US EPA) | CATR | Refer to the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (US EPA). |
| clean coal | A marketing term for coal that has been chemically washed of minerals and impurities and sometimes gasified and burned, with the flue gasses treated with steam, to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide in the coal and, typically, recover and store some of the coal’s carbon dioxide so that it is not released into the atmosphere. Use "new coal technology" instead. | |
| Clean Energy Performance Standard (MA) | See Clean Energy Standard (MA). | |
| Clean Energy Standard (MA) | CES | A proposed market-based framework in Massachusetts for providing signals to electricity providers to favor lower- and no-emission sources of electricity generation for delivery to customers. Also called Clean Energy Performance Standard. |
| clean resources | Generating resources that emit no or low emissions when generating electricity compared with fossil fuel units. | |
| Clean Water Act (US) | CWA | A federal law establishing the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into US waters and regulating quality standards for surface waters. Under the act the US Environmental Protection Agency has set wastewater and cooling water standards for various industries, including electric utilities. See the Cooling Water Intake Rule. |
| cleared | When a market has been settled, such that the quantity offered (supplied) matches the quantity bid (demanded), the amount to be bought and sold has been determined, and the a settlement between the buyers and sellers is possible. | |
| clearing price | CP | In wholesale electricity markets, the price for electric energy determined by matching the dollar and volume bids to buy the energy with the offers to sell the energy. Forward Capacity Market clearing prices match the offers to sell electric energy at some future point with the peak demand forecasted for that time. |
| CLO | capacity load obligation | |
| CLOB | capacity load obligation bilateral | |
| CM | circular mil | |
| CMA/NEMA | Central Massachusetts/Northeastern Massachusetts subarea | |
| CMR | Code of Massachusetts Regulations | |
| CNR | capacity network resource | |
| CNRC | capacity network resource capability | |
| Coal Combustion Residue Rule (US EPA) | CCRR | Final rule of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act establishing requirements for coal-fired power plants for the disposal of coal combustion residuals, or coal ash, in landfills and surface impoundments. |
| Code of Federal Regulations | CFR | The codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the federal government. |
| Code of Massachusetts Regulations | CMR | The compilation of the regulations of Massachusetts’ state agencies. |
| coincident peak demand | See coincident peak load. | |
| coincident peak load | The largest sum of all energy load (demand) values at one specific time in a particular geographic area, sometimes measured instantaneously and, other times, as the highest aggregated hourly value. Also called coincident peak demand. | |
| combined cycle | CC | A technology that produces electricity and sometimes processes steam from otherwise lost waste heat from a combustion turbine, which increases the unit’s efficiency for generating electricity. See combined heat and power and combined-cycle gas turbine. |
| combined heat and power | CHP | Through a single, integrated process, the generation of electric energy and the recovery of useable thermal energy, such as steam or hot water, which can be used for space heating, cooling, domestic hot water, and industrial processes but that typically goes to waste. CHP systems can achieve efficiencies of over 80% compared with 50% for conventional generators. Also known as cogeneration. See combined-cycle gas turbine. |
| combined-cycle gas turbine | CCGT | A power generator that uses both a gas and a steam turbine to produce electricity more efficiently than a simple-cycle generator by routing the heat from the gas turbine to a nearby steam turbine to generate the extra power. See combined heat and power. |
| combustion turbine (generator) | CT | A type of engine that compresses air to a higher pressure in a chamber into which fuel is sprayed and ignited, creating a high-temperature, high-pressure flow of air that spins a turbine and generates electric energy. |
| commitment period | CP | The period during which capacity must be supplied to the New England power system. In the Forward Capacity Market, existing capacity has a one-year commitment period. New capacity can choose a commitment period of up to five years. Each period coincides with the June-to-May power year. For the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy Markets, a period of continuous operation used to determine eligibility for Net Commitment-Period Compensation (NCPC) credit. Also see capacity commitment period. |
| Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources | CASPR | A market-based mechanism for accommodating the entry of New England state-sponsored new resources into the Forward Capacity Market, beginning with the thirteenth Forward Capacity Auction (FCA #13) (in February 2019 for the 2022/2023 capacity commitment period), for maintaining competitively based capacity prices; introduces a substitution auction to be held annually after the primary FCA that will enable new resources unable to acquire a capacity supply obligation (CSO) in the primary auction to obtain one from an existing resource that acquired one in the primary auction but is willing to permanently retire from all markets. |
| composite offer | When capacity resources participate together to maximize a combined offer in a Forward Capacity Auction, for example, when a resource with more summer capacity than winter capacity pairs its summer excess with the winter excess from a resource with more winter capacity than summer capacity. | |
| compound annual growth rate | CAGR | A calculation of the rate at which electric energy use or peak load would have grown if it grew at a steady rate. The CAGR equals the nth root of the total percentage growth rate, where n equals the number of years in the period under consideration. |
| Comprehensive Area Transmission Review | CATR | As required by the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC), an Independent System Operator/Regional Transmission Organization’s assessment of its area’s transmission facilities to demonstrate that the facilities are in conformance with the applicable reliability standards of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and potentially other entities. |
| Comprehensive Energy Plan (VT) | CEP | Prepared by the Vermont Department of Public Service and required by statute, a 20-year framework and recommended public and private sector actions to advance the state’s energy policy goals. |
| Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CT) | CES | Prepared by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and required by statute every three years, an analysis of the state’s current energy use; examination of opportunities for meeting future energy needs; and recommendations to give state residents, businesses, and industries a number of options for guiding the state toward cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy. |
| CONE | cost of new entry | |
| congestion | A condition that arises on the transmission system when one or more restrictions prevents the economic dispatch of electric energy resources from serving load. Also, a condition that occurs when the transfer capability is insufficient for simultaneously implementing all the preferred schedules for the transmission of electric energy. | |
| congestion component | For a locational marginal price of electric energy in the wholesale energy markets, the part of the nodal price that reflects the marginal cost of congestion at a given node or external node relative to the load-weighted average of the system node prices. The congestion component of a zonal price is the weighted average of the congestion components of the nodal prices that comprise the zonal price. The congestion component of the Hub price is the average of the congestion components of the nodes that comprise the Hub. | |
| Congestion Revenue Fund | CRF | ISO fund containing the sum of the imbalances in the congestion component settlements used for paying "congestion rents" for holders of Financial Transmission Rights who are paid the difference in day-ahead congestion charges between two defined pricing points. |
| Congressional Research Service | CRS | A part of the US Library of Congress that works exclusively for the US Congress to provide policy and legal analysis to congressional committees and members of the House and Senate. |
| Connecticut load zone | CT | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the State of Connecticut, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Connecticut subarea | CT | Regional System Plan subarea that includes northern and eastern Connecticut. |
| conservation and load-management | C&LM | A load-serving entity’s (LSE) program for assisting and encouraging its residential, commercial, and industrial customers in implementing cost-effective energy conservation measures, which reduce the total amount of demand the LSE needs to serve, save energy costs, and reduce emissions. |
| constraint | The maximum level a transmission system facility (or facilities) can operate to respect the most restrictive of its thermal, stability, and voltage limits. | |
| Consumer Price Index | CPI | A statistical measure of the changes in the prices an urban consumer pays for a representative basket of goods and services. |
| contingency | The unplanned disconnection from the electricity grid of one or more power system elements, such as a transmission or generation facility. See first contingency and second contingency. | |
| Contingency Reserve Adjustment (Factor) | CRA | Calculated for each quarter, a part of the equation to determine the 10-minute reserve requirement during normal conditions for replacing the first-contingency loss in the New England Reliability Coordinator Area/Balancing Authority Area. CRAquarter = 2 - {the average percentage Disturbance Control Standard (expressed as a decimal) for the quarter of measurement}. |
| control area | CA | The bulk electric power system (BEPS) within the metered boundaries of the area under the authority of a reliability coordinator (which is the entity with the highest level of authority for reliably operating the BEPS, including the authority to prevent or mitigate emergency operating situations in next-day and real-time operations and with the wide-area view for calculating the system’s interconnection-reliability operating limits) and one or more balancing authorities (which are responsible for integrating the resource plans for the BEPS in advance within a balancing authority area, maintaining the area’s load-resource balance, and supporting the area’s interconnection frequency in real time). More generally, an electricity system bounded by interconnection metering and communication systems that control supply resources to maintain an import-export schedule with other control areas and contribute to regulating the frequency of the interconnection. A specific area of responsibility for an Independent System Operator for assuring adequate transmission and power supply. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has replaced this term with balancing authority area. |
| Control Performance Standard | CPS | A reliability that sets the limits of a balancing authority’s area control error over a specified period. |
| controlled blackout | See load shedding. | |
| controlled power outage | See load shedding. | |
| Cooling Water Intake Rule (US EPA) | CWIR | US Environmental Protection Agency rule establishing requirements for the location, design, construction, and operation of industrial intake structures, including for power plants, to minimize adverse environmental impacts. See cooling water intake structure. |
| cooling water intake structure | CWIS | Infrastructure of industrial facilities, including power plants, that pulls large volumes of water from lakes, rivers, estuaries or oceans to cool their operations, which can cause adverse environmental impacts by also pulling large numbers of fish and shellfish or their eggs into the facilities’ cooling systems. See Cooling Water Intake Rule (US EPA). |
| cooling-degree day | A unit that relates a day’s temperature to the demand for electric energy due to air conditioning or refrigeration. It is an estimate of electric energy requirements and indicates fuel consumption for the air conditioning or refrigeration. Cooling-degree days are provided for each degree the daily mean temperature and humidity index are above the baseline of 65. | |
| coordinated transaction scheduling | CTS | A process ISO New England and the New York Independent System Operator follow for submitting and scheduling transactions for exchanging energy at the New York/New England AC interfaces, featuring scheduling every 15 minutes, external transaction bidding, coordinated economic clearing of transactions, and the elimination of fees and charges for interface bids, to facilitate the flow of power from the region with lower costs to the region with higher costs and to save total production costs and lower locational marginal prices in each region. |
| COS | cost of service | |
| cost of new entry | CONE | Conceptually, the price of capacity in $/kilowatt-month needed to attract sufficient new capacity. More specifically, a pricing threshold derived from the capacity clearing prices established in a Forward Capacity Auction. CONEs are used to (1) establish the starting price for each FCA, as described in Market Rule 1, (2) set thresholds for reviewing delist bids to deter the exercise of market power, (3) set initial pricing for reconfiguration auctions when the ISO or a market participant that does not meet its commercial operation date submits demand bids or supply offers, and (4) determine pricing when the supply is inadequate and competition is insufficient. |
| cost of service | COS | The amount of revenue a utility needs to operate and maintain facilities, cover capital expenses, and earn a profit. |
| CP | commitment period | |
| CP | clearing price | |
| CP | criteria pollutant | |
| CPCN | Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity | |
| CPG | Certificate of Public Good (VT) | |
| CPI | Consumer Price Index | |
| CPS | Control Performance Standard | |
| CPS | critical path schedule | |
| cps | cycles per second | |
| CRA | Contingency Reserve Adjustment (Factor) | |
| CRF | Congestion Revenue Fund | |
| criteria pollutant | CP | Per the US Clean Air Act, six common air pollutants found all over the United States, including particulate matter, photochemical oxidants and ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxide, and lead, which can harm human health and the environment and cause property damage. |
| Critical Energy Infrastructure Information | CEII | Per the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, specific engineering, vulnerability, or detailed design information about proposed or existing critical infrastructure (physical or virtual) that: (1) relates details about the production, generation, transmission, or distribution of energy; (2) could be useful to a person planning an attack on critical infrastructure; (3) is exempt from mandatory disclosure under the US Freedom of Information Act; and, (4) gives strategic information beyond the location of the critical infrastructure. |
| critical facility loading assessment | CFLA | A North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability tool for situational awareness that evaluates a set of contingencies and other events that could affect the reliability of the bulk electric system or one of its elements and then approximates the post-contingency loading of a set of monitored facilities using telemetered SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) flows and line-outage distribution factors (LODFs). |
| critical infrastructure protection | CIP | A national program regarding the preparedness and response to serious incidents that involve the infrastructures critical to the national and economic security of the country and the wellbeing of its citizens. The 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks are considered so vital to the US that any combination of their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, or national public health or safety include chemical; commercial facilities; communications; critical manufacturing; dams; defense industrial base; emergency services; energy; financial services; food and agriculture; government facilities; healthcare and public health; information technology; nuclear reactors, materials, and waste; transportation systems; and water and wastewater systems. |
| critical load level | The load level at which transmission constraints are respected but where system problems could occur for small incremental changes in load levels. | |
| critical path schedule | CPS | In the Forward Capacity Market, the project schedule a project sponsor must include in a new capacity qualification package (for new generating capacity, new import capacity backed by an external resource, and new demand capacity resources) that contains sufficient detail to allow the ISO to evaluate the feasibility of the project and whether it will meet the requirement to achieve commercial operation as qualified no later than the start of the relevant capacity commitment period. The CPS includes, at a minimum, the dates with the expected milestones for major permits and information on project finance closing, major equipment orders, substantial site construction, major equipment delivery, major equipment testing, commissioning, commercial operation, and the shedding of its capacity load obligation. |
| Cross-Sound Cable | CSC | A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical transmission cable buried in the Long Island Sound, connecting the electrical grids of New England and Long Island, NY, and capable of providing 330 MW of electrical transmission capacity to customers. |
| Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (US EPA) | CSAPR | A US Environmental Protection Agency rule that requires states to reduce power plant emissions contributing any combination of ozone or fine particulate matter pollution in other states. |
| CRS | Congressional Research Service | |
| CSAPR | Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (US EPA) | |
| CSC | Cross-Sound Cable | |
| CSO | capacity supply obligation | |
| CSOB | capacity supply obligation bilateral | |
| CT | Connecticut load zone | |
| CT | combustion turbine (generator) | |
| CT | Connecticut subarea | |
| CTR | capacity transfer right | |
| CTS | coordinated transaction scheduling | |
| current (ampere) | The rate of the flow of electrons through a material, measured as amperes. | |
| Customer and Asset Management System | CAMS | An ISO administrative database for storing, maintaining, and managing all customer data and facilitating the registration of demand assets and resources, which is available to customers as an internet-based tool for managing company contacts, committee representation, and subaccounts; granting users access to other ISO internet-based applications; and updating company information. |
| customer baseline | CB | The average hourly load, rounded to the nearest kilowatt-hour, for each of the 24 hours in a day for a demand asset. |
| customer of ISO New England | An entity that conducts business with ISO New England, such as a transmission customer or market participant. | |
| CWA | Clean Water Act (US) | |
| CWIR | Cooling Water Intake Rule (US EPA) | |
| CWIS | cooling water intake structure | |
| cycles per second | cps | A measure of how frequently an alternating current changes directions; see hertz. |
| D - F | ||
| DA | day ahead | |
| DAALO | day-ahead-adjusted load obligation | |
| DAANI | day-ahead-adjusted net interchange | |
| DALO | day-ahead load obligation | |
| DALRP | Day-Ahead Load-Response Program | |
| DAM | Day-Ahead Energy Market | |
| DARD | dispatchable asset-related demand | |
| day ahead | DA | The calendar day immediately before the grid’s operating day. |
| day-ahead demand-reduction obligation | An obligation each market participant has for each settlement interval at each location equal to the megawatt-hours of its demand-reduction offers the ISO accepted in the Day-Ahead Energy Market. | |
| Day-Ahead Energy Market | DAM | In the New England Balancing Authority Area, a market that produces financially binding schedules for the production and consumption of electric energy one day before the operating day (see electric energy market and Real-Time Energy Market). |
| day-ahead generation obligation | For each hour and specific location, the megawatt-hours of a generator’s supply offer, incremental offers, and external transaction purchases the ISO accepted in the Day-Ahead Energy Market, which has a positive value. | |
| day-ahead load obligation | DALO | For each hour, the requirement that each market participant has for providing electric energy (megawatt-hours) at each node, external node, load zone, or the Hub equal to the megawatt-hours of its demand bids, decrement bids, and external transaction sales accepted by the ISO in the Day-Ahead Energy Market at that location. |
| Day-Ahead Load-Response Program | DALRP | A prior ISO New England program whereby participants made offers to reduce load on the basis of the day-ahead locational marginal price. |
| day-ahead locational adjusted net interchange | An obligation each market participant has for each settlement interval at each location equal to the day-ahead-adjusted load obligation plus the day-ahead generation obligation plus the day-ahead demand-reduction obligation at that location. | |
| day-ahead-adjusted load obligation | DAALO | A Day-Ahead Energy Market electric energy requirement for each market participant for each hour at each location equal to the day-ahead load obligation (i.e., the requirement that each market participant has for providing electric energy) adjusted by any applicable day-ahead internal bilateral transactions at that location. |
| day-ahead-adjusted net interchange | DAANI | Calculated for each hour, the sum of a market participant’s day-ahead load obligation (which has a negative sign) and day-ahead generation. |
| DC (see HVDC) | direct current | |
| DCA | designated congestion area | |
| DCF | discounted cash flow | |
| DCS | Disturbance Control Standard | |
| DCT | double-circuit tower | |
| DDE | demand-designated entity | |
| DDG | do-not-exceed dispatchable generator | |
| DDP | desired dispatch point | |
| deactivation | The "mothballing" of a facility, such that with minor reconditioning, it could be brought back into service in a relatively short time. | |
| dead bus | An inactive bus; a point on the transmission system where electric energy is not available for transmission. | |
| dead-bus logic | A procedure for assigning a price for electric energy from the nearest active bus to the dead (inactive) bus. | |
| DEC | decremental bid | |
| decremental bid | DEC | A financial bid to buy electric energy at a specified location in the Day-Ahead Energy Market; virtual demand not associated with a physical load. Do not use the abbreviation dec. |
| dekatherm | Dth | 1,000,000 British thermal units (Btu); 1 million Btu (MMBtu); the basis of most natural gas billings accounting for the amount and quality of gas purchased. |
| delist | The temporary removal of a resource from service for various reasons, usually associated with maintenance; the removal of a resource from the Forward Capacity Market. A classification for facilities that can be brought back on line relatively easily. | |
| delist bid | A submission in a Forward Capacity Auction for all or part of an existing Forward Capacity Market resource indicating that the resource wants to opt out of the auction for a single commitment period or all future periods before the deadline for qualifying its existing capacity and does not want a capacity obligation below a certain price. | |
| delisted unit | A existing resource in a balancing authority area that has requested and the ISO has approved ISO to opt out of a Forward Capacity Auction before the existing capacity-qualification deadline and thus will not have a capacity supply obligation below a certain price or be required to offer its capacity into the Day-Ahead Energy Market. | |
| demand | Load; the amount of electrical power the power system uses; the level of electricity consumption, measured in megawatts, at a particular time. | |
| demand bid | A request to purchase an amount of electric energy at a specific location on the bulk electric power system. Also, a request to purchase an amount of electric energy at a specified price associated with a physical load. | |
| demand capacity resource | A capacity product, type of equipment, system, service, practice, or strategy that verifiably reduces end-use demand for electricity from the power system. Demand capacity resource measures include the use of energy-efficient appliances and lighting, advanced cooling and heating technologies, electronic devices to cycle air conditioners on and off, and equipment to shift load to off-peak hours of demand. See active demand capacity resource, on-peak capacity resource, and seasonal-peak capacity resource. | |
| demand capacity resource audit and testing tool | DR A&TT | The ISO’s internet-based auditing and tracking tool for demand capacity resources, used for the submittal, scheduling (by the ISO), and management of demand capacity resource seasonal audits, including the approval of audit results and the dissemination of demand-asset results. |
| demand capacity resource dispatch zone | Any one of 19 regions used to dispatch active demand capacity resources. | |
| demand capacity resource on-peak hours | Hours ending (HE) 2:00 p.m. through 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday on nonholidays during June, July, and August and HE 6:00 p.m. through 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday on nonholidays during December and January. | |
| demand capacity resource seasonal-peak hours | Those hours in which the actual, real-time hourly load, as measured using real-time telemetry (adjusted for transmission and distribution losses, and excluding load associated with exports and storage dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resources) for Monday through Friday on nonholidays, during June, July, August, December, and January, as determined by the ISO, is equal to or greater than 90% of the most recent 50/50 system peak load forecast, as determined by the ISO, for the applicable summer or winter season. | |
| demand resource | Now termed demand capacity resource | |
| demand response | When a market participant reduces its consumption of electric energy from the network when instructed in exchange for compensation based on wholesale market prices. The ISO has operated three types of demand-response programs: those activated by price, those activated for reliability, and those that reduce on-peak consumption. | |
| demand-designated entity | DDE | Pursuant to ISO Operating Procedure No. 14, Technical Requirements for Generators, Demand Resources, Asset-Related Demands, and Alternative Technology Regulation Resources, an entity designated by a lead market participant that provides dispatch services from a single physical location for active demand capacity resources and is the single point of contact to receive, acknowledge receipt of, and implement ISO dispatch instructions and other relevant communications. |
| demand-reduction value | DRV | The quantity of a resource’s reduced demand, hourly and monthly, calculated pursuant to Market Rule 1, Section III.13.7.1.5.3, for on-peak resources, seasonal-peak resources, and active demand capacity resources |
| demand-resource market-user interface | DR MUI | ISO application for submitting availability and telemetry data for demand capacity resources in the Forward Capacity Market; helps manage demand assets and resources by providing five-minute meter data for computing a demand-response resource’s initial baseline calculation, five-minute meter data corrections, and demand-resource availability information, Also provides forecasts for active demand capacity resources beginning at 10:00 p.m. on the day preceding the operating day (for informational purposes, not for dispatch instructions). |
| demand-response asset | DRA | An asset comprising the demand-reduction capability (in megawatts) of an individual end-use customer at a retail delivery point, or the aggregated demand-reduction capability of multiple end-use customers from multiple delivery points, that meets the registration requirements in Market Rule 1, Section III.8.1.1. A DRA’s demand-reduction equals is the difference between its actual demand measured at the retail delivery point, which could reflect the net supply at the time the ISO dispatches the demand-response resource to which the asset is associated, and its adjusted demand-response baseline. |
| demand-response baseline | The expected baseline demand of an individual end-use metered demand-response customer or group of end-use metered customers or the expected generation output levels of an individual end-use metered customer whose asset comprises distributed generation as determined pursuant to Market Rule 1, Section III.8.2. | |
| demand-response provider | DRP | An organization that manages the energy demand of its customers, reducing energy consumption at times of peak demand and high energy prices through advanced metering and controls. |
| Demand-Response Reserve Pilot Program | DRR Pilot | A small-scale, temporary program in New England from 2006 to 2010 that tested the ability of smaller demand-response resources to respond to ISO dispatch instructions similar to resources providing operating reserve. The program also assisted ISO system operators in more accurately predicting the likely performance of demand-response resources in varying system conditions and analyzing contingencies. |
| demand-response resource | DRR | An individual demand-response asset, or an aggregation of demand-response assets within a DRR aggregation zone, registered in accordance with Market Rule 1, Seciton III..8.1.2; can participate in the electricity and reserve markets. |
| demand-side management | DSM | Actions that modify the amount of electric energy consumed (demand) and the patterns of consumption to optimize available and planned generation resources and defer the need for new sources of electric power (see demand response). |
| demand-side resource | Now termed demand capacity resource, a source of capacity whereby a consumer reduces the demand for electricity from the bulk power system, such as by using energy-efficient equipment, conserving energy in other ways, and using electricity generated on site (i.e., distributed generation). Some demand capacity resources have reduced load in response to a request from the ISO to do so for system reliability reasons or in response to a price signal. | |
| Department of Energy (US) | DOE | A department of the United States federal government responsible for energy policy and research. |
| Department of Public Utilities | DPU | A state-level department (e.g., in Massachusetts), that aims to ensure customers reliable, safe, and cost-effective public utilities, such as electricity, natural gas, water, and cable. Also called Department of Public Utilities Control (DPUC). |
| Department of Public Utilities Control | DPUC | A state-level department that aims to ensure customers reliable, safe, and cost-effective public utilities, such as electricity, natural gas, water, and cable. Also called Department of Public Utilities (DPU). |
| DER | Distributed Energy Resource | |
| derated | A reduction in claimed capability, which usually is temporary and a result of physical problems. | |
| designated congestion area | DCA | An area of the country the US Department of Energy has determined to have considerable and persistent constrained transmission paths. |
| desired dispatch point | DDP | The control signal, expressed in megawatts, calculated and transmitted by the electric power system operator to direct the output, consumption, or demand-reduction level of each generator, dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resource, or demand-response resource, as appropriate, in accordance with the offer data. |
| deterministic analysis | A type of analysis based on a snapshot of assumed specific conditions for a specific scenario, which does not quantify the likelihood that these conditions will actually materialize. | |
| DFO | Distillate Fuel Oil | |
| DG | distributed generation | |
| DI | dispatch instructions | |
| direct current | DC (see HVDC) | Electric current that flows in one direction rather than in alternating directions. |
| discounted cash flow | DCF | A method of assessing investments, taking into account the expected accumulation of interest. |
| dispatch | When a control room operator issues electronic or verbal instructions to generators, transmission facilities, and other market participants to start up, shut down, raise or lower generation, change interchange schedules, or change the status of a dispatchable load in accordance with applicable contracts or demand bid parameters. (Also see economic dispatch.) | |
| dispatch instructions | DI | Directions the ISO gives to resources, which can include instructions to curtail or restore load or to begin or stop producing electric energy. |
| dispatch segment set | A series of records formulated from dispatch instructions containing data points required to complete a demand capacity resource’s performance evaluation. | |
| dispatch zone | DZ | One of 19 regions of electric energy supply and demand in New England. |
| dispatchable asset-related demand | DARD | Demand that can be modified on the basis of the physical load’s ability to respond to remote dispatch instructions from the ISO. |
| Distributed Energy Resource | DER | Any asset located on the distribution system, any associated subsystem or behind a customer meter, which may include, but is not limited to, electric storage resources, distributed generation, demand response, energy efficiency, thermal storage, and electric vehicles and their supply equipment. |
| distributed generation | DG | Generation provided by relatively small, on-site installations directly connected to distribution facilities or retail customer facilities and not the regional power system, which reduces the amount of energy the regional power system consumes and can alleviate or prevent regional power system transmission or distribution constraints or reduce or eliminate the need to install new transmission or distribution facilities. A small (24 kilowatt) solar photovoltaic system installed by a retail customer is an example of distributed generation. See distributed resource. |
| Distributed Network Protocol | DNP | A set of communications standards and protocols used between process automation system components, primarily at utilities to enhance the interoperability between substation and master station computer equipment. |
| distributed resource | Typically, a smaller-sized resource that uses load-reduction technologies or on-site generators, often located at or near load centers and generally installed and owned by a commercial or industrial facility. Distributed resources are used to help maintain the reliability of the electric supply during grid emergencies (see demand response) | |
| distribution | The delivery of electricity to end users via low-voltage electric power lines (typically <69 kV) (see transmission); the transfer of electricity from high-voltage lines to lower-voltage lines. | |
| distribution provider | DP | An entity that operates the electric power lines connecting high-voltage transmission lines to end-use load; providers are not defined by a specific voltage because they can serve customers at transmission voltages and distribution voltages. |
| distribution reliability cost | The cost of dispatching a generating unit to protect against potential damage to the low-voltage (distribution) system. | |
| disturbance | An unplanned event on the electric power system that produces an abnormal system condition; any perturbation to the system. Also, the unexpected change in the area control error caused by the sudden failure of generation or an interruption of load. | |
| Disturbance Control Standard | DCS | The North American Electric Reliability Corporation reliability standard that sets the time limit following a disturbance within which a balancing authority must return its area control error to within a specified range. |
| DLR | dynamic line rating | |
| DNE | do-not-exceed limit | |
| DNP | Distributed Network Protocol | |
| Document A-02 | Balancing Criteria for Design and Operation of Integrated Power Systems (NPCC) | |
| Document B-08 | Guidelines for Area Review of Resource Adequacy (NPCC) | |
| DOE | Department of Energy (US) | |
| do-not-exceed dispatchable generator | DDG | An intermittent-power-sourced generator, such as a wind generator, with randomly changing output but a do-not-exceed upper production limit to accommodate system reliability. |
| do-not-exceed limit | DNE | An upper limit on the energy level that a do-not-exceed dispatchable generator can produce without threatening the reliability of the electric power grid. This limit helps to integrate intermittent energy resources, particularly wind, into the grid by automating dispatch instructions and more efficiently utilizing transmission infrastructure. |
| double-circuit tower | DCT | A type of transmission tower that supports high-voltage power lines, with three phases for each circuit for a total of six conductors. Compared with other types of lines, these towers use less land area to reliably and economically transfer more power. |
| DP | distribution provider | |
| DPU | Department of Public Utilities | |
| DPUC | Department of Public Utilities Control | |
| DR A&TT | demand capacity resource audit and testing tool | |
| DR MUI | demand-resource market-user interface | |
| DRA | demand-response asset | |
| DRP | demand-response provider | |
| DRR | demand-response resource | |
| DRR Pilot | Demand-Response Reserve Pilot Program | |
| DRV | demand-reduction value | |
| dry sorbent injection | DSI | A pollution control technology that removes hydrogen chloride and other acid gases from coal- and oil-fired power plant emissions. |
| DSA | dynamic stability assessment | |
| DSI | dry sorbent injection | |
| DSM | demand-side management | |
| Dth | dekatherm | |
| dual-fuel capability | When a generator has the flexibility and storage capacity to use two types of fuel, typically oil and natural gas. | |
| dynamic delist bid | A type of delist bid submitted during a Forward Capacity Auction to indicate that a resource wants to opt out of a capacity supply obligation below a certain price in the auction and, unlike other types of delist bids, that can be offered below 0.8 times the Forward Capacity Market’s cost of new entry (CONE) threshold price. | |
| dynamic line rating | DLR | The maximum amount of current a transmission line can carry in real time, which can be influenced by wind speed, temperature, and solar radiation. DLR technologies enable transmission owners to take advantage of additional line capacity when available. |
| dynamic stability assessment | DSA | An assessment to determine the transient stability transfer limits of an electric power system. |
| DZ | dispatch zone | |
| EAS | energy administration service | |
| Eastern Daylight Time | EDT | In the Eastern Time Zone in North America and the Caribbean, the time used during the daylight-saving period in spring and summer. EDT is four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. |
| Eastern Interconnection | One of two major AC power grids in North America spanning from central Canada eastward to the Atlantic coast (excluding Québec), south to Florida, and west to the foot of the Rocky Mountains (excluding most of Texas—the portion in the Electric Reliability Corporation of Texas) that, during normal system conditions, interconnects transmission and distribution infrastructure and operates at a synchronized frequency of 60 Hz average. The Eastern Interconnection is tied to the Western Interconnection, the Texas Interconnection, and the Québec Interconnection generally through numerous high-voltage DC transmission lines. | |
| eastern New England | ENE | The eastern part of New England, referring to the area nearest to the Atlantic Coast. |
| Eastern Standard Time | EST | In the Eastern Time Zone, the time used during the standard period in fall and winter. EST is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. |
| Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (US DOE, National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL) | EWITS | Report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of Energy (February 2011) that modeled and analyzed wind penetrations on a large scale for developing solutions to wind-integration challenges. |
| EBB | electronic bulletin board | |
| ecomax | economic maximum | |
| ecomin | economic minimum | |
| economic dispatch | ED | The selection of resources available to satisfy system load as inexpensively as possible, which is run every five minutes to reoptimize the resources to meet load at minimum cost. (Also see dispatch.) |
| economic maximum | ecomax | The highest unrestricted level of electric energy (in megawatts) a generating resource is able to produce, representing the highest megawatt output available from the resource for economic dispatch. |
| economic minimum | ecomin | The minimum amount of electric energy (in megawatts) available from a generating resource for economic dispatch. |
| economic-merit order | When the generators with the lowest-price offers are committed and dispatched first, and increasingly higher-priced generators are brought on line as demand increases. See in merit and in merit order. | |
| ECP | energy clearing price | |
| ED | economic dispatch | |
| EDC | electronic dispatch capability | |
| EDT | Eastern Daylight Time | |
| EE | energy efficiency | |
| EEF | energy-efficiency forecast | |
| EERF | Energy-Efficiency Reconciliation Factor | |
| EES | Enhanced Energy Scheduler | |
| Effluent Limit Guidelines for Electric Steam Generators (US Environmental Protection Agency) | ELG | US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for power plants that use coal, oil, natural gas, or a nuclear reaction to generate steam and drive a turbine, for limiting wastewater discharges of toxic metals (e.g., arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, chromium, and cadmium), particulate matter, other pollutants, and thermal pollution into surface waters and wastewater treatment plants. Also called Steam Electric Power Generating Effluent Guidelines. |
| EFORd | equivalent demand forced-outage rate | |
| EGE | induction-generation effect | |
| EGEAS | Electric Generation Expansion Analysis System | |
| EHV | extra-high voltage | |
| EIA | Energy Information Administration (US DOE) | |
| eight largest competitors | C8 | A measure of wholesale energy market concentration indicating the percentage of the markets controlled by the eight largest competitors; a C8 value of 100% means that the top eight firms supply all the market demand. Also see four largest competitors. |
| EIS | Environmental Impact Statement | |
| EISA | Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (US) | |
| elective transmission upgrade | ETU | An upgrade to the New England transmission system voluntarily funded by one or more participants that have agreed to pay for all the costs of the upgrade. |
| electric capacity | See capacity. | |
| electric energy market | A market that produces financially binding schedules for the production and consumption of electricity (see electricity market and wholesale electric energy market). Use electric energy market when referring to the Day-Ahead or Real-Time Energy Markets, not the capacity, reserves, or regulation markets. | |
| electric energy, electrical energy | The ability of an electric current to produce work (heat, light, another form of energy); the generation or use of electric power over a specified time, usually expressed in gigawatt-hours (GWh), megawatt-hours (MWh), or kilowatt-hours (kWh). Note: Carefully use the adjective "electric," which implies that something is going to run using electricity instead of manually. Also make sure to clarify the type of energy being discussed:
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| Electric Generation Expansion Analysis System | EGEAS | A generation-expansion software package that utility planners use for producing integrated resource plans, evaluating independent power producers, developing avoided costs and environmental compliance plans, and analyzing life-extension alternatives. EGAES can help determine optimum generation-expansion plans and simulate detailed production costs for prespecified plans, handling a wide variety of technologies, such as nuclear, fossil fuels, combined cycle, hydroelectric, storage, nondispatchable technologies, and demand-side management. |
| electric power | The rate at which electric energy is transferred or used to do work, measured in kilowatts (or watts or megawatts) of capacity; the use of electric energy over a specified interval, measured in megawatt-hours. | |
| Electric Quarterly Report (FERC) | EQR | In accordance with the US Federal Power Act, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report released each quarter that contains information about wholesale sales of energy and transmission made by public utilities and certain nonpublic utilities; provides greater price transparency into wholesale markets for FERC, the public, and the industry. |
| Electric Reliability Council of Texas | ERCOT | The entity that manages the flow of electric power on the Texas Interconnection that supplies power to an estimated 24 million Texas customers representing approximately 90% of the state’s electric power load. |
| Electric Reliability Organization | ERO | An organization certified by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to establish and enforce reliability standards for the bulk power system in the United States; sometimes certified by applicable governmental authorities in Canada and Mexico to do the same. |
| electrical node | enode | Any point on an electrical circuit where two or more circuit elements meet. |
| electricity | A form of energy characterized by the flow of electrons and other charged particles through a material. | |
| electricity market | A system for purchasing and selling electric energy using supply and demand to set the price (see electric energy market and wholesale electric energy market). In general, electricity markets can include electric energy markets, capacity markets, and ancillary services for regulation and operating reserve. | |
| electromagnetic field | EMF | A physical field produced by the movement of electrically charged particles such that charged objects and magnets within its vicinity experience a force. |
| Electromagnetic Transients Program | EMTP | A software program that models electric switching and lighting transients and faults to help analyze system design and operation problems. |
| electronic bulletin board | EBB | An online communication system where users can share information. At ISO New England, this is particularly useful for scheduling natural gas deliveries to gas-fired generators through limited pipelines. |
| electronic dispatch capability | EDC | The ability of generators, through adequate hardware, software, and communications infrastructure, to receive, respond to, and change output in response to the electronic dispatch instructions issued by the system operator. |
| ELG | Effluent Limit Guidelines for Electric Steam Generators (US Environmental Protection Agency) | |
| eMarket | eMkt | A web-based software application for use by market participants for submitting supply offers, demand bids, incremental offers, decremental bids, and offers for regulation service into the Day-Ahead Energy Market and the Real-Time Energy Market. |
| emergency | Abnormal condition of an electric power system requiring manual or automatic action to maintain system frequency or to prevent the involuntary loss of load, equipment damage, or tripping of system elements that could adversely affect the reliability of the system or the safety of people or property. Could also be a fuel shortage requiring departure from normal operating procedures to minimize the use of such scarce fuel or any condition that requires the implementation of emergency procedures by the ISO. | |
| Emergency Max | emergency maximum limit | |
| emergency maximum limit | Emergency Max | The maximum generation amount (MW) a generating resource can deliver for a limited time without exceeding the specified limits of equipment stability and operating permits. |
| Emergency Min | emergency minimum limit | |
| emergency minimum limit | Emergency Min | The minimum generation amount (MW) a generating resource can deliver for a limited time without exceeding the specified limits of equipment stability and operating permits. |
| emergency operations and preparedness | EOP | Steps the ISO takes in times of extreme, abnormal system conditions to prevent loss of load, equipment damage, or tripping of system elements that could adversely affect system reliability and safety. |
| emergency outage | A type of unplanned outage when a piece of transmission equipment fails and comes out of service on its own or requires immediate operator intervention to remove it from service. | |
| EMF | electromagnetic field | |
| emissions allowance | Under an emissions trading program, the authorization for a source of a pollutant to emit one ton of the pollutant during a specific compliance period, at the end of which, the source must hold an amount of allowances at least equal to its annual emissions. | |
| eMkt | eMarket | |
| EMM | external market monitor | |
| EMOF | Energy Market Offer Flexibility | |
| EMS | Energy Management System | |
| EMS market user interface | EMU | The computer interface used by ISO New England system operators to manage the real-time market; mostly referred to as market operator interface (MOI). |
| EMTP | Electromagnetic Transients Program | |
| EMU | EMS market user interface | |
| ENE | eastern New England | |
| energy | The power used over a certain period, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), watt-hours (Wh), or megawatt-hours (MWh); the resources used for producing this power (e.g., natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear, sun, wind, hydro). Note: "Energy" can be a vague term when discussing electric energy as well as other types of energy or fuels, such as fossil fuels or renewables | |
| energy administration service | EAS | The service provided by ISO New England, to administer the wholesale energy markets, including the core operation of the energy markets, generation dispatch, and energy accounting. |
| energy clearing price | ECP | The price for electric energy associated with providing sufficient electricity and reserves in the ISO New England wholesale energy markets while meeting transmission security requirements and maximizing social welfare; the price for electric energy where the supply and demand curves meet. |
| energy efficiency | EE | A type of demand capacity resource that reduces the total amount of electrical energy and capacity at an end-use customer’s facility that otherwise would have been needed to deliver an equivalent or improved level of end-use service. Such measures or systems include the use of more efficient lighting, motors, refrigeration, HVAC equipment, control systems, and industrial process equipment. See passive demand capacity resource. |
| Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (US) | EISA | An act passed by the United States government in 2007 that aims to move the US toward greater energy independence and security; develop and increase the production of clean renewable fuels; increase the efficiency of products, building, and vehicles; promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options; improve the energy performance of the federal government; increase US energy security; and improve vehicle fuel economy. |
| Energy Information Administration (US DOE) | EIA | US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration |
| Energy Management System | EMS | A system of computer equipment and physical infrastructure that allows ISO New England system operators to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of the electric power grid in real time. |
| energy market | See electric energy market and electricity market. Note: "Energy market" can be a vague term in a document that discusses electric energy as well as other types of energy or fuels, such as fossil fuels or renewables. | |
| Energy Market Offer Flexibility | EMOF | An ISO New England wholesale energy market mechanism as of December 2014 for increasing the accuracy of price signals and improving the reliability of the electric power system. EMOF allows market participants to make hourly, rather than daily, offers of how much energy they are willing to supply and at what price and to make negative offers (i.e., paying to stay on line and produce power). |
| Energy Policy Act of 2005 (US Environmental Protection Agency) | EPAct | An act passed by the United States government in 2005 that addresses a large range of energy-related issues, including energy efficiency; renewable energy; oil and gas; coal; tribal energy; nuclear matters and security; vehicles and motor fuels, including ethanol; hydropower and geothermal energy; and climate change technology. It provides tax incentives and loan guarantees for developing or using innovative technologies that avoid the by-production of greenhouse gases. |
| energy service company | ESCO | A firm that develops, designs, builds, and funds a comprehensive range of energy conservation measures that, in addition to saving energy, reduce energy costs and operations and maintenance costs at its customers’ facilities. ESCOs take on the technical and performance risks associated with a project and use a performance-based contracting methodology that directly links its compensation to actual energy cost savings. |
| energy transaction unit | energy TU | A measurement used for determining a market participant’s charges for the ISO’s recovery of administrative expenses through its tariff funding mechanisms on the basis of the participant’s number of bilateral contract hours, generator supply offer hours, nonzero settlement hours, and demand bid hours. |
| energy TU | energy transaction unit | |
| energy-efficiency forecast | EEF | A predictive tool to calculate anticipated load reductions in response to state energy-efficiency programs. |
| Energy-Efficiency Reconciliation Factor | EERF | A program funding mechanism of the 2015–2015 Massachusetts Joint Statewide Three-Year Electric and Gas Energy-Efficiency Plan that ensures that the costs for all available cost-effective energy-efficiency measures will be funded if that program’s costs exceed other available revenue sources. |
| energy-neutral signal | A type of dispatch signal that enables electric power resources using storage-based technologies to provide frequency- regulation services. The signal directs resources to cycle between electricity production and consumption over a short period, which essentially cancels out to no net-energy use and prevents these resources from losing the ability to follow a conventional regulation dispatch signal if their limited storage capacity becomes either fully charged or fully depleted over time. | |
| Enhanced Energy Scheduler | EES | The software used to facilitate a transmission customer’s submittal of external transactions into the ISO New England wholesale market system. |
| enode | electrical node | |
| enrolling participant | EP | A market participant that registers customers for the Day-Ahead Load-Response Program. |
| Environmental Impact Statement | EIS | A detailed report about the potential positive and negative environmental effects of proposed major federal actions, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). |
| EOP | emergency operations and preparedness | |
| EP | enrolling participant | |
| EPAct | Energy Policy Act of 2005 (US Environmental Protection Agency) | |
| EQR | Electric Quarterly Report (FERC) | |
| equivalent demand forced-outage rate | EFORd | The portion of time a unit is in demand but is unavailable because of forced (i.e., unplanned) outages. See weighted EFORd. |
| ERCOT | Electric Reliability Council of Texas | |
| ERO | Electric Reliability Organization | |
| ERS | external reserve support | |
| ESCO | energy service company | |
| EST | Eastern Standard Time | |
| established Installed Capacity Requirement | An Installed Capacity Requirement value approved by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or that the ISO has filed with FERC for subsequent approval. | |
| ET | external transaction | |
| ETU | elective transmission upgrade | |
| EWITS | Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (US DOE, National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL) | |
| excap qual | existing capacity qualification | |
| existing capacity qualification | excap qual | The Forward Capacity Market (FCM) process by which the ISO calculates the qualified capacity for an upcoming summer or winter capacity commitment period for a nonintermittent or intermittent generator or an import or demand capacity resource listed as capacity in the New England wholesale energy markets—or a resource not previously listed as capacity but that has received an FCM capacity supply obligation, in full or in part, for at least one prior FCM capacity commitment period. |
| existing Forward Capacity Market resource | An FCM-qualified generating or import capacity resource or demand capacity resource that has a Forward Capacity Auction capacity supply obligation that counts toward meeting the ISO’s Installed Capacity Requirement. | |
| export delist bid | A type of Forward Capacity Auction delist bid for a resource that wants to opt out of a capacity supply obligation, similar to a static delist bid but that may have an opportunity-cost component as part of the supporting cost data. | |
| export-constrained capacity zone | A capacity zone that represents an export-constrained load zone (i.e., an area within New England where the available resources, after serving local load, exceed the areas’ transmission capability to export the excess electric energy.) | |
| export-constrained load zone | An area where the available resources, after serving local load, exceed the area’s transmission capability to export the excess electric energy. | |
| external market monitor | EMM | The independent firm that reports directly to the ISO board to provide assessments of the wholesale energy markets and reports, as well as monitoring and reviews regarding the quality and appropriateness of the mitigation conducted by the internal market monitor. |
| external node | Location on the transmission system outside the New England Balancing Authority Area; point of interconnection to a neighboring balancing authority area or system; a proxy location on the transmission system used for establishing prices for electric energy being sold to or brought from outside New England. | |
| external reserve support | ERS | For calculating local forward reserve requirements, the unused capacity of the transmission interface associated with a reserve zone. |
| external transaction | ET | The purchase or sale of electric energy in the Day-Ahead Energy Market or Real-Time Energy Market by a market participant outside the New England Balancing Authority Area, or a transaction scheduled by a nonmarket participant in the Real-Time Energy Market. Also a transfer of electric energy across a balancing authority area border. |
| extra-high voltage | EHV | Transmission line voltages above 345 kV. |
| F.3d | Federal Reporter, third series | |
| FA | financial assurance | |
| fabric filter | FF | Also called a baghouse or bag filter, a widely used air-pollution control technology for removing particulate matter from a flue gas stream of an industrial process ventilation system or fuel-combustion unit by passing the dirty air through a layer of porous cloth. |
| facility-metered load | FML | The aggregate load reading measured at a facility’s utility billing meter. |
| FACTS | flexible alternating-current transmission system | |
| Failure-to-Activate flag | An electronic flag placed in a forward-reserve resource’s Reserve Asset Detail Report when the resource fails to respond according to its offer data and the ISO’s instructions when asked to activate its claimed 10-minute nonspinning reserve or 30-minute operating reserve. A Failure-to-Activate flag results in a financial penalty. | |
| Failure-to-Reserve flag | An electronic flag placed in a market participant’s Reserve Asset Detail Report when the participant’s delivered forward-reserve megawatts associated with a reserve zone are less than the participant’s associated forward-reserve obligation. A Failure-to-Reserve flag results in a forfeiture of payment for any forward-reserve megawatts not delivered plus a financial penalty. | |
| FAM | Financial Assurance Management | |
| FAP | Financial Assurance Policy | |
| fast-start resource | A resource that can be electrically synchronized to the electric power system and reach its maximum production or output within 10 to 30 minutes to respond to a contingency and serve demand. Also, a demand capacity resource that helps with recovery from a contingency and assists in serving peak demand. Same as quick-start resources; "fast start" is the preferred term. | |
| FCA | Forward Capacity Auction | |
| FCM | Forward Capacity Market | |
| FCTS | Forward Capacity Tracking System | |
| Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | FERC | An independent federal agency that regulates the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil, and electricity to ultimately assist consumers in obtaining reliable, efficient, and sustainable energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means. |
| Federal Power Act (US) | FPA | A law first enacted in 1920 and subsequently amended a number of times to, in part, (1) establish a five-member commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) with authority over both the interstate transmission of electricity and the sale of hydropower at the wholesale level to ensure that rates are reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and just to the consumer; (2) coordinate hydroelectric projects in the United States and encourage the development of dams, reservoirs, and other types of hydro projects; and (3) broaden the commission’s authority to incorporate fish and wildlife concerns regarding licensing, relicensing, and exemption procedures; regulate nonfederal hydropower projects; and support the comprehensive development of rivers for energy generation and other uses. |
| Federal Register | FR | Daily journal of the United States government, featuring notices of public meetings, hearings, proposed and final rules, investigations, funding, and actions of the president. |
| Federal Reporter, third series | F.3d | A case law reporter in the United States covering opinions and decisions beginning in 1993 issued by the 13 circuits of the US Court of Appeals. |
| feed-in tariff | FIT | A part of a long-term electricity purchasing agreement that guarantees a specified price, usually above the market level, for the electric power produced under the agreement. |
| FERC | Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | |
| FF | fabric filter | |
| FGD | flue-gas desulfurization | |
| financial assurance | FA | Refer to Financial Assurance Management and Financial Assurance Policy. |
| Financial Assurance Management | FAM | A risk management system for the wholesale energy markets to minimize the risk of market players’ defaults. |
| Financial Assurance Policy | FAP | Exhibit IA of the ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff that sets forth the financial assurance procedures, requirements, and criteria governing the participation of all applicants, market participants, and nonmarket participant transmission customers in the New England wholesale electricity markets, including credit review procedures to assess the financial ability of applicants and participants to pay for service transactions under the tariff and their share of ISO expenses; requirements for alternative forms of acceptable security that protect the ISO and participants against the risk of nonpayment by defaulting participants; conditions under which the ISO will conduct business in a nondiscriminatory way; and procedures for collecting amounts past due and payable upon billing adjustment, making up payment shortfalls, suspending participants out of compliance with the policy, and terminating membership of and service to defaulting participants. |
| Financial Transmission Right | FTR | A financial instrument—equal to the amount of electric energy flowing in one direction between two specific locations on the regional power system—that a market participant can buy to help hedge against the economic impacts associated with transmission congestion and to arbitrage differences between expected and actual day-ahead congestion caused by constraints on the transmission system. The FTR holder might incur an obligation to pay a charge or the right to receive revenues. |
| firm supply | Fuels for a facility under a delivery contract that includes priority transportation service and that cannot be interrupted or restricted. | |
| first contingency | N-1 | The loss of the power system element (facility) with the largest impact on system reliability. |
| First, second, or third Alternative Capacity Price Rule mechanism | APR-1, 2, or 3 | The three triggering mechanisms for a prior rule of Market Rule 1 that affected capacity clearing prices in a Forward Capacity Auction. |
| first-contingency reliability cost | The cost of dispatching a generating unit to protect against a disruption in service when a very large generator or transmission line suddenly is lost. | |
| FIT | feed-in tariff | |
| fixed demand | When a market participant buys electricity at any price. | |
| flag | To designate or mark in an electronic report or file, as in to flag market results that may reflect anomalies or to flag a generating unit for commitment to meet the requirements for voltage support or local second-contingency protection. | |
| flexible alternating-current transmission system | FACTS | A system that incorporates power electronic controllers and other static equipment to better be able to control transmission system parameters and increase power-transfer capability. |
| floor price | An administratively set price, such as in an auction, which currently is used in the ISO’s Forward Capacity Auction. | |
| flue-gas desulfurization | FGD | A post-combustion control system for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other acid flue gases produced by a coal- or oil-fired electricity generating unit, which injects a type of lime, using wet or dry means, into a "scrubber" where it reacts with the SO2 and other gases. The reaction products are then removed either in the scrubber or in conjunction with a downstream particulate-control device. Also called wet or dry scrubbing. |
| FML | facility-metered load | |
| FOA | Funding Opportunity Announcement | |
| FOIA | Freedom of Information Act (US) | |
| foot | ft | |
| forced outage | A type of unplanned outage that involves the unexpected removal from service of a generating unit, transmission facility, or other facility or portion of a facility because of an emergency failure or the discovery of a problem. These problems must be repaired as soon as crews, equipment, corrective dispatch actions, or a combination of all measures can be activated to allow the work to be performed. | |
| Forecast Report of Capacity, Energy, Loads, and Transmission | CELT Report | Annual ISO New England report containing the 10-year projections for capacity, energy, loads, and transmission used in power system planning and reliability studies. |
| Forward Capacity Auction | FCA | The annual auction of the Forward Capacity Market during which capacity resources compete to obtain a commitment to supply capacity in exchange for a market-priced capacity payment. In the "descending-clock" format of the annual FCAs, the price for capacity starts high enough to attract more than enough resources to meet the capacity requirements and then is decreased until the quantity of capacity remaining in the auction equals the quantity of capacity needed. This auction allows new capacity to set the market-clearing price while accounting for locational capacity requirements and providing a market-based measure of the cost of new entry. |
| Forward Capacity Market | FCM | In the New England Balancing Authority Area, a locational capacity market whereby the ISO projects the needs of the power system three years in advance and then holds an annual auction to purchase power resources to satisfy the region’s future needs. The aim of the FCM is to send appropriate price signals to attract new investment and maintain existing resources where and when they are needed, including during shortage events, thus ensuring the reliability of the New England electricity grid. |
| Forward Capacity Tracking System | FCTS | The ISO’s online system for managing information about the resources participating in the Forward Capacity Market. |
| forward reserve | The 10-minute nonspinning reserves and 30-minute operating reserves the ISO purchases on a forward basis on behalf of market participants. See Forward Reserve Market. | |
| Forward Reserve Market | FRM | A market in the New England Balancing Authority Area for acquiring forward commitments for the delivery of 10-minute nonspinning reserves or 30-minute operating reserves in real time. The market provides incentives (competitive price signals) for investing in new reserve resources, particularly fast-start generation, in areas where operating reserves are needed to support system reliability. |
| forward-reserve obligation charge | FROC | A component of the Forward Reserve Market settlement rules that calls for collecting back the real-time reserve payments associated with meeting an FRM obligation, for eliminating double compensation for providing both real-time operating-reserve megawatts and forward-reserve megawatts for the same reserve service. |
| four largest competitors | C4 | A measure of market concentration used by the ISO’s market monitor equal to the percentage of the market controlled by the four largest competitors, or the simple sum of the market shares of the top-four firms. A C4 value of 100% means that the top-four firms supply all the market demand. Also see eight largest competitors. |
| FPA | Federal Power Act (US) | |
| FPA | fuel-price adjustment | |
| FR | Federal Register | |
| Freedom of Information Act (US) | FOIA | A United States law passed in 1967 that provides the public the right to request access to previously unreleased records from any federal agency, with exemptions to protect personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement. |
| frequency | The rate of oscillation (cycles/second) of the alternating current in an electric power system, measured in hertz (Hz). In the United States, the rate is 60 Hz. | |
| frequency bias | A balancing authority area’s response to an interconnection frequency error, typically expressed in megawatts per 0.1 Hz (MW/0.1 Hz). | |
| frequency ride through | The capability of a generator to remain connected to the electric power system during frequency excursions defined (in IEEE Standard 1547) as tolerable and caused by events external to the generating plant. (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IEEE) 1547 Standard provides uniform criteria for interconnecting distributed resources with electric power systems.) | |
| FRM | Forward Reserve Market | |
| FROC | forward-reserve obligation charge | |
| ft | foot | |
| FTR | Financial Transmission Right | |
| fuel-price adjustment | FPA | An ISO New England market rule that permits the internal market monitor to use a different fuel price for a resource than its actual fuel price in calculating the resource’s reference level if a market participant believes the actual fuel costs will exceed the IMM’s index-based fuel price by a large enough margin to put the resource at risk of inappropriate mitigation. |
| Funding Opportunity Announcement | FOA | A notice of a funding opportunity for a federal grant posted at Grants.gov. |
| G - I | ||
| GA | grandfathered agreement | |
| GADS | Generating Availability Data System | |
| gas turbine | GT | A type of internal combustion engine driven by expanding hot gases produced by burning fuel, such as natural gas, to generate electric current. |
| gas-insulated substation | GIS | An electric power substation that uses a dielectric gas, SF6, at moderate pressure for phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground insulation. The conductors, circuit breakers, transformers, and other electrical equipment are in the gas contained within grounded metal enclosures. |
| gas-insulated switchgear | GIS | An electrical switching station unit that houses electrical components and circuits within a single gas tank with a compact footprint. |
| GATT | General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade | |
| GCA | Green Communities Act (MA) | |
| GCEP | Global Climate Change Energy Project | |
| GDP | gross domestic product | |
| GE MARS | General Electric Multi-Area Reliability Simulation Model | |
| General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade | GATT | A treaty implemented after World War II and subsequently refined to increase international trade by eliminating or reducing various tariffs, quotas, and subsidies while maintaining meaningful regulations. |
| General Electric Multi-Area Reliability Simulation Model | GE MARS | A model of the electric power system based on chronological hourly Monte Carlo probability simulations that help electric utility planners quickly and accurately assess the ability of a power system to sufficiently satisfy customer load requirements. |
| Generating Availability Data System | GADS | A North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) application, and a mandatory industry-reporting program for conventional generating units 20 MW and larger, containing data about the operating history and performance of more than 7,700 electric generating units (or more than 90% of the installed generating capacity) in the United States and Canada. The system provides reliability data to the industry, supporting research and analyses on power plant outages and equipment availability. |
| generating resource, generating unit, generator | A facility that produces electric energy (also see resource). | |
| generation | The production of electric energy from other sources of energy (i.e., fuel), expressed in megawatts; supply. | |
| generation clearing | The megawatts of generation accepted or sold in the Day-Ahead Energy Market. | |
| Generation Information System | GIS | The New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) system for registering and tracking renewable energy generation and compliance with state and regional renewable energy requirements. For each megawatt-hour of electricity an individual unit generates, the system assigns a certificate that records the attributes of that power. Load-serving entities use these certificates to differentiate their products for consumers, provide the information required on energy disclosure labels, and comply with state and regional Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) and emissions performance standards. |
| generation obligation | See load obligation. | |
| generation requirements for transmission constraints | GRT | The compilation of data on a spreadsheet for tracking total system transfer capability and interface limits and conducting long-term transmission-outage economic analyses for a given operating day. |
| generator marginal cost | The price at which a market participant has offered to supply an additional increment of electric energy from its generating resource. | |
| generator operator | GOP | An entity that operates one or more generating facilities and supplies electric energy and interconnected operations services, exclusive of basic energy and transmission services, required to support the reliable operation of interconnected bulk electric system. |
| generator owner | GO | Entity that owns and maintains generating units. |
| generator performance audit | GPA | Tests the ISO conducts periodically or when it has a reason to suspect a deficiency to verify a generator’s compliance with Market Rule 1 and with the technical requirements set forth in Operating Procedure No. 14, Technical Requirements for Generators, demand capacity resources, Asset-Related Demand, and Alternative Technology Regulation Resources. |
| generator-interconnection-related upgrade | A transmission addition or upgrade to support the connection of a new or uprated generating facility in ISO New England. | |
| Geographic Information System | GIS | A computer-based tool that captures, analyzes, manages, stores, and displays spatial and geographical data. |
| geomagnetic disturbance | GMD | A disturbance of Earth’s magnetic field, such as from an electromagnetic pulse or solar winds, which can induce a current that enters and exits the power system at transformer grounds and, in some cases, cause abnormal voltages, erroneous tripping of needed equipment, and other disruptions in normal system operations. See geomagnetic storm. |
| geomagnetic storm | GMS | A temporary but major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere caused by an efficient exchange of energy from solar winds into the space surrounding Earth that can lead to extra drag on satellites in low-earth orbit, modify the path of radio signals, create errors in information provided by global positioning systems, disrupt navigation systems, and create harmful geomagnetic-induced currents in power grids and pipelines. See geomagnetic disturbance. |
| GFCs | going-forward costs | |
| GHCC | Greater Hartford Central Connecticut (part of the New England East-West Solution) | |
| GHG | greenhouse gas | |
| gigawatt | GW | 1 billion (10<sup>9</sup>) watts; 1,000 megawatts. |
| gigawatt-hour | GWh | The amount of electrical energy expended by a 1 billion-watt load over one hour. |
| GIS | gas-insulated substation | |
| GIS | Generation Information System | |
| GIS | Geographic Information System | |
| GIS | gas-insulated switchgear | |
| Global Climate Change Energy Project | GCEP | A Stanford University research project seeking new technological solutions for supplying energy to meet the changing needs of a growing world population in a way that significantly lowers greenhouse gas emissions and protects the environment. |
| Global Positioning System | GPS | A navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions anywhere on Earth where the line of sight to at least four GPS satellites is unobstructed. |
| Global Warming Solutions Act (MA) | GWSA | A Massachusetts act signed in 2008 creating a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors of the economy 25% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 to help avoid some of the heat-trapping effects of global warming, |
| GM | gross margin | |
| GMD | geomagnetic disturbance | |
| GMS | geomagnetic storm | |
| GO | generator owner | |
| GOEIS | Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security (ME) | |
| going-forward costs | GFCs | For estimating a resource’s delist costs, the fixed costs a resource can avoid if it did not have a capacity supply obligation; the costs do not vary with a resource’s operation. |
| GOP | generator operator | |
| Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security (ME) | GOEIS | A former state-level office in Maine to work on state energy policy, advise the governor, and conduct other special assignments for developing public and private partnerships that achieve the state’s goals of energy independence and security with clean, reliable, affordable, sustainable, indigenous, and renewable resources. |
| GPA | generator performance audit | |
| GPS | Global Positioning System | |
| grandfathered agreement | GA | A transaction specified in the ISO’s Open Access Transmission Tariff, Section II.45, regarding the Maine Electric Power Company’s Grandfathered Transmission Service Agreements over the New Brunswick/New England interconnection entered into before June 1, 2007, for the applicable period specified in this section. |
| Greater Connecticut study area | Greater CT | Regional System Plan study area that includes the Norwalk (NOR), Southwest Connecticut (SWCT), and Connecticut (CT) subareas. The area has similar boundaries to the State of Connecticut but is slightly smaller because of electrical system configurations near the border with western Massachusetts. |
| Greater Connecticut subarea | Regional System Plan study area that includes the Norwalk (NOR), Southwest Connecticut (SWCT), and Connecticut (CT) subareas. | |
| Greater CT | Greater Connecticut study area | |
| Greater Hartford Central Connecticut (part of the New England East-West Solution) | GHCC | An ISO New England study area that combines the Greater Hartford area (Hartford and northwestern Connecticut) and the central Connecticut area (Barbour Hill and Middletown) to be able to capture any interdependencies when conducting transmission planning studies. |
| Greater Rhode Island | GRI | An ISO New England transmission planning study area that encompasses Rhode Island and parts of southeastern Massachusetts. |
| Greater Southwest Connecticut study area | Greater SWCT | Regional System Plan study area that includes the southwestern and western potions of Connecticut and comprises the Southwest Connecticut (SWCT) and Norwalk (NOR) subarea. |
| Greater Southwest Connecticut subarea | Regional System Plan study area that includes the southwestern and western potions of Connecticut and comprises the Southwest Connecticut (SWCT) and Norwalk (NOR) subareas. | |
| Greater Springfield Reliability Project | GSRP | A comprehensive, coordinated set of improvements to the electric transmission systems of Western Massachusetts Electric Company (now Eversource) in Massachusetts and Connecticut Light and Power in Connecticut to meet the transmission reliability needs in the Greater Springfield, Massachusetts area. |
| Greater SWCT | Greater Southwest Connecticut study area | |
| Green Communities Act (MA) | GCA | A Massachusetts act passed in 2008 to provide for renewable and alternative energy and energy efficiency in the state and reduce the growth in the state’s electricity demand by investing in energy-saving devices; expanding the ability of municipalities, residential customers, and businesses to own and benefit from technologies to produce electricity on their own premises; facilitating the commercialization of and growth in large-scale energy sources that produce little or no greenhouse gas emissions; expanding activity and employment within the state in the advanced energy technology sector; and reducing the state’s dependence on and payment for fossil-fuel energy resources outside the state. |
| greenhouse gas | GHG | Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. |
| GRI | Greater Rhode Island | |
| grid | The network of the transmission lines, substations, and associated equipment of an electric power system. | |
| gridco | transmission company; transmitting utility | |
| GridVIew | An energy production cost program that provides detailed representations of the transmission network. | |
| gross domestic product | GDP | The total monetary value of finished goods produced and services provided in a country during a specified period. |
| gross margin | GM | Energy revenues minus fuel costs for a typical natural-gas-fired power plant that converts fuel to electricity, expressed as a percentage; calculated as (the average locational marginal price at the Hub minus the fuel cost) divided by the Hub locational marginal price}. Also, the percentage of total sales revenue a company retains after incurring the direct costs associated with producing the goods and services it sells. |
| GRT | generation requirements for transmission constraints | |
| GSRP | Greater Springfield Reliability Project | |
| GT | gas turbine | |
| Guidelines for Area Review of Resource Adequacy (NPCC) | Document B-08 | A retired Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. guideline for reviewing the resource adequacy of its member bulk power systems, including ISO New England; incorporated in 2009 within the NPCC Regional Reliability Directory #1, Appendix D, which provides a design-based approach to designing and operating a bulk power system to a level of reliability that will not result in the loss or unintentional separation of a major portion of the system from any of the contingencies the directory references. |
| GW | gigawatt | |
| GWh | gigawatt-hour | |
| GWSA | Global Warming Solutions Act (MA) | |
| HAP | hazardous air pollutant | |
| hazardous air pollutant | HAP | A US Clean Air Act category of air pollutants known or suspected of causing cancer and other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental effects. HAPs emitted by fossil-fired generators include acid gases, such as hydrogen chloride (HCl) and hydrogen fluoride (HF); organic pollutants, such as dioxins and furans; mercury; and other metallic HAPs, such as arsenic, chromium, nickel, and selenium. HAPs also are known as toxic air pollutants or air toxics. |
| HE | hour ending | |
| heat rate | A measure of a thermal power plant’s efficiency of converting fuel (British thermal units; Btus) to electric energy (kilowatt-hours; kWh); the amount of heat, measured in Btus, required to produce a kilowatt-hour of electrical output. The lower the heat rate, the more efficient the facility. | |
| heating, ventilation, and air conditioning | HVAC | The three technologies often combined into one system for providing environmental comfort indoors and in vehicles. |
| heating-degree day | An indication of a building’s demand for energy (i.e., fuel consumption) based on each degree the daily mean temperature is below 65 degrees F. | |
| heat-recovery steam generator | HRSG | A heat exchanger that produces steam and recovers heat from the hot steam gas; the steam can be used for process applications, as in cogeneration (combined heat and power), or to drive a combined-cycle steam turbine. |
| HEDD | high-electric-demand day | |
| hertz | Hz | A measure of how frequently an alternating current changes directions; a measure of one cycle per second. |
| Hg | mercury | |
| HHI (H- Index) | Hirschman-Herfindahl Index | |
| high-electric-demand day | HEDD | In New England, typically days characterized with high temperatures leading to elevated cooling (energy) demand, use of electric generating units, nitrogen oxide emissions, and ozone concentrations. |
| high-voltage direct current | HVDC | Typically, when the direct-current voltage is above 100 kV. |
| high-voltage transmission line | A line that transmits electric power from a generator to a local distribution line. In New England, these lines include 115 kV and higher voltage lines (see low-voltage lines). | |
| Hirschman-Herfindahl Index | HHI (H- Index) | A measure of market concentration that provides details regarding market structure, calculated by summing the squares of the individual firms’ market shares, thus giving proportionately greater weight to the larger market shares. The US Department of Justice generally classifies markets with an HHI below 1,500 as unconcentrated, between 1,500 and 2,500 as moderately concentrated, and above 2,500 as highly concentrated. |
| historical energy-efficiency savings | Reductions in past power system loads resulting from energy-efficiency measures. | |
| HMI | human-machine interface | |
| host participant | A market participant (or governance participant as defined in a Participant Agreement) transmission or distribution provider that reconciles the loads within the metering domain with ISO Operating Procedure No. 18, Metering and Telemetering Criteria, compliant metering. | |
| host utility | See host participant. | |
| hour ending | HE | A term that denotes the preceding hourly period. For example, 12:01 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. is hour ending 1. Hour ending 6:00 p.m. is the period from 5:01 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
| hourly demand-resource performance value | A value calculated as a result of an active demand capacity resource’s response to dispatch instructions, used to calculate the resource’s monthly and seasonal demand-reduction values. | |
| Housatonic River Crossing | HRX | Name for a transmission project crossing over the Housatonic River between Milford and Stratford, Connecticut. |
| HQICC | Hydro-Québec Interconnection Capability Credits | |
| HRSG | heat-recovery steam generator | |
| HRX | Housatonic River Crossing | |
| Hub | A specific set of predefined pricing nodes for which locational marginal prices are calculated and which are used to establish reference prices for electric energy purchases, the transfer of day-ahead and real-time adjusted load obligations and the designation of Financial Transmission Rights. | |
| human-machine interface | HMI | The user control panel for operating and monitoring a piece of equipment, often with a keypad and some sort of graphics display. |
| HVAC | heating, ventilation, and air conditioning | |
| HVDC | high-voltage direct current | |
| Hydro-Québec Interconnection Capability Credits | HQICC | A monthly value defined in the ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff that reflects the annual installed capacity benefits of the Phase I/II high-voltage direct current transmission interface between Hydro-Québec and New England, as determined by the ISO, using a standard methodology on file with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in conjunction with setting the region’s annual Installed Capacity Requirement. |
| Hz | hertz | |
| IA | Interconnection Agreement | |
| IBL | internal bilateral for load | |
| IBM | internal bilateral for market | |
| IBT | internal bilateral transaction | |
| ICAP | installed capacity | |
| ICAP Market | Installed Capacity Market | |
| ICR | Installed Capacity Requirement | |
| ICU | internal combustion unit | |
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | |
| IGCC | integrated coal-gasification combined cycle | |
| IMM | internal market monitor | |
| IMP | Integrity Management Protocols | |
| import-constrained capacity zone | A capacity zone that represents an import-constrained load zone (i.e., an area within New England that does not have enough local resources and transmission-import capability to serve local demand reliably or economically. | |
| import-constrained load zone | An area that does not have enough local generating resources and transmission-import capability to serve local demand reliably or economically. | |
| in merit | Shorthand for in economic-merit order and in merit order. | |
| in merit order | The designation for an accepted and dispatched supply offer because it was less expensive than other accepted and dispatched supply offers. Also see economic-merit order. | |
| in service | When a generating unit or transmission line is available for use. | |
| incremental offer | A financial offer to sell electric energy at a specified location in the Day-Ahead Energy Market; virtual supply. Do not use the abbreviation inc. | |
| independent pole tripping | IPT | The application of multipole circuit breakers in such a manner that a malfunction of one of more poles or associated control circuits will not prevent the successful tripping of the remaining poles(s). |
| independent power producer | IPP | A nonpublic utility that generates electric power for sale to other utilities and end users. |
| Independent System Operator | ISO | An independent, federally regulated organization formed at the recommendation of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to impartially coordinate, control, and monitor the operation of a regional electric power system, including the dispatch of electric energy over the system and the monitoring of the electricity markets, for ensuring the safety and reliability of the system. |
| independent transmission company | ITC | Stand-alone for-profit transmission company that invests in individual merchant as well as regulated transmission projects. |
| induction-generation effect | EGE | An electrical phenomenon in which the resonance of a series-compensated transmission system (i.e., one with reactive power elements inserted in series with the transmission lines for improving voltage stability) results in electrical self-excitation of a generation resource at a subsynchronous frequency, which could lead to growing subsynchronous voltages and currents in the system and at the generator. |
| inframarginal offer | A supply offer that is less expensive than the price-setting supply offer (see in merit order). | |
| inframarginal revenues | The revenues earned by generators, other than the last one dispatched to meet demand, through the electric energy market. The revenues are in excess of the generators’ short-run variable costs for fuel and other operating expenses, which assists in recovering fixed costs, the largest portion being capital costs. | |
| injection | A location on the transmission system where generation is injected (a.k.a. source point). | |
| installed capacity | ICAP | The megawatt capability of a generating unit, dispatchable load, external transaction or resource, or a demand capacity resource that qualifies as a participant in the ISO’s Forward Capacity Market. |
| installed capacity margin | (Planned Capacity Resources/Summer Peak Demand) - 1 | |
| Installed Capacity Market | ICAP Market | A former market in the New England Balancing Authority Area where generators received compensation for investing in generating capacity in New England. For this market, load-serving entities, the market participants that secure electric energy, transmission service, and related services to serve the demand of its customers, made ICAP payments to generators across New England to ensure the availability of sufficient generation capacity for the reliable operation of the bulk power grid. Note: The Forward Capacity Market replaced the ICAP Market. |
| Installed Capacity Requirement | ICR | The minimum amount of resources (level of capacity) a balancing authority area needs in a particular year to meet its resource adequacy planning criterion, according to the Northeast Power Coordinating Council Reliability Reference Directory #1, Design and Operation of the Bulk Power System. This criterion states that the probability of disconnecting any firm load because of resource deficiencies must be, on average, less than once in 10 years. |
| installed capacity resource | A generating capacity resource, dispatchable load, external resource, external transaction, or demand capacity resource that meets the qualification requirements of the ISO’s Market Rule 1 and has been designated as a capacity resource by a market participant. | |
| Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE | From the IEEE website: The IEEE acronym originally stood for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. The organization’s scope of interest has expanded into many additional related fields and is now referred to by its letters I-E-E-E (pronounced eye-triple-e). |
| integrated coal-gasification combined cycle | IGCC | A type of power plant that uses a high-pressure gasifier to convert coal and other carbon-based fuels into pressurized synthetic gas from which impurities, such as sulfur dioxide, particulates, mercury, and, in some cases, carbon dioxide, are removed before the power-generation cycle. The gasifier also produces steam, which powers a steam turbine. |
| integrated resource plan | IRP | A utility plan for a specified period for reliably meeting forecasted annual and peak energy demand plus a reserve margin through supply-side and demand-side resources, with consideration of fuel prices, environmental costs and constraints, existing resources, risk analyses, stakeholder input, public utility commission oversight, and other factors. |
| Integrity Management Protocols | IMP | US Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Office of Pipeline Safety guidance, techniques, procedures, and other practices for use during pipeline safety investigations for compliance, inspection, and enforcement activities. |
| interchange | Transfers of electric energy that cross balancing authority boundaries. | |
| Interchange Authority | An entity responsible for authorizing the implementation of valid and balanced interchange schedules between balancing authority areas and ensuring the communication of interchange information needed for reliability assessments. | |
| interchange schedule | The agreed-upon specifications for the transfer of electric energy between two balancing authority areas including, for example, the size of the transaction in megawatts, the start and end times, the beginning and ending ramp times, and the rate. | |
| interconnection | The connection between two bulk electric power systems or balancing authority areas. Also, the connection between a new or uprated generating facility, elective transmission upgrade, or other transmission service and the bulk electric power system. | |
| Interconnection Agreement | IA | A three-party business contract among a generator owner, transmission company, and the ISO specifying the technical requirements for the generation and transmission facilities for connecting to the transmission system. The New England region has "Large Generator Interconnection Agreements" (see Large Generator Interconnection Procedure), "Small Generator Interconnection Agreements" (see Small Generator Interconnection Procedure), and "Elective Transmission Upgrade Interconnection Agreements," pursuant to Schedules 22, 23, and 25 of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (OATT), respectively, Also per the OATT, an agreement for the interconnection of any entity to a nonincumbent transmission developer’s transmission facilities. |
| interconnection request | IR | An official request from owners of large generators over 20 MW, small generators no larger than 20 MW; elective transmission upgrades; or merchant, pool, or other transmission facilities for connecting new or uprated facilities to, or providing service over, the New England bulk electric power system. |
| Interconnection Request Queue (the queue) | The listing of the current status of requests for the interconnection of new or uprated (increased capacity) generating facilities in New England to the bulk electric power system administered by ISO New England, including elective transmission upgrades and transmission service requests. | |
| interconnection rights holder | IRH | Pursuant to Schedule 20A of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff, an entity that pays for and holds exclusive direct or indirect use rights to the transfer capability of Hydro-Québec’s high-voltage direct current transmission facilities (Phases I and II). |
| interconnection-reliability operating limit | IROL | A system operating limit that, if violated, could lead to instability, uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages that have an adverse impact on the reliability of the bulk electric power system. |
| intermediate-load generating unit | A generator that ramps up and down to follow the power system load as it transitions between baseload levels (during the middle of the night) and peak load levels (during the day), operating from 10 to 70% of the year. | |
| intermittent power resource | IPR | A resource whose output amount and availability are intermittent and not subject to the control of ISO New England or the power plant operator because of the variable source of fuel (e.g., wind, solar, run-of-river hydro) that the resource uses or the contractual obligations (e.g. qualifying facilities). IPRs can be resources having less than 5 MW operating within the distribution system. Also called variable energy resource. |
| internal bilateral for load | IBL | In the Real-Time Energy Market, when the buyer of electric energy receives a reduction in load obligation and the seller receives a corresponding increase in load obligation in the amount of the megawatt sale. |
| internal bilateral for market | IBM | When a buyer of electric energy receives a reduction in its day-ahead-adjusted load obligation and real-time adjusted load obligation while the seller receives a corresponding increase in its day-ahead-adjusted load obligation and its real-time-adjusted load obligation in the amount of the megawatt sale; can apply in the Day-Ahead Energy Market and Real-Time Energy Market or just the Real-Time Energy Market. Also, when a buyer receives a reduction in the regulation obligation and the seller receives a corresponding increase in the regulation obligation in the amount of the megawatt sale. |
| internal bilateral transaction | IBT | The purchase and sale of electric energy or regulation obligations between two market participants internal to the New England Balancing Authority Area. |
| internal combustion unit | ICU | An engine in which an oxidizer, typically air, ignites a fuel, such as natural gas, gasoline, diesel fuel, or fuel oil, within a combustion chamber, which creates high temperatures and pressure gasses that apply force on a piston, turbine blade, rotor, or motor, essentially converting chemical energy into mechanical energy; otherwise called an internal combustion engine. |
| internal market monitor | IMM | An ISO department composed of economists, engineers, statisticians, and analysts that functions independently of ISO management and reports directly to the ISO Board of Directors’ Markets Committee and that regularly assesses and reports on the wholesale electricity markets and market products; conducts daily monitoring for any anticompetitive behavior intended to (or that foreseeably could) manipulate market prices, market conditions, or market rules; and mitigates the effects of any identified anticompetitive behavior. |
| Interregional Electric Market Model | IREMM | A "pipe and bubble" energy production cost program that models the New England region’s subareas (bubbles) and the transmission lines that connect them (pipes) for developing hourly, chronological, system-production costs and other metrics. |
| interregional interchange scheduling | IRIS | A process of scheduling and controlling power flow between neighboring regions. For ISO New England and the New York ISO, a system for scheduling external energy trading transaction to facilitate power flows from the region with lower costs to the region with higher costs; see coordinated transaction scheduling. |
| Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee | IPSAC | An open stakeholder group that provides input for the development of the Northeast Coordinated System Plan (NCSP), which outlines activities conducted jointly by ISO New England, the New York ISO, and PJM. This collaboration among the three ISOs/RTOs in the area ensures that the electric system is planned on a wider interregional basis and is proactive and well-coordinated. |
| Interregional Security Network | ISN | A communication network used by North American Electric Reliability Corporation reliability coordinators, transmission operators, and balancing authorities to share real-time operating reliability data across the Eastern Interconnection; commonly referred to as NERCnet. |
| interruptible load | Load that can be interrupted by the power system operator in an emergency in accordance with contractual arrangements. | |
| interruption day | Days in which an active demand capacity resource is included in a dispatch event or when a real-time demand-response resource is included in day-ahead cleared hours. | |
| Interstate Reliability Project | IRP | A 345 kV transmission upgrade project in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island that was part of the New England East-West Solutions (NEEWS) series of projects to address east–west and west–east transmission limitations for meeting regional reliability; in service December 2015. |
| intertie | The circuit that connects two or more balancing authority areas or systems. | |
| IPP | independent power producer | |
| IPR | intermittent power resource | |
| IPSAC | Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee | |
| IPT | independent pole tripping | |
| IR | interconnection request | |
| IREMM | Interregional Electric Market Model | |
| IRH | interconnection rights holder | |
| IRIS | interregional interchange scheduling | |
| IROL | interconnection-reliability operating limit | |
| IRP | integrated resource plan | |
| IRP | Interstate Reliability Project | |
| island | An electrically isolated portion of an interconnection that maintains its own frequency; typically formed after a major power system disturbance or the restoration that takes place after the disturbance. | |
| ISN | Interregional Security Network | |
| ISO | Independent System Operator | |
| ISO New England Manual for Forward Reserve and Real-Time Reserve | M-36 | One of a series of manuals concerning the wholesale electricity markets administered by the ISO, which details the Forward Reserve Market, including how forward reserve is acquired in the Forward Reserve Auction and how the value of forward reserve is determined in accordance with Market Rule 1. Also covers real-time reserve accounting. |
| ISO New England Manual for Measurement and Verification of Demand-Reduction Value from Demand Capacity Resources | M-MVDR | ISO manual that provides guidance and required criteria for measuring and verifying the performance of demand capacity resources participating in the wholesale electricity markets administered by the ISO, pursuant to Market Rule 1 (Section III.8A, Section III.13, and Appendix III.E1). |
| ISO New England Inc. Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff | Tariff, ISO tariff | Known as the ISO tariff, the document that details the rates, terms, and conditions for transmission, market, and other services provided by ISO New England; the rights and responsibilities of the ISO and market participants; and various schedules that define the revenues the ISO collects for its operations and those of the New England States Committee on Electricity. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 14, Technical Requirements for Generators, Demand Resources, Asset-Related Demand, and Alternative Technology Regulation Resources | OP 14 | ISO operating procedure establishing the minimum technical requirements for verifying that generators, settlement-only resources and generators, demand-response resources, asset-related demand capacity resources, and alternative technology regulation resources under the ISO’s control and jurisdiction that participate in the wholesale electricity markets have accurate metered data available for ISO dispatch control and settlement; aims to ensure, in conjunction with the market structures, that the bulk electric system of the New England Reliability Coordinator Area Balancing Authority Area conforms to proper standards of reliability. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 17, Load Power Factor Correction | OP 17 | ISO procedure that sets the required generator power factor capability range within which market participants in ISO reliability coordinator and balancing authority areas must keep their generators for heavy (28,000 MW), intermediate (18,000 MW), and light (9,000 MW) load levels for ensuring that ISO system operators can maintain scheduled voltages within allowed-for tolerances on all points of the transmission system and overall transmission system reliability. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 18, Metering and Telemetering Criteria | OP 18 | Standards for metering (measurement) and telemetering (data transmission) for dispatching resources; settling the wholesale energy markets; and determining transmission owner (TO) and market participant (MP) peak loads, other factors that could impact voting shares, and load power factor measurements. Identifies the power system parameters each TO and MP must meter and telemeter. Establishes standards for verifying that the equipment each TO and MP installs will provide an appropriate level of accuracy and recordings for audit purposes. Prescribes the maintenance procedures and schedules each TO and MP must follow for attaining the desired level of accuracy. Local state utility control and distribution utilities may have additional requirements. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 19, Transmission Operations | OP 19 | ISO procedure that describes how each transmission owner, the ISO, and each local control center (as transmission operators) (1) monitors the New England transmission system and determines ratings, criteria, and limits for its operation under normal and emergency system conditions, and (2) analyzes and operates the system under these two sets of system conditions. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 21, Actions during an Energy Emergency | OP 21 | The required ISO processes for collecting fuel-availability information from lead market participants to determine energy adequacy for the region’s electric power requirements, and the needed communications and actions in anticipation of and during an energy emergency, as triggered by the ISO and as implemented by the ISO and the local control centers. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 3, Transmission-Outage Scheduling | OP 3 | ISO procedures for (1) facilitating transmission owner (TO) and local control center preparation of TO long-term and short-term outage plans for their transmission facilities, (2) establishing long-term and short-term outage-request processes and timelines for outage requests, (3) coordinating transmission outages with generator and dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resource outages to plan for reliable operations and minimize congestion, (4) establishing long-term and short-term outage-scheduling processes that do not jeopardize the reliability of the transmission system and continue to minimize congestion, and (5) providing guidelines for responding to unplanned outage. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 4, Action during a Capacity Deficiency | OP 4 | ISO procedure establishing criteria and guides for actions during capacity deficiencies, as directed by the ISO and as implemented by the ISO and the local control centers, which could be implemented any time one or more of the following events, or other similar events, occur or are expected to occur: (1) The resources available to the New England Reliability Coordinator Area/Balancing Authority Area (RCA/BAA) outside of OP 4 are insufficient to meet the anticipated load plus operating reserve requirements. (2) One or more contingencies has occurred resulting in an immediate deficiency in the New England area’s available capacity resources required to meet the load plus operating reserve requirements. (3) Transmission facilities into a subarea of the New England area are loaded beyond established transfer capabilities. (4) A subarea of the New England area is experiencing either or both abnormal voltage or reactive conditions. (5) The need to implement manual load shedding, as required by ISO Operating Procedure No. 7, Action in an Emergency, is imminent, but the application of OP 4 may avoid or reduce the magnitude of load shedding. (6) Another Northeast Power Coordinating Council RCA/BAA or a remote system or pool is experiencing a capacity deficiency and has requested assistance from the ISO, which, if provided, will reduce the New England area’s actual operating reserve below the required levels. (7) The ISO determines that the implementation of OP 4 will mitigate the impact of any other serious threat to the integrity of the bulk electric system. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 7, Action in an Emergency | OP 7 | ISO procedures to follow in the event of an operating emergency involving unusually low frequency, equipment overload, capacity or energy deficiency, unacceptable voltage levels, or any other emergency the ISO deems appropriate in an isolated or widespread area of New England to (1) protect the reliable operation of the Eastern Interconnection, (2) restore balance between customers’ load and available generation in the shortest practicable time, (3) minimize risk of damage to equipment, and (4) minimize the interruption of customer service. |
| ISO Operating Procedure No. 8, Operating Reserve and Regulation | OP 8 | ISO procedure for establishing and administrating operating reserve and regulation in the New England Reliability Coordinator Area/Balancing Authority Area to ensure that it operates the New England area’s bulk electric system at the prescribed level of reliability. |
| ISO Planning Procedure No. 10, Planning Procedure to Support the Forward Capacity Market | PP 10 | ISO requirements, procedures, and sample forms for planning activities associated with calculating capacity requirements and running the Forward Capacity Market, including updating the power system’s base case model to account for transmission upgrades and changes to the load forecast and the system, as appropriate; calculating interarea and interzonal transfer limits as needed to support the Forward Capacity Auction; and conducting interconnection analyses, overlapping interconnection impact analyses, transmission interface limit analyses, transmission security analyses, analyses of demand bids and delist bids, and other transmission planning studies for new generating capacity resources, demand capacity resources, and import capacity resources, as appropriate. |
| ISO Planning Procedure No. 3, Reliability Standards for the New England Bulk Electric Power Supply System | PP 3 | ISO standards and minimum design criteria to ensure the reliability and efficiency of the New England bulk electric power system through the coordination of system planning, design, and operation in terms of resource adequacy, area transmission requirements, stability assessment, transmission transfer capability, extreme contingency assessment, and extreme system conditions assessment. |
| ISO Planning Procedure No. 4, Procedure for Pool-Supported PTF Cost Review | PP 4 | Detailed guidance on what necessary regulated transmission solution additions and modifications, reconstructions, or replacement projects of pool transmission facilities (PTFs) eligible for regional cost support are subject to cost review, what information the applicant for cost review must provide to the ISO, the process for Reliability Committee (RC) and ISO review of an applicant’s project, the factors that must be considered in determining whether a project will have localized costs, and the periodic reporting of project costs. Also provides guidelines for preparing Transmission Cost Allocation (TCA) applications for use by the ISO and the RC and on what information and analysis should be available and supplied to support TCA applications. |
| ITC | independent transmission company | |
| J - M | ||
| JCSP | Joint Coordinated System Plan | |
| JET | Jet Fuel | |
| Joint Coordinated System Plan | JCSP | A former study that provided a conceptual regional transmission and generation system plan for a large portion of the Eastern Interconnection in the United States, developed with the participation of most of the major transmission operators in the Eastern Interconnection. For example, the 2009 JCSP evaluated scenarios of large wind development primarily in the Midwest and transmission alternatives for delivery of the energy mostly to the northeastern United States. |
| kiloton | kton | A unit of capacity equal to 1,000 tons. |
| kilovolt | kV | 1,000 volts; used to quantify transmission line voltages and higher-voltage distribution line voltages. |
| kilovolt-ampere | kVA | A unit of apparent power equal to 1,000 volt-amperes; the product of volts multiplied by amperes in an alternating current (AC) electrical circuit; a measure of the capacity of electrical equipment. |
| kilovolt-ampere reactive; kilovar | kVAR | A measure of reactive power, not useable power. |
| kilowatt | kW | A measure of an electrical system’s real power, commonly used to quantify the amount of power customers consume (for billing purposes). |
| kilowatt-hour | kWh | A basic unit of electric energy equal to one kilowatt of power supplied to or taken from an electric circuit for one hour. The unit is used to measure a customer’s use of electric energy. |
| kton | kiloton | |
| kV | kilovolt | |
| kVA | kilovolt-ampere | |
| kVAR | kilovolt-ampere reactive; kilovar | |
| kW | kilowatt | |
| kWh | kilowatt-hour | |
| LAER | lowest-achievable emission rate | |
| landfill gas | LFG | The gas resulting from landfill decomposition that either is collected, cleaned, and used for generation or is vented or flared. |
| Large Generator Interconnection Procedure | LGIP | Standard procedures for the interconnection of generating units larger than 20 MW, per the ISO’s Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff, Section II, Schedule 22. |
| LBU | local benefit upgrade | |
| LCC | local control center | |
| LDC | local gas distribution company | |
| LDC | local distribution company | |
| lead market participant | LMP | See lead participant. |
| lead participant | LP | The primary representative and bidder for a resource in the wholesale electricity markets. Also referred to as lead market participant (LMP). |
| LER | limited-energy resource | |
| levelized fixed cost | A construction or purchase cost of an asset annualized over the expected productive life of the asset for the purpose of repayment. | |
| LFG | landfill gas | |
| LFTMOR | locational-forward 10-minute operating reserve | |
| LGIP | Large Generator Interconnection Procedure | |
| LICAP | locational installed capacity | |
| limited liability company | LLC | A corporate structure for which the members of the company cannot be held liable for the company’s debts or liabilities. |
| limited-energy resource | LER | Per Section 1 of the ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff, a generating resource that, because of design considerations; environmental restriction on operations; cyclical requirements, such as the need to recharge or refill or manage water flow; or fuel limitations, is unable to operate continuously at full output on a daily basis. Also referred to as limited-energy generator (LEG). |
| line loss | The electric power lost (turned to heat) during the transmission or distribution of electricity. | |
| line-outage distribution factor | LODF | A sensitivity factor of the linearized impact of transmission line contingencies on the flows in other lines in the system. On an energized line, the LODF calculation determines the percentage of the present line flow that will show up on other transmission lines after the outage of that line. |
| liquefied natural gas | LNG | Odorless, colorless, toxic, and noncorrosive natural gas (i.e., predominately methane with some ethane) that has been converted to liquid and approximately 1/600th of its volume for ease of storage and transport. |
| liquefied petroleum gas | LPG | Odorless, flammable mixture of primarily propane and butane hydrocarbon gases used as fuel in heating appliances, cooking equipment, and vehicles. |
| listing | When a market participant notifies the ISO that a qualified installed capacity resource is available for selection (dispatch). | |
| LLC | limited liability company | |
| LMP | locational marginal price | |
| LMP | lead market participant | |
| LMP calculator | The software tool used to establish the price for electric energy purchases and sales at specific locations throughout New England (i.e., nodes, zones, and the Hub), accounting for the locational marginal value and cost of energy, including the loss and congestion costs of delivering it. | |
| LNG | liquefied natural gas | |
| LNS | local network service | |
| load | The demand for electricity measured in megawatts; electricity consumption; the amount of electric power delivered to any specified point on a system, accounting for the requirements of the customer’s electrical equipment. | |
| load balancing | When the total amperage requirements of a system’s electrical equipment are distributed equally among the available electrical circuits in the system. | |
| load clearing | The demand for electric energy satisfied in an auction and in the Day-Ahead Energy Market. | |
| load factor | The ratio of the average hourly load during a year (in kilowatts) to peak hourly load. | |
| load forecast | An estimation of the future demand for electricity. | |
| load management | The use of installed measures, systems, or strategies by end-use customers to curtail their electrical usage during peak hours or shift electrical use to off-peak hours to reduce the amount of capacity needed to deliver an acceptable level of electric power service to those facilities. A type of active demand capacity resource. | |
| load obligation | The sum of metered load, exports, and load-shifting contracts for which a lead participant is financially responsible. | |
| load obligation bilateral | LOB | Refer to capacity load obligation bilateral. |
| load pocket | An area of the bulk electric power system that requires local generation to meet demand because the transfer capability of the transmission system is insufficient to serve the load in the area. | |
| load power factor | LPF | The ratio of a generator’s real power (i.e., active power; the portion of the flow of electric energy that performs work or energy transfers, measured in megawatts) to its apparent power (i.e., the product of the voltage and current that comprises real and reactive power, measured in megavolt-amperes. |
| load response | A reduction of load by demand capacity resources based on a price signal or a request from the ISO to do so for reliability reasons. | |
| load shedding | Controlled or scheduled power outages (controlled blackouts) to balance the demand for electric energy with limited supply. | |
| load shifting | The changing of capacity requirements from one supplier to another when customers choose different suppliers. Also the changing of the time of electricity contribution, often from peak to off-peak hours. Used in the Forward Capacity Market to denote the 90-day resettlement changes in responsibility. | |
| load zone | An aggregation of pricing nodes within a specific area of the New England bulk electric power system for establishing the wholesale price of electric energy and settling the wholesale electric energy market. | |
| load-response program | LRP | An expired day-ahead and real-time ISO program that provided incentives to market participants to reduce their electric energy consumption in the New England region during periods of high wholesale prices. |
| load-serving entity | LSE | An entity that secures and sells electric energy, transmission service, and related services to serve the demand of its end-use customers at the distribution level. |
| LOB | load obligation bilateral | |
| local benefit upgrade | LBU | An upgrade, modification or addition to the transmission system that is (1) rated below 115 kV or (2) rated 115 kV or above and does not meet all of the nonvoltage criteria for classification as a pool transmission facility as specified in the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff. |
| local control center | LCC | In New England, six facilities run by transmission owners responsible for, with certain exceptions, operating transmission facilities rated 69 kV and above. Tasks include reactive dispatch, with ISO New England providing area oversight; implementation of emergency procedures at the direction of ISO operations personnel; actual switching of transmission elements; and power-system monitoring and real time contingency analysis in parallel with the ISO’s master control center. |
| local distribution company | LDC | A regulated utility company, such as for electric power or natural gas, that distributes its commodity or service in its assigned geographical service territory. Electric power LDCs maintain the low-voltage portions of the electric power grid (i.e., transmission line with a voltage of less than 69 kV and associated equipment), transferring electric power from the high-voltage transmission system (69 kV and above) and delivering electricity on demand to residential and small commercial customers. Natural gas LDCs buy gas for resale to end users, delivering the gas from interstate pipelines to end-user facilities. |
| local gas distribution company | LDC | An entity that transfers natural gas from pipelines to consumers; equivalent to load-serving entities. |
| local network service | LNS | Per Schedule 21 of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (OATT), participating transmission owners’ (PTOs’) local-level transmission service for the delivery of electric energy and capacity from network resources to their network customers, and the delivery of energy and capacity to or by network customers from New England markets transactions, through the local service schedules (e.g., rates, terms, and applicable conditions) that permit network customers to efficiently and economically use their resources to serve their loads. Each PTO’s OATT Attachment E Service Agreement defines the transmission facilities comprising its local network. |
| local point-to-point service | LPTP | Under Schedule 21 of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) and a participating transmission owner’s (PTO’s) local service schedule, the firm or nonfirm transmission of capacity or electric energy to or from an interconnection point on a pool transmission facility (PTF). A PTO can provide LPTP service for a transmission customer’s use of a nonpool transmission facility with generation or load within a local network, as defined by the PTO’s OATT Attachment E Service Agreement. |
| local resource adequacy | LRA | A Forward Capacity Market requirement for a capacity zone in the New England Control Area and for the rest of the New England Control Area to ensure that New England meets its resource adequacy planning criteria, as specified in Market Rule 1, Section III.12.1, such that the loss-of-load expectation (LOLE) of disconnecting noninterruptible customers due to resource deficiencies is not more than 0.1 day each year. The LRA requirement accounts for the megawatts of resources electrically located within the zone or area, including import capacity resources on the import-constrained side of the interface; proxy-unit additions in the zone or area; firm load added or subtracted within the zone or area to make the region’s LOLE equal to 0.0105 days/year; and the capacity-weighted average of the forced-outage rate modeled for all resources in the zone or area, including for the proxy unit additions to the zone. |
| local second contingency | LSC | The loss of the facility that would have the largest impact within one of New England’s eight reliability regions after the first facility in the reliability region is lost. Also, a constraint in a reliability region met by maintaining an operating reserve that can increase output when the first contingency occurs. |
| local second-contingency-protection resource | LSCPR | Resources the ISO identifies as necessary for providing local reserve requirements and adhering to North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Northeast Power Coordinating Council, and ISO reliability criteria over and above the resources required to meet first-contingency reliability criteria within a reliability region. |
| local sourcing requirement | LSR | The minimum amount of capacity that must be electrically located within an import-constrained load zone to meet its share of the Installed Capacity Requirement. |
| local system planning | LSP | Transmission planning conducted by participating transmission owners that describes transmission system reliability needs for nonpool transmission facilities (non-PTFs), including local public policy transmission upgrades, and reflecting local system planning studies and proposed solutions; identifying the local planning process and the criteria, data, and assumptions used; enabling formal stakeholder input to planning for non-PTFs not incorporated into regional system planning; and ensuring the opportunity for Planning Advisory Committee participation in the LSP process. |
| location | A node, external node, load zone, or the Hub on the bulk electric power system. | |
| locational installed capacity | LICAP | A proposed but not implemented monthly market-based solution in New England that involved using a demand curve to determine the price for electric energy as capacity levels changed. |
| locational marginal price | LMP | The calculated price of electric energy at a pricing node, load zone, reliability region, or the Hub based on the patterns of load, generation, and the physical limits of the transmission system. |
| locational-forward 10-minute operating reserve | LFTMOR | Amount of 10-minute reserves procured from a participant’s locational portfolio of 10-minute offers in the seasonal Forward Reserve Market for delivery as real time reserves during that season. |
| locational-forward 30-minute operating reserve | Amount of 30-minute reserves (30-minute operating reserve) procured from a participant’s locational portfolio of 30-minute offers in the seasonal Forward Reserve Market for delivery as real-time reserves during that season. | |
| LODF | line-outage distribution factor | |
| LOLE | loss-of-load expectation analysis | |
| Long-Term Reliability Assessment (NERC) | LTRA | North American Electric Reliability Corporation annual assessments of the adequacy of the bulk electric power system in the United States and Canada over a 10-year period, which project electricity supply and demand, evaluate transmission system adequacy, and discuss key issues and trends that could affect reliability. |
| Long-Term Transmission Right | LTTR | Per the US Energy Policy Act of 2005, a required mechanism in organized electricity markets that facilitates the planning and expansion of transmission facilities to meet the reasonable needs of load-serving entities (LSEs) for satisfying their service obligations and enabling them to secure firm transmission rights (or equivalent tradable or financial rights) on a long-term basis for long-term power supply agreements made or planned to meet such needs. To correlate the LTTR concept with existing New England terminology based on Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs), the market rules in New England refer to "long-term Financial Transmission Rights" (LFTRs). |
| LOOP | loss of off-site power event | |
| LOS | loss of source | |
| loss of off-site power event | LOOP | Per the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the simultaneous loss of electric power to all unit safety buses (also referred to as emergency buses, "Class 1E buses," and vital buses), requiring all emergency power generators to start and supply power to the safety buses and potentially requiring the nonessential buses to be de-energized as a result. The ISO’s Control Room Operating Procedure (CROP).50001, Reporting Procedures, considers a LOOP event a Category 2 event that requires analysis reporting. |
| loss of source | LOS | When a resource providing energy to the electric power system within a region or to surrounding regions goes off line in response to a contingency. A LOS limit from all resources is in place for each region to prevent interface constraints or other impacts on any of the interregional systems. |
| loss-of-load expectation analysis | LOLE | A probabilistic analysis used to identify the amount of installed capacity (in MW) the bulk electric power system needs to meet the Northeast Power Coordinating Council and ISO resource adequacy planning criterion to not disconnect firm load more than one time in 10 years. |
| low voltage | LV | In terms of the bulk electric power system, the energy transmitted below 115 kilovolts. See low-voltage transmission line. |
| low-capacity-factor generating unit | A generating unit with an annual capacity factor of less than 10%. | |
| Low-Emissions Renewable Energy Certificate | LREC | A tradable, nontangible commodity representing the eligible renewable generation attributes of 1 megawatt-hour of actual generation from a grid-connected, low-emitting renewable resource, such as a fuel cell, with each state with LRECs setting the qualifying resource size, emissions level, and other criteria. Also see Renewable Energy Certificate and Renewable Energy Credit. |
| Lower SEMA (LSM) | lower southeastern Massachusetts | |
| lower southeastern Massachusetts | Lower SEMA (LSM) | A regional system planning study area in Massachusetts comprising the New Bedford and Plymouth districts and Cape Cod. |
| lowest-achievable emission rate | LAER | Pursuant to the US Clean Air Act, the rate of emissions for any source that reflects (1) the most stringent emission limitation contained in any of the states’ implementation plans for such a source class or category, unless the owner or operator of the proposed source demonstrates that such limitations are not achievable, or (2) the most stringent emission limitation achieved in practice by such a source class or category, whichever is more stringent. |
| low-sulfur fuel oil | LSFO | No. 2 diesel (distillate) fuel oil that has a sulfur level between 15 ppm and 500 ppm (inclusive), used primarily in motor vehicle diesel engines for on-highway use. |
| low-voltage transmission line | A transmission line, usually with a voltage of less than 69 kV, which delivers electric power from local distribution company facilities to homes and businesses (see high-voltage transmission line). | |
| LP | lead participant | |
| LPF | load power factor | |
| LPG | liquefied petroleum gas | |
| LPTP | local point-to-point service | |
| LRA | local resource adequacy | |
| LREC | Low-Emissions Renewable Energy Certificate | |
| LRP | load-response program | |
| LSC | local second contingency | |
| LSCPR | local second-contingency-protection resource | |
| LSE | load-serving entity | |
| LSFO | low-sulfur fuel oil | |
| LSP | local system planning | |
| LSR | local sourcing requirement | |
| LTRA | Long-Term Reliability Assessment (NERC) | |
| LTTR | Long-Term Transmission Right | |
| LV | low voltage | |
| M&N; M&NP | Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline | |
| M&V Plan | Measurement and Verification Plan | |
| M/LCC | master/local control center | |
| M/LCC 2 | Master/Local Control Center Procedure No. 2, Abnormal Conditions Alert | |
| M-36 | ISO New England Manual for Forward Reserve and Real-Time Reserve | |
| MACT | maximum-achievable control technology | |
| MAIN | Mid-America Interconnected Network | |
| Maine load zone | ME | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the State of Maine except for its northern tip, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Maine Power Reliability Program | MPRP | A major reliability project that includes the addition of significant new 345 kilovolt (kV) and 115 kV transmission facilities and new 345 kV autotransformers at key locations in Maine. The MPRP provides infrastructure needed to increase the ability to move electric power from New Hampshire into Maine and improves the ability of the transmission system within Maine to move power into local load pockets as necessary. Most of the MPRP projects entered service by the first half of 2015, with the Lewiston loop portions of the project scheduled to enter service in 2017. |
| Maine subarea | ME | Regional System Plan subarea that includes western and central Maine and Saco Valley, New Hampshire. |
| major transmission element | MTE | As defined in ISO Operating Procedure No. 3 (OP 3), Transmission-Outage Scheduling, a significant type of "Category A" or "Category B" transmission facility that (1) affects generators and dispatchable asset-related demand (DARD) resources or places restrictions on the operation of generators or DARDs; (2) can be further identified as, or referenced in, defined external or internal interfaces; or (3) can be referenced in a transmission operating guide, and that may have a significant impact on the reliable or economic operation of the New England transmission system and thus may have greater exposure than other transmission facilities to being canceled or denied because of economic impacts. (OP 3 generally defines Category A facilities as all transmission lines with a voltage level of 115 kV and above, except for the ones designated as Category B facilities in accordance with the current Transmission Operating Agreement; all transmission intertie between control areas; all transformers that have Category A facilities connected to the lower voltage side of the transformer; all transformers that require a Category A facility to be taken out of service when the transformer is taken out of service; and all breakers and disconnects connected to, and all associated equipment specifically installed to, support the operation of such transmission lines, interties, and transformers. Category B facilities generally are all 115 kV radial transmission lines and 69 kV transmission lines that are not interties between control areas; all transformers that only have Category B facilities connected to the lower voltage side of the transformer, except to the extent such transformers are designated as Category A facilities; and all breakers and disconnects connected to, and all associated equipment specifically installed to, support the operation of Category B facilities.) |
| manual response rate | MRR | The megawatt/minute rate at which a generator’s output is capable of changing by manually controlling the unit, used for generator auditing, redeclarations, purchasing winter capability, determining activation of reserves, and other measures. |
| MAOP | maximum-allowable operating pressure | |
| MAPE | mean absolute percent error | |
| marginal | Barely exceeding a lower limit, such as a resource’s offer in the wholesale electricity markets that is slightly higher than the market clearing price. | |
| Marginal Emissions Analysis | MEA | Analysis that uses the locational marginal price, reflecting transmission constraints and economic dispatch, to identify the last unit dispatched (a locational marginal unit; LMU) and calculate the nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide emissions from the LMUs, the percentage of time each fuel type is marginal, and the marginal heat rate (millions of British thermal units/megawatt-hour). |
| marginal emissions rate | A measure (pounds/megawatt-hours; lb/MWh) of the energy-weighted average emissions from a unit that would typically increase its output if the regional energy demand were higher during the period of interest In New England. Assumed marginal units typically are natural-gas-fired generators and oil-fired generators, including those burning residual, distillate, diesel, kerosene, and jet fuel. The marginal emissions rate is calculated by dividing the emissions from the assumed marginal units during the desired period in pounds by the generation (MWh) from the assumed marginal units. Assumed marginal units also may be expressed as lb/million British thermal unit (MMBtu) by applying a systemwide conversion factor. | |
| marginal heat rate | A measure (million British thermal unit/megawatt-hour; MMBtu/MWh) of how efficiently assumed marginal units (i.e., in New England, units fueled with natural gas or oil, including residual, distillate, diesel, kerosene, and jet fuel) convert fuel to electricity. This rate is equal to the amount of fuel consumed by the assumed marginal units divided by the actual generation of the assumed marginal units. | |
| marginal loss component | A component of the locational marginal price for electric energy that reflects the marginal cost of additional losses caused by supplying an increment of load at that location. | |
| marginal resource | A price-setting resource in the wholesale electricity markets. | |
| marine and hydrokinetic energy, marine and hydrokinetic power | MHK | Technologies that use waves, currents, and ocean thermal resources to generate electricity. |
| Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline | M&N; M&NP | A natural gas pipeline that transports natural gas from offshore Nova Scotia to markets in Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States. |
| market efficiency transmission upgrade | METU | A type of transmission upgrade in ISO New England primarily designed to reduce the total net production cost to supply the system load, including the costs for electric energy, capacity, reserves, and losses and those associated with bilateral prices for electricity. |
| market information server | MIS | An electronic repository for numerous types of customer reports on wholesale energy market results, settlement details, external ties, winter reliability performance, and many other aspects of the markets, accessible to customers through secure file transfer protocol accounts. |
| market monitoring and mitigation | The process of reviewing wholesale electricity market activities and outcomes, including participant behavior, price anomalies, implementation issues, actions in one market that affect the price in another market, and short- and long-term market efficiency, to assure that market outcomes are consistent with a competitive market. | |
| market operator interface | MOI | A computer interface used by ISO New England system operators to manage the real-time market (also see EMS market user interface). |
| market participant | An entity in the New England wholesale electricity markets that has executed a Market Participant Service Agreement or on whose behalf an unexecuted agreement has been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. | |
| Market Participant Service Agreement | MPSA | An agreement between the ISO and a market participant delineating the ISO’s and participant’s required services. The ISO must, in accordance with its operating documents, operate the New England Control Area, provide transmission service through the New England transmission system, and administer the New England markets; monitor the New England wholesale electricity markets; and maintain procedures for the interconnection of assets with the New England transmission system. It will not provide local service, which is acquired through a separate Transmission Service Agreement with the applicable participating transmission owner. The market participant must accept service under the ISO’s Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff as a participant in the New England markets; agree to be bound by the terms of the ISO New England operating documents; and make timely payments of all amounts due under these documents. |
| market resource alternative | MRA | A supply or demand resource alternative to a regulated transmission solution, at one or more locations in an area, for meeting an ISO transmission system reliability need in that area identified in a needs assessment or other transmission study. |
| Market Rule 1 (Section III of the Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff) | MR1 | Section III of the ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff, which governs the operation of New England’s wholesale electricity markets and includes detailed information on pricing, scheduling, offering, bidding, settlement, and other procedures associated with the purchase and sale of electricity. |
| market settlement system | MSS | An ISO system for financially settling market participant transactions associated with the various wholesale electricity markets, market products, and other services. |
| Market Support Services | MSS | ISO department that assists market participants with their new and existing accounts, addresses inquiries from participants and other interested stakeholders, provides ISO training programs, and offers other services to ISO customers. |
| market user interface | MUI | An electronic interface for ISO customers to manage their wholesale energy market transactions, including real and virtual bids and offers through eMarket, the Financial Transmission Rights auction, the Forward Reserve Market auction, the Forward Capacity Market (FCM) reconfiguration process, FCM capacity supply obligation bilateral contract, internal bilateral and external transactions, Financial Assurance Management, and other applications. |
| Markets Committee | MC | A standing technical committee of the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) and one of the principal committees that advises the NEPOOL Participants Committee and the ISO on the rules and procedures governing the operation of the wholesale electricity markets, recommends action by the Participants Committee, and may act on its behalf when necessary. |
| MARS | Multi-Area Reliability Simulation Program (General Electric) | |
| master control center | MCC | The ISO in its role as operator of all transmission facilities in the New England region rated 115 kilovolts and above. |
| master/local control center | M/LCC | Acronym used before a set of ISO procedures that applies to the master control center and local control centers. |
| Master/Local Control Center Procedure No. 2, Abnormal Conditions Alert | M/LCC 2 | An ISO New England procedure used to alert applicable power system operations, maintenance, construction, and test personnel, as well as each applicable market participant, when an abnormal condition affecting the reliability of the power system exists or is anticipated. When notified of an M/LCC 2 alert, these entities are expected to take precautions, stop, or postpone routine maintenance, construction, or test activities associated with any generating station, dispatchable asset-related demand, demand-response resource, transmission line, substation, dispatch computer, and communications equipment that could jeopardize the reliability of the power system. |
| MATS | Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (US EPA) | |
| maximum capacity limit | MCL | The maximum amount of capacity that can be procured in an export-constrained capacity zone for meeting the Installed Capacity Requirement. |
| maximum daily energy | MDE | The total electric energy (megawatt-hours) available for an operating day from a capacity resource in the Day-Ahead Energy Market, which is optimized over the entire day to maximize social welfare. |
| maximum-achievable control technology | MACT | As set forth in the US Clean Air Act’s National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS), the maximum degree of emissions reductions the US Environmental Protection Agency has determined is achievable for an emissions source category, taking into consideration the costs of achieving such reductions and any non-air-quality health and environmental impacts and energy requirements. |
| maximum-allowable operating pressure | MAOP | Per the minimum US safety standards for the transportation of natural gas and other gas by pipeline, the maximum pressure at which a pipeline or segment of pipeline may be operated; applicable for gas transmission lines, distribution lines, master meters, and liquefied petroleum gas systems, with consideration of location, design of the pipe and its components, system pressure or leakage tests, operating history, and overpressure protection. |
| MC | Markets Committee | |
| MCC | master control center | |
| MCL | maximum capacity limit | |
| MDE | maximum daily energy | |
| MDI | Mount Desert Island | |
| ME | Maine subarea | |
| ME | Maine load zone | |
| MEA | Marginal Emissions Analysis | |
| mean absolute percent error | MAPE | A measure of the accuracy of a forecasting method’s predictions and the magnitude of a forecast error, which the ISO’s internal market monitor has used for estimating the accuracy of a demand response resource’s baseline load reductions. |
| measurement and verification of demand reduction | MVDR | A method to measure reductions of electric power demand by demand capacity resources during demand capacity resource on-peak and seasonal peak hours, upon dispatch, or during audits and to verify the reduction levels through certifications by meter readers, independent demand-designated entities, state public utility commissions with jurisdiction over a project, or third-party auditors. Also see Measurement and Verification Plan. |
| Measurement and Verification Plan | M&V Plan | As required by the qualification rules for the Forward Capacity Market, a lead market participant’s plan for measuring a demand capacity resource’s electric energy reductions during demand capacity resource on-peak and seasonal peak hours, upon dispatch, or during audits and verifying the reduction levels through certifications by meter readers, independent demand-designated entities, state public utility commissions with jurisdiction over a project, or third-party auditors. Also see measurement and verification of demand reduction. |
| mechanical draft cooling tower | A device of a power plant (or other industrial facility) that cools heated process water or other fluid using mechanical fans that draw air through the tower and into contact with the heated fluid. | |
| megavolt | MV | 1 million volts. |
| megavolt-ampere | MVA | A measure of the capacity of electrical equipment; see kilovolt-ampere (kVA). |
| megavolt-ampere reactive | MVAR | A measure of reactive power incapable of doing work, equal to 1 million volt ampere reactive. |
| megawatt | MW | A unit of power equal to one million watts or 1,000 kilowatts; a measure of the capacity of a power station. |
| megawatt-hour | MWh | A unit for measuring electric power or the rate at which energy is produced or consumed; equal to 1,000 kilowatts of electricity used for one hour, or 1,000 kilowatt-hours. Also equal to 1 million (10<sup>6</sup>) watts. |
| megawatt-month | MW-month | The energy produced by one megawatt of generation over a period of one month. |
| Memorandum of Understanding | MOU | A formal agreement between two or more parties to establish official partnerships or indicate an intended common line of action; used in New England, for example, among the ISO, New England Power Pool, and the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) to delineate NESCOE’s terms of operation, operating agreement, and code of conduct. |
| MEPCO Grandfathered Transmission Service Agreement | MGTSA | A Maine Electric Power Company (MEPCO) long-term, firm point-to-point Transmission Service Agreement between the ISO and a transmission service provider, with a point of receipt or point of delivery at the New Brunswick border and a start date before June 1, 2007, where the holder has elected this grandfathered treatment (as further described in the ISO’s Open Access Transmission Tariff, Sections 11.44 and II.45.1), including for elevated scheduling and curtailment transactions in the Real-Time Energy Market, reservation priorities, terminations, and other provisions. |
| merchant transmission facility | MTF | An independently developed and funded transmission facility in the region subject to the operational control of the ISO, pursuant to an operating agreement specific to each facility. |
| merchant transmission operating agreement | MTOA | An agreement between the ISO and a merchant transmission facility owner with respect to its facility’s offer of transmission service. |
| merchant transmission owner | MTO | Owner of a merchant transmission facility. |
| mercury | Hg | A highly toxic metallic element occurring in rock deposits around the world, including coal, which when burned for fuel emits volatized vapors harmful to human health and the environment. |
| Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (US EPA) | MATS | US Environmental Protection Agency standard under the US Clean Air Act, Section 111 (New Source Performance Standards) and Section 112 (Toxics Program) requiring power plants to limit their emissions of toxic air pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, and metals, on the basis of the best-performing sources in operation. |
| merit order | The order of operation for generators as designated by the ISO, which is based on the lowest-to-highest cleared offers to generate electric energy until the demand for energy is met. Also see economic-merit order and in merit. | |
| Meter Data Error RBA Submission Limit | The date 30 calendar days after the issuance of an invoice containing the results of a data reconciliation, according to the process described in Market Rule 1, Section III.3.6. | |
| metering configuration | The defined way each type of demand capacity resource asset (i.e., on peak, seasonal peak, active demand capacity resource) must measure and report the distributed generation and load reduction, as applicable, which determines the resource’s data requirements, settlement treatment, and baseline requirements; as defined in the ISO’s Market Rule 1, Manual 28, Accounting, and the Measurement and Verification of On-Peak Demand Resources and Seasonal Peak Demand Resources (M-MVDR). | |
| METU | market efficiency transmission upgrade | |
| MGTSA | MEPCO Grandfathered Transmission Service Agreement | |
| MHK | marine and hydrokinetic energy, marine and hydrokinetic power | |
| Mid-America Interconnected Network | MAIN | A former regional reliability council for coordinating electric power system planning and operating activities in 10 Midwestern states, dissolved December 31, 2005, and realigned with the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council. Midwest Reliability Organization, and ReliabilityFirst Corporation. |
| mileage payment | A payment to a generator providing regulation service according to how much the generator’s output fluctuates (in megawatts) in response to a regulation signal sent by the ISO. | |
| milepost | MP | A post indicating the distance in miles from a given point; also a post placed one mile from a similar marking post. |
| million | MM | Denotes million in gas usage. |
| million British thermal units | MMBtu | (Sometimes shown as MBtu.) |
| million cubic feet | MMcf | A gas measurement. |
| Min Gen | Minimum Generation (Emergency) | |
| Minimum Generation (Emergency) | Min Gen | A type of abnormal system condition declared by the ISO for which it anticipates requesting one or more generating resources to operate at or below its economic minimum limit. A widespread power outage that greatly reduces the demand for electric energy compared with the forecasted demand is one type of situation for which the ISO will declare a Minimum Generation Emergency to reduce the excess amount of electric power available. |
| Minimum Offer Price Rule | MOPR | A Forward Capacity Market rule establishing a benchmark price called an offer-review trigger price, which forms the lower limit on offer prices the internal market monitor will review to prevent new resources from entering the FCM at prices below their costs, presuming that new supply offers below the threshold are not attempts to suppress the clearing price. |
| MIS | market information server | |
| MM | million | |
| MMBtu | million British thermal units | |
| MMcf | million cubic feet | |
| M-MVDR | ISO New England Manual for Measurement and Verification of Demand-Reduction Value from Demand Capacity Resources | |
| MOI | market operator interface | |
| monthly performance value | MPV | The value representing a passive demand capacity resource’s total load reduction or distributed-generation output coincident with its performance hours in a particular month. |
| MOPR | Minimum Offer Price Rule | |
| MOU | Memorandum of Understanding | |
| Mount Desert Island | MDI | Largest island off the coast of Maine with an area of 108 square miles. |
| MP | milepost | |
| MPRP | Maine Power Reliability Program | |
| MPSA | Market Participant Service Agreement | |
| MPV | monthly performance value | |
| MR1 | Market Rule 1 (Section III of the Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff) | |
| MRA | market resource alternative | |
| MRECO | multiyear-rate existing capacity obligation | |
| MRR | manual response rate | |
| MSS | Market Support Services | |
| MSS | market settlement system | |
| MSW | municipal solid waste | |
| MTE | major transmission element | |
| MTF | merchant transmission facility | |
| MTO | merchant transmission owner | |
| MTOA | merchant transmission operating agreement | |
| MUI | market user interface | |
| Multi-Area Reliability Simulation Program (General Electric) | MARS | A software program that uses a sequential Monte Carlo simulation to probabilistically compute the resource adequacy of a bulk electric power system by modeling the random behavior of loads and resources. It also can model other complex interactions between generation and transmission systems, such as the value of generating units and transmission congestion, to assess the overall economic operation of a power system. The ISO uses MARS as a one-bus model for calculating the Installed Capacity Requirement and also for conducting regional and interregional economic studies. |
| multiyear-rate existing capacity obligation | MRECO | The rate for a new capacity resource’s capacity supply obligation when it applies to more than one capacity commitment period. This will no longer be available as of FCA 16. |
| muni | municipal utility | |
| muni | municipality | |
| municipal solid waste | MSW | Nonhazardous garbage generated and collected by municipalities that contains biogenic materials, such as paper, cardboard, food and yard waste, wood, and leather products, and nonbiomass materials, including plastics and other synthetics. Some MSW is burned at "waste-to-energy" combustion plants to produce steam or electricity; at landfills, methane gas released from MSW can be recovered, converted, and used as an energy source. ISO New England reports on energy from MSW in its "Other Renewables" category. |
| municipal utility | muni | Local government service provider of electricity, natural gas, water, sewage treatment, waste collection and management, or telecommunications, for example, for individuals living or working within that district. |
| municipality | muni | A city or town with a corporate status and its own local government and the community under the town’s jurisdiction. |
| MV | megavolt | |
| MVA | megavolt-ampere | |
| MVAR | megavolt-ampere reactive | |
| MVDR | measurement and verification of demand reduction | |
| MW | megawatt | |
| MWh | megawatt-hour | |
| MW-month | megawatt-month | |
| N - Q | ||
| N-1 | See first contingency. | |
| N-1 | first contingency | |
| N-1 | N-1 | |
| N-1-1, N-2 | See second contingency. | |
| N-1-1, N-2 | N-1-1, N-2 | |
| N-1-1, N-2 | second contingency, second-contingency loss | |
| nameplate, nameplate capacity | The rating of a generator and a measure of its ability to produce electricity. | |
| NASDAQS | National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System | |
| National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System | NASDAQS | An electronic quotation system that provides price quotations to market participants about the more actively traded common stock issues in the "over-the-counter" (OTC) market. Some ISO market participant companies are affiliated with NASDAQ and are traded on NASDAQ. |
| National Corridor | Geographic regions identified by the US Department of Energy as locations where transmission congestion or constraints adversely affect consumers; also called National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. | |
| National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants | NESHAP | US Environmental Protection Agency stationary source standards for pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproduction effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental effects. Leaks, flares, and excess emissions from refineries, chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, and other industries emit hazardous air pollutant. |
| National Environmental Policy Act | NEPA | US law requiring all branches of the federal government to properly assess the likelihood of significant effects on the environment of a potential major federal action and possible alternative actions before undertaking the action. The results of these studies can lead to either an approval or denial of the action or its alternatives and, if necessary, the agency’s plans for mitigation and monitoring activities. |
| National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor | NIETC | As designated by the US Department of Energy, and in accordance with the US Energy Policy Act of 2005, areas of the country with significant transmission congestion and constraint. The 2009 DOE NIETC study showed little congestion in New England and removed the region as an "area of concern." Also see National Corridor. |
| National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System | NPDES | A US Environmental Protection Agency permitting program, managed by the states, which regulates point sources that discharge pollutants to waters of the United States. Certain power plants with cooling water discharges are subject to NPDES regulations. |
| natural draft cooling tower | A device of a power plant (or other industrial facility) that cools heated process water or other fluid using exhaust air rising in a hyperbolic shape of sufficient elevation (reaching 500 ft), which creates a temperature differential between the top and bottom of the tower and cools the heated fluid as it contacts the rising air. | |
| natural gas | NG | Flammable gas used as a fuel for heating, electricity, and cooking, primarily consisting of methane and other hydrocarbons; occurs naturally underground, often in association with petroleum. |
| natural gas combined-cycle | NGCC | A type of power plant the uses a gas turbine to generate electricity and, with the waste heat from the gas turbine, spins a nearby steam turbine to produce more electricity. |
| NB | New Brunswick | |
| NBP | NOX Budget Program | |
| NCIS | Network Capability Interconnection Standard | |
| NCPC | Net Commitment-Period Compensation | |
| NCQP | new capacity qualification package | |
| NCSP | Northeast Coordinated System Plan | |
| NECPUC | New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners | |
| NEEWS | New England East-West Solutions | |
| negative spark spread | Uneconomic conversion of natural gas into electricity, which occurs when the wholesale price of electricity is less than the cost to produce it (fuel price multiplied by the heat rate). | |
| NEL | net energy for load | |
| NEMA | Northeastern Massachusetts subarea | |
| NEMA | Northeastern Massachusetts/Boston load zone | |
| NEPA | National Environmental Policy Act | |
| NEPOOL | New England Power Pool | |
| NERC | North American Electric Reliability Corporation | |
| NESCOE | New England States Committee on Electricity | |
| NESHAP | National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants | |
| Net Commitment-Period Compensation | NCPC | A payment to a supply resource that responded to the ISO’s dispatch instructions but did not fully recover its start-up and operating costs in either the Day-Ahead or Real-Time Energy Markets. |
| net energy for load | NEL | The net generation output within a balancing authority area, accounting for electric energy imports from other areas and subtracting energy exports to others. It includes system losses but excludes the electric energy required to operate pumped storage plants. |
| net Installed Capacity Requirement | NICR | The minimum amount of resources (in megawatts) the region needs in a particular year to meet its resource adequacy planning criterion, according to the Northeast Power Coordinating Council criteria, minus the tie-reliability benefits associated with the Hydro-Québec Phase I/II interface, called the Hydro-Québec Interconnection Capability Credits. |
| net regional clearing price | NRCP | [{The sum of the total payments (as defined in Market Rule 1, Section III.13.7.2) to resources with capacity supply obligations (CSOs) in a capacity zone (excluding any capacity payments and charges made for CSO bilateral contracts with other entities), minus peak energy rent (PER) adjustments for resources in the zone (as defined in Section 13.7.2.7.1.1), adjusted for any demand capacity resource performance penalties in excess of demand capacity resource performance incentives (as described in Section III.13.7.2.7.5.4), and including any applicable export charges or credits (as determined pursuant to Section III.13.7.2.2.A)} / divided by {the sum of all CSOs (excluding the quantity of capacity subject to CSO bilaterals and the quantity of capacity clearing as self-supplied Forward Capacity Auction resources) assumed by resources in the zone}]. |
| net risk-adjusted going-forward costs | NRAGFCs | A lead market participant’s future costs associated with its delist bid after adjusting for the risks associated with replacement power costs, availability of the resource, probability of significant decrease in capacity, peak energy rents, and inflation. |
| net supply | Energy a demand-response asset with distributed generation injects at the retail delivery point. | |
| Net Supply Capability | Maximum Net Supply a facility is physically and contractually able to inject into the transmission or distribution system at its Retail Delivery Point. | |
| Network Capability Interconnection Standard | NCIS | An energy-only standard that includes the minimum criteria the ISO requires to permit a generator to connect to the transmission system so that it has no adverse impacts on reliability, stability, or the operation of the system. |
| network model | The computer-based representation of physical transmission system assets used by ISO New England. | |
| network resource capability | NRC | The maximum gross and net megawatt electrical output of a generating facility at a point of interconnection (POI) at an ambient temperature at or above 50 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) for summer and at or above 0°F for winter. The NRC for a generating facility that includes multiple energy production devices is the aggregate maximum gross and net megawatt electrical output of the facility at the POI at or above 50°F and 0°F ambient summer and winter temperatures, respectively. A facility’s NRC is equal to or greater than its capacity network resource capability. For generating facilities that meet the grandfathering criteria under Section 5.2.4 of the Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (Open-Access Transmission Tariff, Schedule 22), the NRC is the total megawatt amount determined pursuant to that section. |
| network topology processor | NTP | An Energy Management System application that calculates the real-time state of an electric power network by determining the connectivity (i.e., energized or de-energized status) of the network’s metering devices and the locations in the network (e.g., bus sections, breakers, switches) of these devices, which are either telemetered or updated manually by system operators. |
| New Brunswick | NB | Eastern Canadian province from which ISO New England imports electricity over an interface whose limit is reevaluated annually. |
| new cap qual | new capacity qualification | |
| new capacity qualification | new cap qual | The process by which new generating, import, and demand capacity resources submit data, forms, applicable supporting documents and elections to the ISO to collectively demonstrate the viability of the project for participating in the Forward Capacity Market. See new capacity qualification package. |
| new capacity qualification package | NCQP | A set of data, forms, applicable supporting documents and elections that collectively demonstrate the viability of a new generating, import, or demand capacity resource, which must be submitted to the ISO through the Forward Capacity Tracking System as part of the project’s evaluation process for participating in a Forward Capacity Auction. For new generators, the NCQP consists of a critical path schedule (CPS); elections (e.g., commitment period election, rationing); an offer floor price; and additional information on, for example, costs and environmental upgrades for projects modified from existing resources or claimed capability data for intermittent resources. For new import capacity projects, the NCQP consists of capacity supply obligation supporting documentation, proof of ownership, the new import capacity resource qualification form, fuel survey, cost workbook, import critical path schedule (and a CPS for external elective transmission upgrades, if applicable), affiliations, multiyear and rationing elections, and other relevant information. |
| New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners | NECPUC | Organization representing the utility regulatory bodies of the New England states. |
| New England East-West Solutions | NEEWS | A four-component set of regional transmission solutions to meet reliability needs identified by a comprehensive regional transmission study of southern New England. The components are the Rhode Island Reliability Project, Greater Springfield Reliability Project, Interstate Reliability Project, and Central Connecticut Reliability Project. |
| New England Power Pool | NEPOOL | A group formed in 1971 by the region’s private and municipal utilities to foster cooperation and coordination among the utilities in the six-state region for ensuring a dependable supply of electricity. Today, NEPOOL members are ISO stakeholders and market participants. |
| New England States Committee on Electricity | NESCOE | A not-for-profit entity organized under various state and federal laws and recognized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; representing the collective perspective of the six New England governors in regional electricity matters and advancing the New England states’ common interest in the provision of electricity to consumers at the lowest possible price over the long-term, consistent with maintaining reliable service and environmental quality. |
| New England Wind Integration Study | NEWIS | Conducted by GE Energy Applications and Systems with EnerNex and AWS Truepower and published in December 2010, a comprehensive, two-year ISO study of integrating wind in New England, which used a detailed on- and offshore model of New England wind; showed a snapshot of the hypothetical small, medium, and large wind power penetrations for 2020; and highlighted the impact of 14 wind-development scenarios on the operation of the New England power system. |
| New Hampshire load zone | NH | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the State of New Hampshire, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| New Hampshire subarea | NH | Regional System Plan subarea comprising northern, eastern, and central New Hampshire, eastern Vermont, and southwestern Maine. |
| New Source Performance Standard (US Environmental Protection Agency) | NSPS | About 90 US Environmental Protection Agency technology-based standards under the US Clean Air Act, Section 111, limiting the emissions of new, modified, and reconstructed facilities in specific categories of stationary sources, such as electric utility steam generating units (boilers); stationery gas turbines; petroleum refineries, onshore natural gas plants; stationery combustion turbines; oil and gas production, transmission, and distribution facilities; and coal preparation and processing plants. |
| New York Balancing Authority Area | NY | See balancing authority area. |
| NEWIS | New England Wind Integration Study | |
| NG | natural gas | |
| NGCC | natural gas combined-cycle | |
| NH | New Hampshire load zone | |
| NH | New Hampshire subarea | |
| NICR | net Installed Capacity Requirement | |
| NIETC | National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor | |
| NNC | Norwalk Harbor--Northport, NY, Cable (formerly called the New York 1385 transmission line) | |
| no. 1 diesel fuel | A light distillate fuel oil used in high-speed diesel engines generally operated under frequent speed and load changes, such as those in city buses and similar vehicles. | |
| no. 2 fuel oil | A high-grade distillate fuel oil used for residential heating and moderate-capacity commercial and industrial burner units and as a backup fuel for peaking power plants. Also referred to as no. 2 distillate, no. 2 diesel fuel oil, heating oil, light fuel oil, or diesel fuel oil. | |
| no. 4 fuel oil | Typically, a blend of distillate and residual fuel oils, such as no. 2 and no. 6 fuel oils, classified as diesel, distillate, or residual fuel oil. | |
| no. 5 fuel oil | Part of the remaining component of crude oil after gasoline and other distillate fuel oils are extracted. Typically a mixture of no. 6 (75 to 80%) and no. 2 fuel oils; also referred to as a residual fuel oil or heavy fuel oil. | |
| no. 6 fuel oil | Remaining component of crude oil after gasoline and distillate fuel oils are extracted; used by oil-burning power plants. No. 6 oil (1%) refers to the percentage of sulfur in the oil; referred to as a residual fuel oil or heavy fuel oil. | |
| NOX Budget Program | NBP | A US Environmental Protection Agency cap and trade program from 2003 to 2008 that significantly reduced the regional transport of nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions from electric power plants and other large industrial combustion sources in the eastern United States during the warm summer months, referred to as the ozone season, when ground-level ozone concentrations are highest. Replaced by the ozone season NOX program in 2009 under the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which required further summertime NOX reductions from the power sector. |
| nodal price | The price for electric energy received or furnished at a node on the electric power system within any given hour. | |
| node | A point on the transmission system for which nodal prices are calculated. | |
| no-load cost | The amount ($/hr) that must be paid to participants with an ownership share in a generating unit scheduled to operate in the New England wholesale energy market. A payment in addition to the start-up fee and price offered to supply electric energy for each hour. | |
| noncoincident peak load | The sum of contributor peak loads (MW) on the bulk power system that occurred on different days and hours. | |
| non-demand-reduction-value output | The amount of an asset’s distributed-generation output that exceeds the average hourly load of its facility and the portion of the monthly demand-reduction value (mDRV) that does not receive gross ups when calculating the resource’s capacity value. | |
| nonfirm energy | Electric energy that may be interrupted by the power system operator. | |
| nonfirm gas | natural gas delivered under a contract that allows the transportation service to be interrupted to avoid interfering with or restricting gas deliveries having a higher priority. | |
| nonintermittent generating resource | A resource that has control over its net power output, such as a natural gas, nuclear, or coal generating facility. | |
| no-notice service | When natural gas pipeline companies provide gas on short notice. | |
| nonprice retirement | When a resource owner retires from service all the resource’s capacity without submitting an offer price in a Forward Capacity Auction, after requesting and being approved for the retirement by the ISO. See nonprice retirement request. See retirement delist bid. | |
| nonprice retirement request | NPRR | An irrevocable request submitted in a Forward Capacity Auction to retire the entire capacity of a resource, subject to an ISO review for reliability impacts and that supersedes any other delist bids submitted. If the ISO determines the resource is needed for reliability, the resource owner can either retire the resource as requested or continue to operate it until the reliability need has been met and then retire the resource. See retirement delist bid. |
| nonspinning | Off-line generation not synchronized to the electric power system. | |
| nonspinning reserve, nonsynchronized reserve | Off-line fast-start resources that can be electrically synchronized to the electric power system quickly and reach rated capability to respond to a contingency and serve demand. | |
| nontransmission alternative | NTA | Stakeholder-developed supply and demand resource alternatives to regulated transmission solutions for solving bulk electric power system needs identified during the system planning process, which could result in result in modifying, offsetting, or deferring a proposed regulated transmission upgrade (e.g., a new power plant to provide additional system capacity or ISO programs to reduce the amount of electric energy used). |
| nonzero prices | Prices for electric energy above zero in the wholesale electricity markets. | |
| NOR | Norwalk subarea | |
| North American Electric Reliability Corporation | NERC | Not-for-profit international regulatory authority for assuring the reliability and security of the bulk power system in North America, with an area of responsibility spanning the continental United States, Canada, and the northern portion of Baja California, Mexico, Develops and enforces reliability standards; annually assesses seasonal and long-term reliability; monitors the bulk power system through system awareness; and educates, trains, and certifies industry personnel. Serves as the Electric Reliability Organization for North America, subject to the oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Canadian governmental authorities. |
| Northeast Coordinated System Plan | NCSP | Report generated collaboratively by ISO-NE, New York ISO (NYISO), and PJM on current and planned joint activities conducted under the Northeastern ISO/RTO Planning Coordination Protocol, which ensures that the electric power system is planned on a wider, proactive and well-coordinated interregional basis. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., NCSP17 for 2017 report). |
| Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. | NPCC | For the State of New York; the six New England states; and Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Canada, a not-for-profit corporation that promotes and enhances the reliability of the international, interconnected bulk power system in North America. Develops regional reliability standards; assesses and enforces compliance with these standards, continent-wide and regionally; and coordinates system planning, design, and operation among its regional entities. |
| Northeast Reliability Interconnection | NRI | A major 85-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line extending from Orrington, Maine to the St. Croix River near Baileyville; interconnecting with a similar line built in New Brunswick, Canada; and linking the electrical power systems of Maine and the Canadian Maritime provinces. |
| Northeastern Maine subarea | BHE | Regional System Plan subarea of northeastern Maine. |
| Northeastern Massachusetts subarea | NEMA | Regional System Plan subarea for northeastern Massachusetts. |
| Northeastern Massachusetts/Boston load zone | NEMA | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing northeastern Massachusetts and Boston, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Northwest Vermont Reliability Project | NRP | A 75-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line between West Rutland and New Haven, Vermont, with additional line and equipment upgrades, that significantly increases the capacity of the power lines between New Haven and Burlington. |
| Norwalk Harbor--Northport, NY, Cable (formerly called the New York 1385 transmission line) | NNC | A 138-kilovolt AC underwater cable between Northport, New York and Norwalk, Connecticut, interconnecting ISO New England and the New York ISO. |
| Norwalk subarea | NOR | Regional System Plan subarea that includes Norwalk and Stamford, Connecticut. |
| NPCC | Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. | |
| NPDES | National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System | |
| NPRR | nonprice retirement request | |
| NRAGFCs | net risk-adjusted going-forward costs | |
| NRC | network resource capability | |
| NRCP | net regional clearing price | |
| NRI | Northeast Reliability Interconnection | |
| NRP | Northwest Vermont Reliability Project | |
| NSPS | New Source Performance Standard (US Environmental Protection Agency) | |
| NTA | nontransmission alternative | |
| NTP | network topology processor | |
| NX-12; NX-12E | Forms submitted to ISO New England that identify technical data associated with assets. | |
| NY | New York Balancing Authority Area | |
| O3 | ozone | |
| OASIS | Open-Access Same-Time Information System | |
| OATT | Open-Access Transmission Tariff | |
| ODR | other demand resource | |
| offer | A request to provide supply (in megawatts) at a specific location on the electric power system. | |
| offer floor price | OFP | For a new capacity resource, the project-specific lowest price at which the resource can remain in a Forward Capacity Auction to be profitable. For resources comprised of multiple technology types, the lowest economic auction price based on a weighted average of the technologies’ floor prices. |
| offer-review trigger price | ORTP | As part of the buyer-side market power mitigation structure for screening capacity offers from new resources in a Forward Capacity Auction (FCA), a threshold price ($/kW-month) the internal market monitor (IMM) sets for each new resource technology type participating in an FCA, below which any new resource offers are subject to further IMM review; prevents new resources from entering the FCA at prices below their costs. |
| off-peak hours | In New England, weekday hours between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. and all day Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. See peak hours. | |
| offsets | Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in certain nonelectric sectors, including reductions in landfill gas emissions and sulfur hexafluoride leaks, gas end-use efficiency savings, and afforestation. | |
| OFP | offer floor price | |
| on-peak capacity resource | A type of existing or new Forward Capacity Market (FCM) demand capacity resource, which is an installed measure, such as a product, equipment, system, service, practice, strategy, or a combination of these measures, on an end-use customer facility that reduces the total amount of electric energy consumed during demand capacity resource on-peak hours while delivering a comparable or acceptable level of end-use service. Such measures include energy efficiency, load management, and distributed generation. Can be existing or new FCM participants. Also see active demand capacity resource and seasonal-peak capacity resource. | |
| on-peak hours; on-peak demand period | In New England, the interval between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on all nonholiday weekdays. See peak hours, peak load hours period, and off-peak hours. | |
| OP 14 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 14, Technical Requirements for Generators, Demand Resources, Asset-Related Demand, and Alternative Technology Regulation Resources | |
| OP 17 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 17, Load Power Factor Correction | |
| OP 18 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 18, Metering and Telemetering Criteria | |
| OP 19 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 19, Transmission Operations | |
| OP 21 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 21, Actions during an Energy Emergency | |
| OP 3 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 3, Transmission-Outage Scheduling | |
| OP 4 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 4, Action during a Capacity Deficiency | |
| OP 7 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 7, Action in an Emergency | |
| OP 8 | ISO Operating Procedure No. 8, Operating Reserve and Regulation | |
| op cap analysis | operable-capacity analysis | |
| Open-Access Same-Time Information System | OASIS | An internet-based system that provides information to ISO New England customers about available transmission capability and a process for requesting nondiscriminatory transmission service. It enables transmission providers and customers to communicate requests and responses to buy and sell available transmission capacity. ISO New England customers must use OASIS to conduct wheel-through transactions through the import of energy into, or the export of energy out of, the New England Balancing Authority Area via the Real-Time Energy Market. |
| Open-Access Transmission Tariff | OATT | Section II of the ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff that aims to ensure that all transmission owners and transmission customers have fair and open access to transmission service in New England. Contains details on the rights and responsibilities of transmission owners and transmission customers, as well as the procedures they must follow and the fees transmission customers must pay to access the transmission system. Also sets out the transmission system planning process for the region and the cost-recovery and allocation mechanisms for transmission and ancillary services in the region. |
| operable-capacity analysis | op cap analysis | An estimate of the availability of an electric power system’s net capacity under specific scenarios and load conditions. The results are in the form of operable-capacity margins, which show either an expected system surplus or a deficiency in meeting the conditions. |
| operable-capacity margin | The amount of a power system’s resources that must be operational to meet peak demand plus operating-reserve requirements. | |
| operating day | A calendar day, beginning at midnight, during which market transactions are scheduled. | |
| operating reserve | OR | The megawatt capability of a power system greater than system demand, drawn from spinning (synchronized) and nonspinning (nonsynchronized) sources of power, which is required for providing frequency regulation, correcting load-forecasting errors, and handling forced outages, and that can be used to recover from a contingency. |
| operating-reserve charge or credit | Formerly used terms meaning a charge or payment made to a participant whose real-time load deviated from the day-ahead schedule. Replaced with Net Commitment-Period Compensation. Do not use this term. | |
| operating-reserve cost | A formerly used term meaning a payment to a generator for operating when it was more expensive for it to do so than the price-setting generator in the electric energy markets. Replaced with Net Commitment-Period Compensation. Do not use this term. | |
| OPF | optimal power flow | |
| optimal power flow | OPF | A mathematical model representing the problem of determining the best operating state of the power system to meet demand while respecting physical and reliability constraints. In a market environment, the best operating state is maximizing social surplus. |
| OR | operating reserve | |
| ORTP | offer-review trigger price | |
| OTF | other transmission facility | |
| other demand resource | ODR | A retired category of demand capacity resources that was outside the ISO’s control but that reduced demand by 100 KW (either alone or jointly with other ODRs in the same load zone); participated as a capacity resource in the New England Balancing Authority Area; and was subject to ISO measurement, verification, and review procedures to demonstrate its total amount of demand reduction. (Retired on May 31, 2010, at the end of the transition period for the Forward Capacity Market.) |
| other transmission facility | OTF | Per Schedule 20 of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff, the Hydro-Québec Phase I/II high-voltage direct current transmission facility over which the ISO exercises operating authority in accordance with the terms set forth in the "Other Transmission Operating Agreements" between the ISO, transmission owner (i.e., other transmission owner; OTF), and the associated service provider, as applicable; rated 69 kV or above; and required to allow energy from significant power sources to move freely on the New England transmission system. |
| other transmission owner | OTO | An owner of an other transmission facility. |
| OTO | other transmission owner | |
| out of economic-merit order, out of merit | More expensive capacity (in megawatts) than the marginal, price-setting, supply offer. | |
| outage | When a facility or piece of equipment goes off line. See forced outage, planned outage, scheduled outage, and unplanned outage. | |
| out-of-market compensation | Payments to resources outside the wholesale electricity markets clearing processes, such as Reliability Agreements. | |
| out-of-merit cost | A payment to a generator for operating when it is more expensive for it to do so in the wholesale energy markets than the price-setting generator. | |
| out-of-merit dispatch | When higher-priced resources in the bulk power system are committed and dispatched before lower-priced resources to respect system reliability requirements, which results in increased cost to load. | |
| overlapping interconnection impact analysis | A study for each new supply-side resource in a bulk power system that assesses whether the resource can provide useful capacity and electric energy without negatively affecting the ability of other capacity resources to provide these services also. | |
| ownership share | For settlement purposes, a right or obligation to a percentage share of all credits or charges associated with a generating resource or load asset where the resource is interconnected to the New England transmission system. | |
| ozone | O3 | A chemical created by chemical reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight, which at ground level is harmful to health, air quality, and sensitive vegetation and ecosystems. Emissions from industrial facilities and electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents are some of the major sources of NOX and VOCs. The ozone season in New England occurs between May 1 and September 30. |
| PA | planning authority | |
| PAC | Planning Advisory Committee (ISO New England) | |
| PADD | Petroleum Administration for Defense District | |
| PAR | phase-angle regulator; phase-angle regulating transformer | |
| participant | See market participant. | |
| Participants Committee (NEPOOL) | PC | ISO New England’s primary stakeholder advisory body comprising the representatives of the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) participants, with the aim to help ensure a collaborative process in the administration of New England’s wholesale electricity markets and bulk power system. |
| participating transmission owner | PTO | An entity that owns and maintains transmission facilities and is a party to the Transmission Operating Agreement between a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) and a utility whereby the RTO will pay the utility for its transmission system costs in exchange for control of the transmission. |
| particulate matter; PM10, PM2.5 | PM | A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air, originating from a variety of sources, such as power plants, industrial processes, and diesel trucks; also formed in the atmosphere by the transformation of gaseous emissions. PMs are composed of coarse and fine particles, although their chemical and physical compositions vary depending on location, time of year, and weather. PM 10 refers to inhalable coarse particles larger than 2.5 micrometers in diameter but smaller than 10 micrometers. PM 2.5 refers to fine particles with diameters less than 2.5 micrometers. |
| passive demand capacity resource | PDR | A demand capacity resource principally designed to save electric energy use, which is in place at all times without requiring real-time direction from the ISO. Passive demand capacity resources include energy-efficiency measures, such as the use of energy-efficient appliances and lighting, advanced cooling and heating technologies, electronic devices to cycle air conditioners on and off, and equipment to shift load to off-peak hours of demand. |
| pay for performance | PFP | A Forward Capacity Market project to create strong financial incentives for all capacity suppliers, without exception, to maximize performance and availability during scarcity conditions (i.e., during operating-reserve deficiencies)—for ensuring that supply resources face appropriate market-based incentives and have the financial capability to undertake cost-effective investments that improve resource performance and power system reliability. |
| PC | Participants Committee (NEPOOL) | |
| PDC | phasor data concentrator | |
| PDR | passive demand capacity resource | |
| peak energy rent | PER | An adjustment in capacity market payments for all generating and import system resources (on line and off line) when prices in the electric energy market go above a certain level (i.e., a strike price that estimates the cost of the most expensive resource on the system), which usually occurs when electricity demand is high. PER prevents an overcollection of payments from two separate markets (energy and capacity) for a resource that performs during periods of high demand. It also encourages a resource to produce electricity during periods of high demand or emergency conditions because a resource not producing electricity during these periods still is subject to the capacity payment adjustment. |
| peak hours, peak load hours | In New England, the interval between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on nonholiday weekdays. (See on-peak hours; on-peak demand period.) | |
| peak-load generating unit, peaking unit | A generating unit usually on line to meet power system requirements during very high, peak-day load periods when the demand on the system is the greatest and that may be used in response to system contingencies because they can start up quickly on demand and operate for only a few hours; typically operates less than 10% of the year (i.e., a few hundred hours per year) and at a relatively high cost (i.e., when the price of electric energy is high). | |
| PER | peak energy rent | |
| performance hours | Hours during seasonal performance months when demand capacity resources’ performance is measured according to demand capacity resource type. | |
| performance month | A month when demand capacity resource performance is measured for determining a monthly or seasonal demand-reduction value. Summer months are June, July, and August, and winter months are December and January. The performance of active demand capacity resources is measured in all months when dispatched. | |
| period of scarcity | When the demand for electricity exceeds supply. | |
| permanent delist bid | A delist bid that prohibits a resource from participating in any future Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) or assuming any capacity obligation unless it qualifies for and clears as a new resource in a subsequent FCA. | |
| PEV | plug-in electric vehicle | |
| PFP | pay for performance | |
| phase-angle regulator; phase-angle regulating transformer | PAR | A specialized type of transformer used to control the flow of real power on three-phase interconnected electric power transmission systems; enables phase-angle control by creating a phase shift between the primary-side voltage (source) and the secondary-side voltage (load). |
| phasor data concentrator | PDC | As part of the bulk electric power system’s wide-area monitoring and communication, software that receives, aggregates, and time-synchronizes phasor data from multiple phasor measurement units (PMUs) (i.e., accurate monitors of the performance of the power grid that use Global Positioning System satellites to provide specific data for operating the grid and enhancing grid design) to produce a real-time, time-aligned output data stream. A number of participating transmission owners in New England and the ISO are equipped with PDCs. |
| phasor measurement unit | PMU | A device that measures the electrical waves on a power grid at a remote site using synchronized real-time measurements (i.e., synchrophasors) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, which accurately monitor the performance of the grid and provide specific data for operating the system and enhancing its design. |
| planned outage | The planned inoperability of a generator, generally to perform maintenance. | |
| planned reserve margin | PRM | Amount of regional reserve capacity projected to be available in a given year, calculated by subtracting that year’s forecasted annual peak load (as published in ISO-NE’s CELT Report) from the net Installed Capacity Requirement (NICR). The PRM also can be expressed as a percentage of forecast annual peak load: [(PRM MW) / (forecasted annual peak load MW)] x 100. (Also see actual reserve margin.) |
| Planning Advisory Committee (ISO New England) | PAC | An open stakeholder forum that provides input and feedback to ISO New England on the regional system planning process, which involves developing and reviewing transmission needs assessments, identifying and prioritizing requests for economic studies to be performed by the ISO, developing solutions studies and competitive solutions, conducting the public-policy transmission study process, and developing the Regional System Plan (RSP) and updates to the RSP Project List and Asset-Condition List. |
| planning authority | PA | An entity responsible for coordinating and integrating transmission facility and service plans, resource plans, and protection systems. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as a PA and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to a PA. |
| plug-in electric vehicle | PEV | Vehicles with electric motors used alone or in combination with a gas engine whose batteries are charged by plugging into an external power source; includes battery electric vehicles (BEVs) that use only the energy stored in rechargeable batteries, plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) that use electric motors and internal combustion engines, and extended-range electric vehicles that have battery packs and gas-powered generators. |
| PM | particulate matter; PM10, PM2.5 | |
| PM (2.5); PM(10) | (2.5-; 10-) micron particulate matter | |
| PMU | phasor measurement unit | |
| pnode | pricing node; pricing point | |
| POLR | Provider-of-Last-Resort Services (POLR Services) | |
| pool transmission facility | PTF | A facility rated 69 KV or above owned by a participating transmission owner over which the ISO has operating authority in accordance with the terms set forth in the Transmission Operating Agreements. |
| portfolio bid | A single bid from multiple resources. | |
| posturing | Instances in which generators are directed to operate below their economic dispatch point for reliability reasons. | |
| pounds per square inch | PSI | Pressure as pounds of force and square inches of air. |
| pounds per square inch in guage | psig | The pressure difference between a supply tank and the outside air. |
| power | See electric power. | |
| power market | The buying and selling of electric energy. See electric energy market, electricity market, or wholesale electric energy market. | |
| Power Purchase Agreement | PPA | A contract between an entity that generates electricity (the seller) and one looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). |
| power system | The elements of an electrical system, including generation units, transmission lines, distribution lines, substations, and other equipment. | |
| power year | A year that runs from June 1 through May 31 of the following year used to calculate the Installed Capacity Requirement for the New England Balancing Authority Area. The ISO calculates the ICR for each upcoming power year through the capacity commitment period associated with a Forward Capacity Auction. Each power year is the same as a capacity commitment period. | |
| PP 10 | ISO Planning Procedure No. 10, Planning Procedure to Support the Forward Capacity Market | |
| PP 3 | ISO Planning Procedure No. 3, Reliability Standards for the New England Bulk Electric Power Supply System | |
| PP 4 | ISO Planning Procedure No. 4, Procedure for Pool-Supported PTF Cost Review | |
| PPA | Power Purchase Agreement | |
| PPTU | public policy transmission upgrade | |
| PRD | price-responsive demand | |
| price response | The reduction of electricity consumption in response to a price signal from the ISO in exchange for compensation based on wholesale electricity prices (also see demand response). On June 1, 2018, a new price-responsive demand structure went into effect in ISO New England’s marketplace. | |
| price separation | When the price of electric energy differs between two load zones because of, for example, transmission congestion, the quantity of capacity remaining in each zone, or the level of demand. | |
| price-quantity pairs | Price-sensitive bid-block information that consists of a quantity of megawatts and the available dollar price for the megawatts. | |
| price-responsive demand | PRD | Load that reduces its electricity consumption in response to a price signal from the ISO in exchange for compensation based on wholesale electricity prices. |
| price-sensitive demand | The purchase of electric energy up to a certain price. | |
| price-taker | A market participant whose buying and selling actions do not affect the market price; a generator that has offered into the market at zero dollars or has self-scheduled, is willing to operate at any price, and is not eligible to set clearing prices. In general, do not use this term. | |
| pricing node; pricing point | pnode | One of over 1,000 locations on the transmission system (external interface, load node, individual unit node, load zone, and the Hub, which are collections of pnodes) for which the ISO calculates and publishes wholesale electricity prices. |
| prime mover | The motive force that drives an electric generator, such as a water or steam turbine, which converts thermal or hydraulic energy into mechanical energy that will in turn be converted to electrical energy. Falling water, heat, wind, nuclear, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal), biomass, and the sun are fuels used to drive prime movers. | |
| PRM | planned reserve margin | |
| probabilistic analysis | An analysis that estimates the level of certainty of an event taking place and that recognizes that the inputs are uncertain. | |
| PROMOD | A production cost program that provides detailed representations of the transmission network. | |
| Provider-of-Last-Resort Services (POLR Services) | POLR | A provider of standard offer, transitional standard offer, default, basic electric, or last-resort electricity service, typically a distribution company or a state agency, such as a Public Utilities Commission, that has procured wholesale generation. |
| PSE | purchasing-selling entity | |
| PSI | pounds per square inch | |
| psig | pounds per square inch in guage | |
| PTF | pool transmission facility | |
| PTO | participating transmission owner | |
| public policy transmission upgrade | PPTU | Improvements or additions to the regional transmission system designed to meet state, federal, and local (i.e., municipal and county) public policy requirements identified as driving transmission needs. |
| Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act | PURPA | Enacted in 1978, a US law intended to reduce demand, increase the use of domestic energy and renewable energy sources, and diversify the electric power industry; requires competition in the utility industry, which created a market for power from nonutility power producers and led to the restructuring of the industry. |
| pumped storage | Water that has been pumped up to a storage pond for use at a later time to generate electricity. | |
| pumped-storage facility | A generating facility that pumps water up to a storage pond, often during periods of low electric energy demand and lower costs, to produce electricity at a later time, particularly when demand and prices are higher. | |
| pumping load | Off-peak electric energy used to pump water into a pumped-storage unit’s storage pond. | |
| purchasing-selling entity | PSE | An entity that purchases, or sells, and takes title to, electric energy or capacity; arranges for transmission service required by tariffs; and requests the implementation of arranged interchange. May be affiliated or unaffiliated merchants and may or may not own generating facilities. |
| PURPA | Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act | |
| PV | solar photovoltaic | |
| QC | qualified capacity | |
| QDN | Qualification Determination Notification | |
| QUA | Qualified Upgrade Award | |
| Qualification Determination Notification | QDN | A formal, written notification the ISO provides to a project sponsor of a resource they wish to qualify for a Forward Capacity Auction, which includes the ISO’s determination of the project status and the resource’s qualified megawatts for summer and winter periods; a list of transmission upgrades as part of an initial interconnection analysis, if applicable; and, as determined by the market monitor, the offer-review trigger price for participating in the auction, which is the generic benchmark price (by technology type) representing the low-end estimate of the net cost of new entry (net CONE) (i.e., the estimated break-even revenue contribution required from the capacity market). |
| qualified capacity | QC | The maximum capacity supply obligation (CSO) a resource may acquire in the Forward Capacity Market. For existing generators (nonintermittent and intermittent), the QC is based on a resource’s average seasonal claimed capability ratings for the most recent five periods during summer and winter. Other methodologies are used to determine the QC for other types of resources. |
| Qualified Upgrade Award | QUA | Financial awards granted to entities that pay for transmission upgrades (i.e., generator-interconnection upgrades and elective transmission upgrades) that increase the transfer capability of the New England transmission system and make it possible to award additional Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs) in an FTR auction in an amount consistent with the incremental revenues resulting from the FTRs awarded due to the transmission upgrade. |
| quick-start resource | See fast-start resource. | |
| R - U | ||
| RA | reconfiguration auction | |
| RA | Reliability Agreement | |
| RAA | Reserve Adequacy Analysis | |
| RAA | Resource Adequacy Assessment | |
| RACT | reasonably available control technology | |
| ramp rate | The rate at which a generating resource can increase its output, usually expressed in megawatts per minute (MW/min.) | |
| RAP | Reliability Assessment Program | |
| RAS | Reliability Assessment Subcommittee | |
| RBU | regional benefit upgrade | |
| RC | reliability coordinator | |
| RC | Reliability Committee (ISO New England and NEPOOL) | |
| RCP | regulation clearing price | |
| RCPF | Reserve-Constraint Penalty Factor | |
| RCRA | Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (US) | |
| reactive power | The component of electric power that contributes no useful work (see real power and apparent power). Also, the total volt-amperes in an electrical circuit that represent the power in the electric fields developed during the transmission of alternating-current power, expressed as volt-ampere reactive (VAR) and megavolt-ampere reactive (MVAR) units. | |
| ready-to-respond asset | An asset registered in an ISO demand-response program that has received ISO approval, has installed and made operational all the required metering systems, and has provided sufficient data to the ISO for establishing a customer baseline and the ability to calculate the reduction in demand. | |
| real power | The portion of the flow of electric energy that performs work or energy transfers, measured in kilowatts or megawatts; active power (as opposed to reactive power). (Also see apparent power.) | |
| real time | RT | A period in the current operating day for which the ISO dispatches resources to provide electric energy and regulation service and, if necessary, commits additional resources. |
| real-time adjusted load obligation | RTALO | For each market participant’s settlement interval at each location, the real-time load obligation (i.e., each market participant’s requirement for providing electric energy) adjusted by any applicable energy-related internal real-time bilateral transaction at that location. |
| Real-Time Adjusted Net Interchange | RTANI | For each market participant’s settlement interval at each location, the real-time adjusted load obligation (i.e., the real-time requirement for the participant to provide electric energy in real time adjusted by any applicable energy-related internal real-time bilateral transactions at that location) plus the real-time generation obligation (i.e., the megawatt-hours of energy with a positive value, provided by generating resources, external resources, and external transaction purchases at that location). |
| real-time demand response | RTDR | Refer to Real-Time Demand-Response Program. |
| Real-Time Demand-Response Program | RTDRP | A prior ISO New England program whereby participants curtailed the consumption of electric energy by responding within 30 minutes or two hours after receiving notice from the ISO to do so, for which they were paid the greater of either the real-time locational marginal price applicable to their resource’s load zone or the applicable floor price. Effective June 1, 2018, when demand-response resources were fully integrated into the New England markets, all ISO tariff provisions associated with real-time demand resources were deleted. See demand-response capacity resource and active demand capacity resource. |
| real-time emergency generation | RTEG | Before June 1, 2018, distributed generation the ISO called on to operate during certain voltage-reduction or more severe actions, but needed to limit its operation to 600 MW to comply with the generation’s federal, state, or local air quality permit(s), as well as the ISO’s market rules. RTEG operations resulted in curtailing load on the power system as the distributed energy provided by the emergency generator began serving demand. Effective June 1, 2018, when demand-response resources were fully integrated into the New England markets, all ISO tariff provisions associated with RTEGs were deleted. See demand-response capacity resource and active demand capacity resource. |
| Real-Time Energy Market | RTM | In the New England Balancing Authority Area, a market that balances differences between the day-ahead scheduled amounts of electric energy needed and the actual real-time load requirements (see Day-Ahead Energy Market. |
| real-time generation obligation | RTGO | For each settlement interval and location for each market participant, an obligation for positive megawatts of electric energy provided by generating resources, external resources, and external transaction purchases at that location. |
| real-time load obligation | RTLO | For each hour, the requirement that each market participant has for providing electric energy (megawatt-hours) at each node, external node, load zone, or the Hub equal to the megawatt-hours of load, including external transaction sales and internal bilateral transactions that transfer these obligations. |
| real-time locational adjusted net interchange | RTANI | For each market participant’s settlement interval at each location, the real-time adjusted load obligation (i.e., the requirement for the participant to provide electric energy in real time adjusted by any applicable energy-related internal real-time bilateral transactions at that location) plus the real-time generation obligation (i.e., the megawatt-hours of energy with a positive value, provided by generating resources, external resources, and external transaction purchases at that location). |
| real-time locational adjusted-net-interchange deviation | RTANID | For each market participant’s settlement interval at each location, the difference in megawatt-hours between the real-time locational adjusted net interchange and the day-ahead locational adjusted net interchange. |
| Real-time Locational Marginal Prices | RT LMP | Prices in real-time energy markets that enable participants to buy and sell electric energy during the day of operation. |
| real-time marginal price | RTMP | See locational marginal price. |
| Real-Time Price-Response Program | A prior ISO New England program whereby participants were paid real-time prices for their voluntary reductions in electricity usage when the forecast hourly zonal price was greater than or equal to $100/MWh. Participants submitted their meter readings to the ISO each day on the same schedule as other meter data or before the end of the 90-day resettlement period. On June 1, 2018, a new price-responsive demand structure went into effect in ISO New England’s marketplace. See price response. | |
| real-time prices | Locational marginal prices resulting from the dispatch of electric power within the operating day. | |
| Real-Time Profiled-Response Program | A retired ISO New England program that called on demand-response resources to interrupt load within two hours of an ISO instruction to do so and used an ISO-approved measurement and verification plan to estimate the resources’ load response. | |
| real-time reserve pricing | A way to co-optimize the use of resources for providing real-time reserves and electric energy by optimizing the use of local transmission capabilities and generating resources to provide the electric energy and reserves. | |
| reasonably available control technology | RACT | Under the US EPA’s "New Source Review" program addressing air pollution, required technology on existing sources of emissions in areas not meeting national ambient air quality standards (i.e., nonattainment areas). |
| REC | Renewable Energy Certificate, Renewable Energy Credit | |
| reconfiguration auction | RA | An auction of the Forward Capacity Market whereby capacity supply obligations are traded monthly and annually, respecting capacity zone and import interface limits, to clear supply offers and demand bids for each capacity zone in New England. |
| redeclaration | Restatement of a resource’s availability, limits, or other offer or bid parameters, except price-related supply offer data, which market participants submit to ISO New England and that reflect changes in the status or capability of the participant’s resource. Also, changes that ISO New England makes to a resource on the basis of the resource’s actual performance. | |
| REGCAP | regulation capacity | |
| Region of Stability Existence | ROSE | A real-time "smart grid" analytical tool that was part of the Synchrophasor Infrastructure and Data Utilization (SIDU) project in 2013, which continuously monitored power system conditions using phasor measurement units (PMUs) and provided system operators with fast and accurate solutions for more quickly predicting and more accurately determining system instability in real time, thus increasing the operators’ situational awareness and improving the stability and reliability of the electric power grid. |
| regional benefit upgrade | RBU | A transmission upgrade rated 115 kV or above, that meets all the nonvoltage criteria for pool transmission facility classification as specified in the Open-Access Transmission Tariff. and is included in the Regional System Plan as either a reliability transmission upgrade or a market efficiency transmission upgrade identified as needed per Attachment K of the OATT. |
| Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative | RGGI | A nine-state program in the Northeast to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil power plants 25 MW and larger in these states. Each state is allocated a share (allowance) of an annual emissions cap on the basis of historical emissions and negotiations; one allowance equals the limited right to emit one ton of CO2. |
| regional network service | RNS | The transmission service over the pool transmission facilities (PTFs), including services used for network resources or regional network load not physically interconnected with a PTF. |
| Regional System Plan | RSP | Report presenting the projected future load, resources, and transmission needs of New England’s bulk power system 10 years into the future. RSPs also typically address strategic planning issues and tasks; interconnection issues and projects with other Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Organizations; environmental regulatory updates; coordination efforts with other entities at the international, national, regional, and state levels; and the status of key planning initiatives. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., RSP17 for 2017 report). |
| Regional Transmission Expansion Plan | RTEP | Former annual report on the yearlong regional planning effort to examine the bulk electric power system throughout New England and identify system needs required to ensure reliability and wholesale energy market efficiency. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., RTEP04 for 2004 report). (Note that the Regional System Plan is ISO-NE’s current planning report, published since 2005.) |
| regional transmission operator | RTOP | See Regional Transmission Organization. |
| Regional Transmission Organization | RTO | An independent regional transmission operator and service provider established by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and that meets FERC’s RTO criteria, including those related to independence and market size. The RTO controls and manages the high-voltage flow of electricity over an area generally larger than the typical power company’s service territory for its distribution system. |
| regulation | The capability of specially equipped generators to increase or decrease their generation output every four seconds in response to signals they receive from the ISO to balance supply levels with the second-to-second variations in demand. Also see voltage regulation. | |
| regulation capacity | REGCAP | The size of operating range in which a generating unit or demand-response resource can regulate power system frequency by adjusting its generation/consumption output level after receiving the automatic generation control (AGC) signal. (The lesser of five times the automatic response rate and one-half the difference between the regulation high limit and regulation low limit of a resource capable of providing regulation.) |
| regulation clearing price | RCP | The price for regulation service equal to the highest offer from the resources selected to provide regulation service on the basis of least-cost offers per Market Rule 1, Section 11.14.5. |
| regulation high limit | A resource’s offer parameter that establishes the upper bound for the automatic generation control set points, used to determine the resource’s regulation capacity. | |
| regulation low limit | A resource’s offer parameter that establishes the lower bound for the automatic generation control set points, used to determine the resource’s regulation capacity. | |
| Regulation Market | In the New England Balancing Authority Area, a market in which load-serving entities pay for regulation service on the basis of real-time load obligations and market participants satisfy regulation requirements with their own resources, through internal bilateral transactions or by market purchases. | |
| regulation resource | A generator that responds to second-to-second dispatch signals to instantaneously balance supply and demand. | |
| regulation service | The second-to-second response of generators to dispatch signals for meeting instantaneous variations in demand. | |
| reliability | The assurance that electric power is available even under adverse conditions, such as storms or outages of generation or transmission lines. | |
| reliability adequacy | A measure of the reliability of the bulk electric power system to meet demand and the sufficiency of the system’s generating resources. | |
| Reliability Agreement | RA | An agreement made between the ISO and a generator owner whereby an approved generator continues to operate, even when it is not economical to do so, to ensure system reliability, and whereby the generation owner recovers the fixed costs for this operation; formerly termed Reliability Must-Run (RMR) Agreement. |
| Reliability Assessment Program | RAP | |
| Reliability Assessment Subcommittee | RAS | |
| Reliability Committee (ISO New England and NEPOOL) | RC | A standing technical committee of the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) that advises the Participants Committee and ISO New England on the design and oversight of reliability standards for the New England bulk power system. |
| reliability coordinator | RC | The entity with the highest level of authority for reliably operating the bulk electric power system, including the authority to prevent or mitigate emergency operating situations in next-day and real-time operations. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as an RC and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to an RC. |
| reliability coordinator area | The collection of generation, transmission, and loads within the boundaries of the reliability coordinator. The boundaries of a reliability coordinator area coincide with one or more balancing authority areas. | |
| reliability cost | The cost of protecting against a disruption in service or damage to equipment. | |
| Reliability Must Run | RMR | See Reliability Agreement. (RMR is no longer used.) |
| reliability region | A defined region within ISO New England that reflects the operating characteristics of, and the major constraints on, the region’s transmission system. These regions contain the load zones. | |
| reliability resource | A generator that operates to support the transmission system by providing operating reserve or another service. | |
| reliability security | A measure of the reliability of the bulk electric power system in terms of its ability to withstand disturbances arising within the system. | |
| reliability transmission upgrade | RTU | A transmission addition or upgrade necessary to ensure the system’s continued reliability and not necessary to support a generator interconnection. |
| Reliability-Must-Run Agreement | See Reliability Agreement. Do not use this term. | |
| Reliability-Must-Run resource | A resource scheduled to operate out of economic-merit order and identified by the ISO as necessary to preserve the reliability of a reliability region. See Reliability Agreement. Do not use this term. | |
| Remote Intelligent Gateway | RIG | See remote terminal unit. |
| remote terminal unit | RTU | As part of the ISO’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, an electronic device installed at substations, generator assets, alternative technology regulation resources (ATRRs), and dispatchable demand (load) assets eligible to participate in the hourly energy markets that the ISO uses for telemetering the state of the power system. |
| renewable energy | Sources of fuel continually replenished and never exhausted, such as solar, hydro, wind, selected biomass, geothermal, ocean thermal, and tidal sources of power. Landfill gas also is regarded as a renewable resource, and some states consider fuel cells to be renewable. Pumped hydro is not considered a renewable resource because the electricity for pumping mostly comes from fossil fuel and nuclear (i.e., nonrenewable) generators. | |
| Renewable Energy Certificate, Renewable Energy Credit | REC | A tradable, nontangible commodity representing the eligible attributes of 1 MWh of actual generation from a grid-connected renewable resource. |
| Renewable Portfolio Standard; Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard | RPS, RPSs | A state policy target for load-serving entities (LSEs) in that state to meet the future demand for electric energy using new or existing renewable energy resources. LSEs can satisfy their RPS obligations by obtaining generation from a variety of renewable technologies, located either within New England or within adjacent balancing authority areas, and by acquiring Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from eligible renewable resources qualified by each state. |
| reoffer period | Typically, the period between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. the day before the operating day during which market participants submit revised supply offers and revisions to demand bids for any dispatchable asset-related demand capacity resources. Also, the period in which resources that have not cleared the Day-Ahead Energy Market can waive their start-up and no-load offers. | |
| representative net Installed Capacity Requirement | An illustrative future Installed Capacity Requirement for the region, minus a monthly value that reflects the annual installed capacity benefits of the Hydro-Québec Phase II Interconnection. The ISO calculates representative net ICR values solely to inform New England stakeholders; these values have not and will not be filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval. | |
| Reserve Adequacy Analysis | RAA | The analysis the ISO performs at the close of the reoffer period to ensure that adequate resources are committed for meeting the forecasted load and operating reserve requirements for the Real-Time Energy Market. (Not to be confused with “Resource Adequacy Assessment” or “Resource Adequacy Analysis.”) |
| reserve capacity | The amount of capacity a system can supply greater than what is required to meet demand. | |
| reserve margin factor | One plus the reserve margin for a capacity commitment period, used in calculating a resource’s capacity value and determining the Installed Capacity Requirement. | |
| reserve margin gross-up factor | Determined by the ISO for a Forward Capacity Auction, the Installed Capacity Requirement divided by the 50/50 summer peak load forecast; equal to 1.00. | |
| reserve market clearing price | RMCP | Price determined in a Forward Reserve Auction, by zone and product, paid to market participants with an obligation in the Forward Reserve Market for their delivered services. Also, the price paid for providing operating reserves in real time every five minutes as part of the joint optimization of energy and operating reserve during the operating day (per Market Rule 1, Section 111.2) Also see clearing price. |
| Reserve Sharing Group | RSG | A group whose members consist of two or more balancing authorities that collectively maintain, allocate, and supply operating reserves required for each balancing authority’s use in recovering from contingencies within the group. A balancing authority can become part of a reserve sharing group if it can transfer electric energy to an adjacent balancing authority area to aid in recovery and the energy can be scheduled to be ramped in within 10 minutes or less. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as an RSG and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to an RSG. |
| reserve zone | An area for which the ISO has established 30-minute operating reserve requirements, which are met by the reserve markets. The New England region has four reserve zones—Connecticut, Southwest Connecticut, Northeast Massachusetts/Boston, and Rest-of-System. | |
| Reserve-Constraint Penalty Factor | RCPF | Rates, in $/MWh, that act as a cap on the Forward Reserve Market clearing price, and when reached, signal the marketplace that the system is short of reserves. RCPFs typically are triggered infrequently and are short in duration. Higher RCPFs provide stronger signals for resources to increase reserves supply. |
| reserved capacity | The maximum amount of capacity and electric energy (in kilowatts or megawatts) committed to a transmission customer for transmission over the New England power system between the point of receipt and the point of delivery under the Open-Access Transmission Tariff. | |
| Reserve-Shortage Pricing Event | When the balancing authority area is experiencing a deficiency in total 10-minute operating reserves or the ISO is taking actions to maintain 10-minute operating reserves. The ISO also will declare this condition when the balancing authority area is experiencing a deficiency in total operating reserves that has lasted for at least four hours and the ISO has begun taking actions to maintain or restore operating reserves. | |
| Residual Supply Index | RSI | An indication of structural competitiveness of the wholesale electricity markets that identifies instances when the largest supplier has market power and can economically or physically withhold generation and influence the market price. RSI measures the percentage of real-time demand that can be met without energy from the largest supplier’s portfolio of generation resources. |
| resource | Any source of electric energy that increases the availability of capacity (in megawatts), such as a generator, a demand-response resource, or an electricity import or external transaction. | |
| resource adequacy | The ability of a regional electric power system to supply the aggregate electrical demand and energy requirements (i.e., the electrical loads of all the customers at all times plus external transaction sales to other balancing authority areas), taking into account scheduled and reasonably expected unscheduled outages of system devices (e.g., generators, transformers, circuits, circuit breakers, or bus sections). Annual expected system resource adequacy is calculated in terms of system loss-of-load expectation, accounting for uncertainty in the load forecast caused by weather and resource availability and reflecting assumed forced and scheduled outages. | |
| Resource Adequacy Assessment | RAA |
A long-term planning quantitative analysis the ISO performs to prospectively assess resource adequacy in the region. (Also known as “Resource Adequacy Analysis.” Not to be confused with “Reserve Adequacy Analysis.”) |
| Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (US) | RCRA | A US Environmental Protection Agency law that developed regulations, guidelines, and policies addressing the safe management and cleanup of hazardous and nonhazardous solid waste and programs that encourage source reduction and beneficial reuse. |
| resource planner | RP | An entity that develops a long-term plan (generally one year and beyond) for the resource adequacy of specific loads within a Planning Authority area. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as an RP and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to an RP. |
| Resource Reliability Assessment | RRA | As part of the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council’s annual assessment of the bulk power system in the region to ensure resource adequacy, an aggregation and review of forecasted resource data reflecting expected conditions over the next 10 years. |
| resource scheduling and commitment | RSC | Market system component implementing economic unit commitment in the wholesale energy market based on submitted supply offers, demand bids, reserves requirements, and transmission constraints. |
| rest of pool | ROP | A capacity zone in the New England Balancing Authority Area modeled for its transfer limits and capacity needs for an ISO Forward Capacity Auction (FCA), representing a contiguous area apart from the export- or import-constrained zones in the region for that FCA. |
| rest of system | ROS | One of the regions reserve zone, which excludes the other, local zones (in 2018 consisting of Greater Connecticut, Greater Southwest Connecticut, and NEMA/Boston) that represent areas within the New England power system that require local 30-minute contingency response as part of normal system operations to satisfy local second-contingency response reliability criteria. |
| Restated NEPOOL Agreement | RNA | The restated contract between the ISO and the New England Power Pool that (a) provides for certain understandings among the participants concerning their collective, coordinated interactions with, and responsibilities to, each other and their collective interaction with the system operator consistent with the agreement; (b) provides a stakeholder advisory process for the ISO in its role as the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) for the New England Control Area, and (c) provides a vehicle for the participation by publicly owned entities in the RTO process. |
| resulting reserves | RR | The amount of capacity in excess of the forecast 50/50 peak load (i.e., one with a 50% chance of being exceeded because of weather conditions). Percentage resulting reserves = {(Net ICR - 50/50 peak load) ÷ 50/50 peak load} × 100. |
| retail delivery point | The point on the transmission or distribution system at which the load of an end-use facility, which the host participant meters and assigns a unique account number, is measured to determine the amount of electric energy the transmission or distribution system delivered to the facility. For end-use facilities connected to the transmission or distribution system at more than one location, the retail delivery point consists of the metered load at each connection point, summed to measure the net energy delivered to the facility in each interval. | |
| retirement | The permanent removal from service of a facility, which cannot return to service without major refurbishment. | |
| retirement delist bid | An irrevocable request to permanently remove capacity from all ISO markets at the start of a capacity commitment period. | |
| return on equity | ROE | A measure of how much income (i.e., profit) a company generates with the equity available to it from shareholders, equal to net income divided by shareholders’ equity. |
| RFO | Residual Fuel Oil | |
| RGGI | Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative | |
| Rhode Island load zone | RI | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the State of Rhode Island, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Rhode Island Reliability Project | RIRP | A component of the New England East-West Solutions that strengthens the 345 kV transmission system and addresses reliability concerns in the three southern New England states, completed in 2013. |
| Rhode Island subarea | RI | Regional System Plan subarea that includes the part of Rhode Island bordering Massachusetts. |
| RI | Rhode Island subarea | |
| RI | Rhode Island load zone | |
| RIG | Remote Intelligent Gateway | |
| right of way; rights of way | ROW; ROWs | |
| RIRP | Rhode Island Reliability Project | |
| RMCP | reserve market clearing price | |
| RMR | Reliability Must Run | |
| RNA | Restated NEPOOL Agreement | |
| RNS | regional network service | |
| ROE | return on equity | |
| ROP | rest of pool | |
| ROS | rest of system | |
| ROSE | Region of Stability Existence | |
| ROW; ROWs | right of way; rights of way | |
| RP | resource planner | |
| RPS, RPSs | Renewable Portfolio Standard; Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard | |
| RR | resulting reserves | |
| RRA | Resource Reliability Assessment | |
| RSC | resource scheduling and commitment | |
| RSG | Reserve Sharing Group | |
| RSI | Residual Supply Index | |
| RSP | Regional System Plan | |
| RSP subaarea for southern Maine | SME | Regional System Plan study area comprising southern Maine used for conducting several types of regional system planning analyses, such as production cost simulations. See subarea. |
| RT | real time | |
| RTALO | real-time adjusted load obligation | |
| RTANI | Real-Time Adjusted Net Interchange | |
| RTANI | real-time locational adjusted net interchange | |
| RTANID | real-time locational adjusted-net-interchange deviation | |
| RTDR | real-time demand response | |
| RTDRP | Real-Time Demand-Response Program | |
| RTEG | real-time emergency generation | |
| RTEP | Regional Transmission Expansion Plan | |
| RTGO | real-time generation obligation | |
| RTLO | real-time load obligation | |
| RTM | Real-Time Energy Market | |
| RTMP | real-time marginal price | |
| RTO | Regional Transmission Organization | |
| RTOP | regional transmission operator | |
| RTU | reliability transmission upgrade | |
| RTU | remote terminal unit | |
| SAB | supplemental availability bilateral | |
| Sable Offshore Energy Project | SOEP | Offshore natural gas project off Nova Scotia, Canada producing natural gas and liquids since 1999 but expected to be depleted before 2025; the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline carries the natural gas to markets in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Northeast United States. |
| SAD | supplemental availability designation | |
| SAR | Standards Authorization Request (NERC) | |
| SAS70 | Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 | |
| SBC | system benefits charge | |
| SCADA | supervisory control and data acquisition | |
| scarcity pricing | Mechanism for compensating on-line generators above the marginal cost of electric energy> for the increased value of their energy when the system or portions of the system are short of reserves. | |
| SCC | seasonal claimed capability | |
| Scf | standard cubic foot | |
| Schedule 20A service provider | SSP | A provider of firm and nonfirm point-to-point transmission service per the specifications of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (OATT), Schedule 20A, which specifies for each provider the facilities, charges, lost opportunity costs, discounts, billing information, creditworthiness requirements, financial assurance, credit levels, financial reviews, and other terms of service. |
| scheduled outage | When a power system element is intentionally shut down, usually to allow for maintenance or other preplanned activities. | |
| scheduling, pricing, and dispatching | SPD | A software component to solve economic dispatch problems and produce locational marginal prices for electric energy. |
| SCR | selective catalytic reduction | |
| SCR | special-constraint resource | |
| SDC | sloped demand curve | |
| SEA | state estimator availability | |
| seams | The interface between two balancing authority areas, systems, and markets (see seams issues). | |
| seams issues | Trading barriers between adjoining wholesale electricity markets resulting from the use of different rules and procedures by the neighboring markets, which can obstruct the trading or sharing of electric capacity and energy between the two markets and affect the reliability of each system. | |
| seasonal claimed capability | SCC | A generator’s maximum production or output during a particular season, adjusted for physical and regulatory limitations. |
| seasonal-peak capacity resource | A type of existing or new Forward Capacity Market demand capacity resource, which is an installed measure, such as a product, equipment, system, service, practice, strategy, or combination of these measures, on an end-use customer facility that reduces the total amount of electrical energy consumed during demand capacity resource seasonal-peak hours while delivering a comparable or acceptable level of end-use service. Such measures include energy efficiency, load management, and distributed generation. Also see active demand capacity resource and on-peak capacity resource. | |
| second contingency, second-contingency loss | N-1-1, N-2 | After the occurrence of a first contingency, the loss of the facility that at that time has the largest impact on the system. Also, a constraint met by maintaining an operating reserve that can increase output when the first contingency occurs. |
| second-contingency reliability cost | The cost of dispatching a resource to protect against a disruption in service in the event of the sudden loss of several generators, other resources, or transmission lines. | |
| selective catalytic reduction | SCR | A post-combustion nitrogen oxide (NOX) control technology for fossil-fired generators, which chemically reduces NOX into molecular nitrogen (N2) and water vapor using a nitrogen-based reducing reagent, such as ammonia or urea, and a catalyst to allow the process to occur at lower temperatures. |
| selective noncatalytic reduction | SNCR | A post-combustion nitrogen oxide (NOX) control technology for fossil-fired generators, which chemically reduces NOX into molecular nitrogen (N2) and water vapor using a nitrogen-based reducing reagent, such as ammonia or urea, |
| self-schedule | SS | When a market participant commits and schedules its resource at a determined output level to provide generation within an hour, regardless of price or whether the ISO could have scheduled or dispatched the resource to provide the service. |
| self-supply | When a market participant provides itself with a market product from its own resources rather than purchasing it from the market. | |
| SEMA | Southeastern Massachusetts subarea | |
| SEMA | Southeast Massachusetts load zone | |
| sequential-clearing methodology | A method the ISO used to accept offers for the now-expired Day-Ahead Load-Response Program after an approved solution to the Day-Ahead Energy Market had been determined. | |
| Settlement Market System | SMS | A Web-based system that allows market participants to submit internal bilateral transactions (IBTs) and meter readings. |
| settlement-only generator, settlement-only unit; settlement-only resource | SOG | A generating unit that produces less than 5 MW and is entitled to receive capacity credit but is not centrally dispatched by the ISO control room and is not monitored in real time. |
| settlements model | Computer-based software used to determine financial settlements in ISO New England. | |
| SGIA | Small Generator Interconnection Agreement | |
| SGIP | Small Generator Interconnection Procedure | |
| shortage event | A designated period (hours) of stressed system conditions during which capacity resources are most needed. | |
| shortfall | Insufficient revenue. | |
| Short-Term Energy Outlook (EIA) | STEO | The US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration’s energy projections for the next 13 to 24 months, updated monthly; covers prices, production, consumption, and storage, as applicable, for liquid fuels, natural gas, electricity, coal, and renewables. Also provides emissions data. |
| show of interest | SOI | A form participants submit to the ISO indicating interest in participating in the Forward Capacity Market; contains sufficient information to perform preliminary analysis of the effects of the proposal on the New England power system. |
| SIDU | synchrophasor infrastructure and data utilization | |
| sink point | A point on the transmission system where electric energy is withdrawn. A Financial Transmission Right delivery point. | |
| SIP | State Implementation Plan | |
| SIS | System Impact Study | |
| sloped demand curve | SDC | Graphical representation of the relationship between the price and the consumption level of a market product, where typically the price falls as the consumption level increases. One example of the sloped demand curve is the downward-sloping systemwide demand curve the ISO developed for the ninth Forward Capacity Auction (FCA #9 held in 2015), which establishes aggregate demand for capacity resources in the New England region over a range of possible prices. The sloped demand curve facilitates the procurement of sufficient capacity in each FCA to maintain resource adequacy and reduce price volatility over time, yielding smaller swings in capacity prices when the market moves from conditions of excess supply to periods when new capacity resources are needed, which occurs as aging plants retire. |
| SLR | static line rating | |
| Small Generator Interconnection Agreement | SGIA | A three-party agreement between a small generating facility (i.e., smaller than 20 MW per the ISO’s Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff, Section II, Schedule 23) wishing to interconnect to the New England transmission system, the transmission owner, and the ISO, addressing the terms for the scope of service, interconnection facilities, testing and inspections, metering, communications, operations, maintenance, performance obligation, billing, emergency actions, regulatory requirements, notifications, defaults, indemnity, environmental releases, and other requirements. |
| Small Generator Interconnection Procedure | SGIP | Standard procedures for the interconnection of generating units smaller than 20 MW per the ISO’s Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff, Section II, Schedule 23. |
| smart grid | According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a "next-generation" electrical power system that typically employs the increased use of communications and information technology for generating, delivering, and consuming electrical energy. | |
| SMD | Standard Market Design | |
| SMD | solar magnetic disturbance | |
| SME | RSP subaarea for southern Maine | |
| SME | Southeastern Maine subarea | |
| SMS | Settlement Market System | |
| SNCR | selective noncatalytic reduction | |
| SNETR | Southern New England Transmission Reinforcement (Study) | |
| SO2 | sulfur dioxide | |
| SOB | supply obligation bilateral | |
| SOEP | Sable Offshore Energy Project | |
| SOG | settlement-only generator, settlement-only unit; settlement-only resource | |
| SOI | show of interest | |
| SOL | system operating limit | |
| solar magnetic disturbance | SMD | A type of geomagnetic disturbance of the Earth’s magnetic field (in the case of SMDs, caused by solar flares, coronal mass ejections, solar wind, or solar energetic particles), which can induce a current that enters and exits the electric power system at transformer grounds and, in some cases, cause abnormal voltages, erroneous tripping of needed equipment, and other disruptions in normal system operation. See geomagnetic disturbance. |
| solar photovoltaic | PV | The production of electric current from sunlight via an electronic process that occurs naturally in certain types of materials, which can power electrical devices or send electricity to the power grid. Solar PV resources participate in the ISO New England wholesale markets. Refers to solar photovoltaic resources. |
| Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, Solar Renewable Energy Credit | SREC | In states that have Renewable Portfolio Standards, a form of the tradable, nontangible Renewable Energy Credits for eligible grid-connected solar energy facilities that represents the environmental attributes of the facility for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity it produces. The income from selling SRECs increases the value of a solar investment. |
| source point | A point on the transmission system where electric energy is injected. A Financial Transmission Right location of origin. | |
| Southeast Massachusetts load zone | SEMA | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing southeastern Massachusetts, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Southeastern Maine subarea | SME | Regional System Plan subarea comprising southeastern Maine. |
| Southeastern Massachusetts subarea | SEMA | Regional System Plan subarea comprising southeastern Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. |
| Southern New England Transmission Reinforcement (Study) | SNETR | A comprehensive analysis of bulk power system needs for the southern New England region conducted from about 2006 to 2010, which was followed by a series of transmission upgrades completed over the subsequent years collectively called the New England East-West Solutions (NEEWS). |
| Southwest Connecticut load zone | SWCT | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing southwestern Connecticut, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Southwest Connecticut subarea | SWCT | Regional System Plan subarea that includes the southwestern portion of Connecticut. |
| SPC | system production cost | |
| SPD | scheduling, pricing, and dispatching | |
| special protection system | SPS | Power system equipment designed to detect abnormal system condition and take corrective action other than the isolation of faulted elements. |
| special-constraint resource | SCR | A resource that operates out of merit for any reliability purpose to provide relief for thermal, voltage, or stability constraints not reflected in the ISO’s systems or operating procedures, administered in accordance with the provisions of the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff, Schedule 19 and Market Rule 1. Transmission owners or distribution companies can ask the ISO to change to an SCR designation the commitment of a generating resource or the incremental loading on a previously committed generating resource to provide relief for such constraints and maintain reliability. However, the ISO will only flag a unit as SCR when it does not require the resource (or when the market participant requests the changed dispatch of the unit), and it will remove the designation when it requires the unit to be on line. |
| specifically allocated capacity transfer right | A capacity transfer right (CTR) associated with the Maine export interface, transmission upgrades, or pool-planned units, allocated in accordance with Market Rule 1 , Section III.13.7.3.3.2; paid before the distribution of the CTR fund, which is the difference between charges to capacity load obligation (CLO) and payments to capacity resources. | |
| SPEED | Sustainably Priced Energy Development Program | |
| SPI | Strategic Planning Initiative | |
| spinning | On-line capacity electrically synchronized to the system. | |
| spinning reserve | On-line operating reserve capability in excess of load and synchronized to the system, which a generator can fully convert into electric energy within 10 minutes after receiving a request from the ISO to do so. | |
| SPITS | System Planning Information Tracking System | |
| spot market | A market that typically involves short-term, often interruptible contracting and immediate delivery of specified volumes of electric energy, as opposed to bilateral trading. In New England, the Real-Time Energy Market is a spot market. | |
| SPS | special protection system | |
| SREC | Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, Solar Renewable Energy Credit | |
| SS | self-schedule | |
| SSCC | summer seasonal claimed capability | |
| SSCI | subsynchronous control interaction | |
| SSP | Schedule 20A service provider | |
| SSR | subsynchronous resonance | |
| standard cubic foot | Scf | A measurement of natural gas. |
| Standard Market Design | SMD | New England’s wholesale electricity market structure that incorporates locational marginal pricing, day-ahead and real-time energy markets, and risk-management tools to hedge against congestion expenses. |
| Standards Authorization Request (NERC) | SAR | A request to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to propose a new Reliability Standard or a revision to an existing standard. |
| start-up fee | The dollar amount that must be paid to a market participant with an ownership share in a generating resource each time the resource is scheduled to begin operating (start up). | |
| STATCOM | static synchronous compensator | |
| state estimator | An application North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability coordinators must use to calculate the current state of their electric power system (the voltage magnitudes and angles at every bus) using a network model and telemetered measurements, for providing a consistent base case of real-time system conditions for use by other network applications programs, such as power flow and contingency analysis. | |
| state estimator availability | SEA | A minimum North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requirement for measuring the percentage of time the state estimator provides valid, useful estimates of the state of the power system, such that it provides at least one estimated solution for (1) at least 97.5% of clock 10-minute periods (six nonoverlapping periods per hour) during a calendar month, and (2) every continuous 30-minute interval during a calendar day—to better ensure that real time network analysis, such as contingency analysis, can be performed and produce valid results. |
| State Implementation Plan | SIP | The US Environmental Protection Agency-approved collection of regulations and documents a state, territory, or local air district uses to reduce air pollution from the six EPA-established "criteria" air pollutants (i.e., widespread common pollutants known to be harmful to human health) in areas that do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) established as part of the US Clean Air Act. |
| Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 | SAS70 | A widely recognized auditing standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and used by the ISO that addressed the examination of a service’s organization’s control objectives and control activities; replaced in 2011 by the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16 as the authoritative guidance for examining a service audit, and then SSAE 18 in 2017, which the ISO presently uses. |
| static delist bid | A delist bid submitted for a resource before a Forward Capacity Auction—and that cannot be changed during the auction—requesting for the resource to opt out of a capacity supply obligation and reflecting either the cost of the resource or a reduction in ratings as a result of ambient air conditions. The ISO may be required to submit a static delist bid on behalf of a resource that would not be able to supply its awarded capacity during the winter because its summer-qualified capacity is greater than its winter-qualified capacity. | |
| static line rating | SLR | A power flow rating of an overhead transmission line for determining load constraints, limiting line sag, and maintaining acceptable electrical clearances based on suitably conservative estimates for weather conditions, including ambient temperatures (or seasonal temperatures for seasonal SLRs), wind speed, solar angles, and other parameters. |
| static synchronous compensator | STATCOM | A flexible alternating-current transmission system (FACTS) voltage-source converter device that helps regulate an alternating current (AC) transmission network with a poor power factor and often poor voltage regulation; consists of a direct current (DC) voltage source behind a power electronic interface connected to the AC grid through a transformer, providing grid operators a controllable voltage source with an improved range of operational voltage and faster response time. |
| static VAR compensator | SVC | A flexible alternating-current transmission system (FACTS) device on a high-voltage transmission network that typically can quickly and reliably regulate and control line voltages to the required set-point reference values under normal steady-state and contingency conditions, thereby providing dynamic, fast-response reactive power following system contingencies (e.g. network short circuits, line and generator disconnections); also able to increase transfer capability, reduce losses, mitigate active power oscillations, and prevent overvoltages at loss of load. Consists of thyristor-controlled reactors (TCRs), which vary the current flow through the reactor to continuously control the reactive power output; thyristor-switched capacitors (TSCs) (i.e., capacitors with reactors and thyristor valves that switch the capacitor in and out of service); and fixed capacitors, which act as an harmonic filter by absorbing the harmonics generated by the thyristor switching and supplying a fixed reactive power to the grid. |
| Steam Electric Power Generating Effluent Guidelines | US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for power plants that use coal, oil, natural gas, or a nuclear reaction to generate steam and drive a turbine, for limiting wastewater discharges of toxic metals (e.g., arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, chromium, and cadmium), particulate matter, other pollutants, and thermal pollution into surface waters and wastewater treatment plants. Also called Effluent Limit Guidelines for Electric Steam Generators. | |
| STEO | Short-Term Energy Outlook (EIA) | |
| step-down transformer | A transformer, usually located on the distribution system, that converts electricity from a higher to a lower voltage. | |
| step-up transformers | A transformer, usually located at a generator site, that converts electricity from a lower to a higher voltage. | |
| Strategic Planning Initiative | SPI | A planning initiative the ISO, New England states, and regional stakeholders launched in 2010 to identify, analyze, understand, and determine near-term and long-term solutions for the region’s foremost risks to the reliable supply of electricity, including the region’s increased reliance on natural gas, power plant retirements, the integration of a greater amount of renewable resources, resource performance and flexibility, and the alignment of the market resource procurement process with the system planning process (i.e., the timing for determining system planning requirements and transmission solutions). Many of the ISO’s completed or ongoing key projects resulting from this initiative are designed to enhance the region’s competitive wholesale electricity markets and ensure reliable operation of the power grid. |
| strike price | (1) A price for electric energy approximately equal to the cost of the most expensive resource on the system, which usually occurs when electricity demand is high and above which capacity market payments for all power system resources (on line and off line) will be reduced. (2) A price in the electric energy markets above which resources providing reserves in the Forward Reserve Market must provide an offer cost to attract those resources expected to normally provide reserves instead of electric energy. (3) The price at which an option contract entitles a buyer to purchase energy. See threshold price and peak energy rent. | |
| subarea | One of 13 zones into which the system is divided for conducting several types of regional system planning analyses, such as production cost simulations. | |
| subsynchronous control interaction | SSCI | A purely electric power phenomenon where a series-capacitor-compensated transmission system interacts with the control system of generation resources; similar to induction-generation effect. |
| subsynchronous resonance | SSR | Coincident oscillations occurring between generating resources and a series-capacitor-compensated transmission system at a natural harmonic frequency lower than the normal operating frequency of the electric system (60 Hz), which can lead to stability phenomena (e.g., torsional interaction, induction-generation effect, torque amplification, and subsynchronous control interaction), and, eventually, damage or failure of the generator involved. ISO Planning Procedure 5-6, Interconnection Planning Procedure for Generation and Elective Transmission Upgrades, requires interconnection studies for high-voltage direct current facilities or any project that includes a series-connected capacitor in interconnection facilities or network upgrades to include screening for potential causes of subsynchronous stresses on nearby generation, with an examination of first- and second-contingency conditions and other potential contingent or operating conditions.
|
| sulfur dioxide | SO2 | A chemical harmful to human health and the environment emitted from the burning of fossil fuels by power plants and other industrial facilities. Short-term exposures to SO2 can harm the human respiratory system. High concentrations of SO2 in the air generally also lead to the formation of other sulfur oxides (SOX), which can react with other compounds in the atmosphere to form harmful particulate matter (PM) pollution. SO2 and other sulfur oxides can contribute to acid rain, which can harm sensitive ecosystems. See Acid Rain Program. |
| summer seasonal claimed capability | SSCC | For participation in the Forward Capacity Market, the capability for most types of new or existing nonintermittent generating assets to perform under specified summer conditions (June to September) for a specified duration; its median net output during hours ending 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (i.e., 1:01 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) and any applicable shortage-event hours. |
| superconducting synchronous condenser | SuperVAR | A high-temperature superconducting dynamic synchronous condenser that can provide peak and dynamic reactive compensation (leading/lagging) to a power system. |
| SuperVAR | superconducting synchronous condenser | |
| supervisory control and data acquisition | SCADA | A type of equipment that can remotely control, communicate with, and monitor the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy. |
| supplemental availability bilateral | SAB | A Forward Capacity Market risk-management tool used during shortage events for transferring the capacity from an overperforming ISO-designated non-settlement-only, nonintermittent resource in terms of the electric energy and reserves provided to supplement the underperformance of another resource. |
| supplemental availability designation | SAD | When a non-settlement-only, nonintermittent resource has been designated by the ISO as a supplemental capacity resource to be able to transfer its overperformance during a shortage event to supplement the underperformance of another resource; see supplemental availability bilateral. |
| supply | Electricity delivered to the system; generation. | |
| supply margin | Available generation (megawatts) beyond the amount needed to meet demand. | |
| supply obligation bilateral | SOB | Refer to capacity supply obligation bilateral. |
| supply offer | A resource’s proposal to furnish electric energy at a node or provide regulation service, which includes a dollar price and megawatt quantity, timing information, and other information. | |
| supply resource | A generating unit that uses nuclear energy, a fossil fuel (such as natural gas, oil, or coal), or a renewable fuel (such as water, wind, or the sun) to produce electricity. | |
| supply stack | Generator offers in the wholesale electricity markets ordered by ascending price. | |
| Sustainably Priced Energy Development Program | SPEED | A program initiated by the Vermont legislature in 2005, facilitated by the Vermont Energy Education Program, (VEEP) Inc., to encourage the development of renewable energy resources in Vermont as well as the purchase of renewable power by the state’s electricity distribution utilities; now includes a Standard Offer Program to encourage the development of SPEED resources by making long-term contracts at fixed prices available to qualified renewable energy facilities and a mandate by state law to use a market-based mechanism to determine pricing for standard-offer projects and other provisions. |
| SVC | static VAR compensator | |
| SWCT | Southwest Connecticut load zone | |
| SWCT | Southwest Connecticut subarea | |
| synchronized reserves (spinning reserves) | On-line reserves that can increase output. See spinning reserves. | |
| synchronous condenser | A combustion turbine (generator) or a hydroelectric resource synchronized to a transmission system that operates as a motor (i.e., it is consuming energy). Also, rotating equipment (or a generator with 0 MW output) that can provide dynamic voltage support, typically designed and operated as separate equipment from generating units. | |
| synchronous generator | A typical type of generator connected to the network. | |
| synchrophasor | Power system measurement created in a phasor measurement unit. | |
| synchrophasor infrastructure and data utilization | SIDU | A phasor measurement unit that uses global positioning satellite system technology to accurately conduct wide-area monitoring of a power grid performance, provide specific data for operating the grid to increase response time to real-time system events and reduce congestion, and enhance grid design. |
| system benefits charge | SBC | A charge on a electric utility bill that supports technology and market development activities relevant to the power system designed to fund certain "public benefits," such as energy assistance for low-income consumers, renewable energy projects, energy research and development, and energy-efficiency programs, The ISO accounts for each New England state’s SBC when estimating the annual energy-efficiency forecast for each state and regionwide. |
| system emissions rate | A measure (pound/megawatt-hour; lb/MWh) of the annual emissions produced by all generators in the region (lb) divided by the annual generation in the region (MWh). The emissions data are obtained from the US EPA Clean Air Markets database, and the generation data are obtained from ISO New England settlements. | |
| System Impact Study | SIS | As required by the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (Part II.B, II.C, II.G, Schedule 21, Schedule 22, Schedule 23, or Schedule 25), an assessment of (1) the adequacy of a transmission facility in the ISO’s bulk power system to accommodate a request for the interconnection of a new or materially changed generating unit in the system or to another control area, a new regional network or local network service, or an elective transmission upgrade, and (2) whether the region may need to incur any additional costs to provide the interconnection or service. These studies evaluate the impacts of the unit or service on the reliability and operating characteristics of the ISO’s system, its component systems, and neighboring and external systems, and must be consistent with good utility practice and all applicable standards, guides, procedures, criteria, and rules (e.g., from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council, and the ISO). The studies must describe all applicable equipment, their capabilities (capacity and electric energy), and the requested location of the facility, auxiliary power system requirements, and back-up facilities, and they must include a preliminary one-line diagram showing major equipment and the extent of customer ownership. They also must address voltages and reactive power reserves, stability, frequency (Hz), and any system constraint. |
| system operating limit | SOL | A value (such as megawatt, megavolt-ampere reactive [MVAR], ampere, frequency, or volt) for the most limiting of the prescribed operating criteria for a specified bulk electric power system configuration that ensures operation within acceptable reliability criteria. (Also see interconnection-reliability operating limit.) |
| System Planning Information Tracking System | SPITS | A system the ISO used to identify and track projects in its transmission project listings. |
| system production cost | SPC | A metric that reflects for a specified period (e.g., annually) the total operating costs of the ISO bulk power system to produce electric energy, including dispatch and unit-commitment costs, fuel-related costs, and emissions allowances (i.e., $/ton of carbon emissions), and accounting for transmission constraints, plus the costs for capital additions (i.e., the annualized carrying costs for new resources and high-order-of-magnitude transmission-development costs); expressed, for example, as millions of dollars/year and estimated through detailed hourly and subhourly electric energy market simulations. |
| T&D loss factor | transmission and distribution loss factor | |
| TA | torque amplification | |
| TADO | total amount due and owing | |
| TAED | topology and analog error detection | |
| Tariff, ISO tariff | ISO New England Transmission, Markets, and Services Tariff | |
| Tariffs, Schedules, and OASIS Administrator | TSO | The ISO control center operator responsible for coordinating transfers of electricity with neighboring grid operators in New York, Québec, and New Brunswick, which allow lower-cost electricity to flow into the region and can help during emergencies. |
| TCA | Transmission Cost Allocation | |
| TCR | thyristor-controlled reactor | |
| TCSC | thyristor-controlled series compensator | |
| Tennessee Gas Pipeline | TGP | An 11,800-mile natural gas pipeline owned by Kinder Morgan that supplies New England and other parts of the northeastern United States, originating from Louisiana, the Gulf of Mexico, and south Texas. |
| terawatt | TW | 1 trillion (10<sup>12</sup>) watts; 1 million megawatts. |
| terawatt-hour | TWh | The amount of electrical energy expended by a 1 trillion-watt load over one hour. |
| TFL | total facility load | |
| TGP | Tennessee Gas Pipeline | |
| threshold price | A price for electric energy approximately equal to the cost of the most expensive resource on the system, which usually occurs when electricity demand is high and above which capacity market payments for all power system resources (on line and off line) will be reduced. Also, a price in the electric energy markets above which resources providing reserves in the Forward Reserve Market must provide an offer cost to attract those resources expected to normally provide reserves instead of electric energy. See strike price and peak energy rent. | |
| through-or-out service | TOUT | Delivery of electricity through or from New England to another balancing authority area. |
| thyristor | A solid-state semiconducting electronic device used in many types of circuits and other devices for controlling current, such as to switch reactors and capacitors onto the grid and to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). | |
| thyristor-controlled reactor | TCR | On a power system, a reactor in series with thyristor valves that vary the current flow through the reactor to continuously control the reactive power output. |
| thyristor-controlled series compensator | TCSC | A series capacitor bank shunted by a thyristor-controlled reactor that provides a smooth variable-series capacitive reactance for dynamically controlling the reactance of a transmission line, providing sufficient load compensation and increased transfer capacity, and eliminating risks associated with subsynchronous resonance. |
| thyristor-switched capacitor | TSC | On a power system, a capacitor with reactors and thyristor valves that switch the capacitor in and out of service. |
| TI | torsional interaction | |
| tie line | A transmission line that connects two balancing authority areas; an interconnection. | |
| tie-reliability benefit | The receipt of emergency electric energy from a neighboring region that accounts for both the transmission-transfer capability of the tie lines and the emergency capacity assistance that may be available from neighboring systems when and if New England would need it; also referred to as tie-line benefits. | |
| time-of-use metering | Measuring the use of electric energy (kilowatt-hours) during different time periods, dividing each day, month, and year into various categories, with higher electricity rates at peak load periods and lower rates at off-peak load periods to facilitate a utility’s load control and system planning and a customer’s use of electricity either through automatic or voluntary load control. | |
| TLR | transmission-loading relief | |
| TMNSR | 10-minute nonspinning reserve | |
| TMNSR | 10-minute nonsynchronized reserve | |
| TMOR | 30-minute operating reserve | |
| TMSR | 10-minute spinning reserve | |
| TO | transmission owner | |
| TOA | Transmission Operating Agreement | |
| TOP | transmission operator | |
| topology and analog error detection | TAED | To improve the accuracy of the state estimation in modern energy management systems (EMSs), a process used during the solution stage of the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system that detects, identifies, and correct errors in the status data of breakers and switches (used to determine real-time topology of the network) and the analog data of real and reactive power flows, injections, and bus voltages (used to determine transmission line and transformer loading and the voltage profile) caused by measurement errors, communication noise, missing data, and other issues. |
| torque amplification | TA | A disturbance interaction between a turbine generator and a series-compensated transmission system (i.e., one with reactive power elements inserted in series with the transmission lines for improving voltage stability) that typically results in fast-growing and higher transient shaft torque during or after the disturbance than would otherwise occur; involves a significant fault and very high energy exchange between the series capacitor banks and the generator. |
| torsional interaction | TI | The interplay between the mechanical system of a turbine generator and a series-compensated transmission system (i.e., one with reactive power elements inserted in series with the transmission lines for improving voltage stability) involving both electrical and mechanical system dynamics. When the natural torsional frequency of a turbine generator is close to the electrical system’s natural frequency, and if the negative electrical damping exceeds the inherent positive mechanical damping, torsional interaction and shaft torques could build up to damaging torque levels. |
| total amount due and owing | TADO | A legal and accounting term referring to the amount of money that must be paid by a specified date for the purchase of a good or service; used in the ISO’s Financial Assurance Policy to indicate what New England Power Pool (NEPOOL), participating transmission owners, and market participant and nonmarket participant transmission customers must pay to the ISO. |
| total facility load | TFL | The total load at a facility, calculated for each demand capacity resource asset containing distributed generation, which equals the distributed generation output plus the facility-metered load of the facility. |
| total transfer capability | TTC | The amount of electric power that can be moved or transferred reliably from one area of the interconnected transmission system to another area by way of all transmission lines between these areas under specified system conditions. |
| TOUT | through-or-out service | |
| TP | transmission planner | |
| Tradable Renewable Credit; Tradable Renewable Energy Credit | TRC; TREC | Another name for a Renewable Energy Credit, which is a tradable, nontangible commodity representing the eligible renewable generation attributes of 1 MWh of actual generation from a grid-connected renewable resource. See Renewable Energy Credits. |
| transaction unit | TU | See energy transaction unit. |
| transfer capability | The amount of megawatts that interconnected electric power systems under specified conditions can reliably transfer from one system to the other over all transmission lines that connect the systems. | |
| transitional price-responsive demand | TRPD | Before June 1, 2018, real-time demand response assets in the New England region that could be dispatched by the ISO during a capacity deficiency based on real-time system conditions and earn wholesale energy market revenues; can become fully integrated into the wholesale markets on June 1, 2018, and be economically dispatched. |
| transmission | The transporting of electricity through high-voltage lines to distribution lines. | |
| transmission and distribution loss factor | T&D loss factor | One plus the average avoided peak transmission and distribution losses estimated to be achieved from demand reductions; transmission losses are assumed to be 2.5%, and distribution losses are assumed to be 5.5%, for a total loss factor of 8%. |
| transmission company; transmitting utility | gridco | See independent transmission company. |
| transmission congestion | See congestion. | |
| Transmission Cost Allocation | TCA | The treatment described in the ISO’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff, Schedules 11 and 12, for allocating costs to transmission developers for their cost incurred for upgrades, modifications, or additions to the New England transmission system, including generator-interconnection-related upgrades, elective transmission upgrades, regional benefit upgrades, public policy transmission upgrades, local benefit upgrades, merchant transmission facilities, and other types of upgrades and costs. |
| transmission line | Any line with a voltage greater than 50 kV that carries bulk power over long distances. Typical industry voltages are 69 kV, 115 kV, 138 kV, 230 KV, and 345 kV. | |
| Transmission Operating Agreement | TOA | An agreement between a participating transmission owner and the ISO that, among other things, provides the ISO with operating authority over the entity’s commercial transmission facility(ies). |
| transmission operating guide | TOG | A document or operating plan written by ISO New England electrical engineers that prescribes actions to address thermal, voltage, or stability operating limits for transmission facilities and resources. TOGs are typically created for a specific device out of service, and sometimes for a specified load value within New England. TOGs can include transmission switching actions to preserve reliability, or prescribe generation requirements for a given configuration of the transmission system. |
| transmission operator | TOP | An entity responsible for the reliability of its "local" transmission system and that operates or directs the operations of the transmission facilities. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as a TOP and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to a TOP. |
| transmission owner | TO | An entity that owns and maintains transmission facilities. |
| transmission planner | TP | An entity that develops a long-term plan (generally one year and beyond) for the reliability (adequacy) of the interconnected bulk electric transmission systems within its portion of the Planning Authority area. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as a TP and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to a TP. |
| Transmission Security Analysis | TSA | Conducted before each Forward Capacity Auction and prepared for a specific capacity commitment period, an assessment for determining the capacity requirement of an import-constrained capacity zone that addresses transmission topology; load levels for states, capacity zones, and subareas; resource assumptions for new and existing capacity resources; first- and second- contingency conditions; internal and external transfer levels; and outages. |
| Transmission Service Agreement | TSA | A short- or long-term agreement (i.e., less than or greater than one year) that establishes the terms, conditions, and type of service under which a transmission customer may take regional network service (RNS) or through-or-out service (TOUT) from a participating transmission owner (PTO); local service from a non-participating pool transmission facility (non-PTF); Cross-Sound Cable (CSC) service from a merchant transmission facility (MTF); and Phase I/II high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission service from an other transmission facility (OTF). Point-to point TSAs allow the use of a specific path or point on the associated transmission system, and network agreements (e.g., local and RNS TSAs) allow the use of the entire associated transmission system. Blanket TSAs generally are open-ended and provide service for multiple short-term transactions, and transaction-specific TSAs provide service for a specified period or single type of service. |
| transmission service provider | TSP | An entity that administers the Open-Access Transmission Tariff and provides transmission service to transmission customers under applicable Transmission Service Agreements. The ISO has registered with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as a TSP and is responsible for complying with NERC standards applicable to a TSP. |
| transmission-loading relief | TLR | North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Eastern Interconnection-wide procedures some ISOs use for preventing operating-security-limit violations while respecting transmission service reservation priorities. However, ISO New England does not use TLR procedures or initiate transmission-loading-relief requests for inter-control-area interchange transactions to manage parallel flows or to initiate curtailments. Because of the geographical and electrical relationship the ISO New England Control Area has with other systems in the Eastern Interconnection, parallel flows associated with inter-control-area transactions do not flow through the ISO New England Control Area in sufficient magnitude to require the use of TLR or TLR-like procedures. |
| TRC; TREC | Tradable Renewable Credit; Tradable Renewable Energy Credit | |
| TRPD | transitional price-responsive demand | |
| TSA | Transmission Security Analysis | |
| TSA | Transmission Service Agreement | |
| TSC | thyristor-switched capacitor | |
| TSO | Tariffs, Schedules, and OASIS Administrator | |
| TSP | transmission service provider | |
| TTC | total transfer capability | |
| TU | transaction unit | |
| TW | terawatt | |
| TWh | terawatt-hour | |
| UCAP | unforced capacity | |
| UCS | unit-commitment software | |
| UDS | unit dispatch system | |
| UDS | unit dispatch and scheduling | |
| UFLS | underfrequency load shedding | |
| UI | United Illuminating Company | |
| ULS | Ultra Low Sulfur | |
| ULSD | UltraLow Sulfur Diesel | |
| ULSK | Ultra Low Sulfur Kerosene | |
| underfrequency load shedding | UFLS | A North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) process for balancing generation and load when an event causes a significant drop in frequency of an interconnection or islanded area. The activation of UFLS is the last automated reliability measure associated with a decline in frequency to rebalance the bulk power system. |
| undervoltage load shedding | UVLS | An automatic load-shedding program of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) consisting of distributed relays and controls for mitigating undervoltage conditions that have an impact on the bulk electric system (BES) and can lead to voltage instability, voltage collapse, or cascading. |
| unforced capacity | UCAP | The amount of installed capacity associated with a resource, adjusted for availability. |
| unit dispatch and scheduling | UDS | See unit dispatch system. |
| unit dispatch software | See unit dispatch system. | |
| unit dispatch system | UDS | Real-time market software that every five minutes develops a security-constrained economic solution and the desired dispatch points (DDPs) (megawatts) for all dispatchable resources and the locational marginal prices (LMPs) for all pricing nodes, making slight adjustments to generator output to influence the flow of power through the bulk electric system. |
| unit opportunity cost | The estimated cost each generating unit would incur if it adjusted its output as necessary to provide its full amount of regulation. | |
| unit-commitment software | UCS | Software used to perform optimal resource scheduling in both the Day-Ahead Energy Market and Real-Time Energy Market. |
| United Illuminating Company | UI | |
| unloaded operating capacity | Operational capacity not generating electric energy but able to convert to generating energy. | |
| unplanned outage | When equipment is forced out of operation as a result of a discovered problem, but the request for the outage did not meet the timing requirements for it to be considered a planned outage. Unplanned outages are categorized as emergency outages or forced outages. | |
| uplift | Payments to resources operated out of merit. See Net Commitment-Period Compensation. | |
| up-to-congestion contracts | External contracts in the Day-Ahead Energy Market that do not flow if the congestion charge is above a specified level. Real-time external transactions cannot be submitted as up-to-congestion contracts; market participants with real-time external transactions always are considered to be willing to pay congestion charges. | |
| UVLS | undervoltage load shedding | |
| V | volt; voltage | |
| V - Z | ||
| V2G | vehicle-to-grid | |
| VA | volt-ampere | |
| VACAR | Virginia–Carolina region of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council | |
| value of lost load | VOLL | The standard metric used to estimate the economic impact of disruptions in electric power service to customers ($/megawatt-hours). |
| VAR | voltage ampere reactive | |
| VAR | voltage-ampere reactive | |
| variable energy resource | VER | See intermittent power resource. |
| variable-frequency transformer | VFT | A controllable, bidirectional transmission device used to transmit and control the flow of electricity between two asynchronous (or synchronous) alternating current (AC) power networks, such as two control areas. |
| vehicle-to-grid | V2G | A system in which a plug-in electric vehicle serves as a demand capacity resource by either returning its stored electric energy to the grid or reducing its charging. |
| VER | variable energy resource | |
| Vermont load zone | VT | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the State of Vermont, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone. |
| Vermont Long-Range Plan (transmission system plan) | VT LRP | The 20-year transmission plan of Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), the operator of Vermont’s transmission system. The plan, updated every three years, identifies reliability concerns and the transmission projects and transmission alternatives needed to maintain grid reliability. |
| Vermont subarea | VT | Regional System Plan subarea that includes Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire. |
| VFT | variable-frequency transformer | |
| Virginia–Carolina region of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council | VACAR | A Southeast Electric Reliability Council (SERC) subdivision that includes the territories of several operating entities, including Duke Energy Progress, Inc.; Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC; South Carolina Electric and Gas Company; South Carolina Public Service Authority; and the Yadkin Division of Alcoa Power Generating Inc., a subsidiary of Alcoa Inc. |
| virtual demand | See decremental bid. | |
| virtual supply | See incremental offer. | |
| VOC | volatile organic compound | |
| volatile organic compound | VOC | Gases, many of which are hazardous and have short- and long-term adverse health effects, emitted from certain solids or liquids, such as when gasoline, wood, coal, and natural gas are burned, and from oil and natural gas fields; diesel exhaust; solvents, paints, varnishes, and glues; numerous household products, including cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, and degreasing products; building materials; and office equipment. When combined with nitrogen oxides, VOCs react to form ground-level ozone (i.e., smog), which contributes to climate change. Examples of VOCs are gasoline; benzene; formaldehyde; solvents such as toluene and xylene; styrene, and perchloroethylene (or tetrachloroethylene), the main solvent used in dry cleaning. |
| VOLL | value of lost load | |
| volt; voltage | V | An electromotive force or electric pressure that pushes electrons through a material, like water pressure in a pipe. |
| voltage ampere reactive | VAR | Unit of measurement for reactive power in an AC electric power system, which maintains transmission voltages within acceptable ranges. |
| voltage regulation | When an electric power system provides constant voltage over a range of load conditions. | |
| voltage reliability cost | The cost of dispatching a unit or taking other actions to maintain voltage levels and the stability of the transmission network. | |
| voltage stability | The ability of an electric power system to maintain steady voltages at all buses in the system after being subjected to a disturbance from a given initial operating condition; affected by the power system’s ability to maintain and restore equilibrium between its load demand and load supply. | |
| voltage support | An ancillary service of the New England wholesale electricity markets a resource provides for maintaining voltage-control capability, which allows system operators to maintain transmission voltages within acceptable limits. | |
| voltage-ampere reactive | VAR | A measure of reactive power. |
| voltage-source converter | VSC | A self-commutated device (i.e., one that can reverse the direction of an alternating electric current [AC] to make it a direct current [DC]) on a high-voltage transmission network that synthesizes a voltage waveform with a variable system-voltage magnitude to more precisely control the reactive power production and consumption of the device for maintaining system voltage stability; can be used for converting high-voltage direct current, solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, and other devices. |
| voltage-source converter HVDC | VSC HVDC | A flexible power system device for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission that uses a voltage source on the DC side of the conversion, enabling, on each end of the converter, direct control of the active (i.e., real) and reactive power output, making it suitable for connection to weak alternating-current (AC) networks (i.e. without local voltage sources). |
| volt-ampere | VA | The amount of apparent power in an alternating current (AC) circuit equal to a current of one ampere at an electromotive force of one volt; equivalent to a watt. |
| VSC | voltage-source converter | |
| VSC HVDC | voltage-source converter HVDC | |
| VT | Vermont subarea | |
| VT | Vermont load zone | |
| VT LRP | Vermont Long-Range Plan (transmission system plan) | |
| W | watt | |
| WACOG | weighted average cost of gas | |
| watt | W | The rate or ability of doing work. A measure of the real power used by a piece of electrical equipment. One watt equals 1/746 horsepower. |
| WCMA | Western/Central Massachusetts load zone | |
| WCSB | Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin | |
| WEA | wind energy area | |
| weather-normalized load factor | The ratio of the average hourly demand during a year to the peak hourly demand, both adjusted to normal weather conditions. | |
| weather-normalized results | Analytical results that would have been observed if the weather were the same as the long-term average. | |
| weighted average cost of gas | WACOG | The weighted average unit cost of a supply of natural gas, calculated as the total cost of all natural gas purchased during a base period divided by either the total quantity purchased. (unit of production) or the system throughput (unit of sales) during the same period. |
| weighted EFORd | For use during the Forward Capacity Market transition period (December 2006 through May 2010), the portion of time a unit was in demand but was unavailable because of forced outages, which was based on the weighting of the available performance during on- and off-peak hours, seasonal-peak hours, and shortage hours. See equivalent demand forced-outage rate (EFORd). | |
| Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin | WCSB | A 1.4 million kilometer sedimentary basin underlying western Canada, including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories that holds one of the world’s largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas and supplies much of the market in North America; also has a large coal reserve. |
| Western Massachusetts subarea | WMA | Regional System Plan area for western Massachusetts. |
| Western/Central Massachusetts load zone | WCMA | One of eight defined areas in New England, this one encompassing the western and central parts of Massachusetts, that include aggregations of pricing nodes used for wholesale energy market settlement. See load zone |
| wheel through | The transmission of electric power from one system to another over a third party’s transmission lines. | |
| wheel-through contracts | Contracts in which both generation and the delivery of electric energy occur outside the New England balancing authority area and are submitted into the market system for scheduling. | |
| wholesale electric energy market | The buying, selling, and reselling of the electric energy generated by a bulk power system to meet the system’s demand for electric energy. New England’s wholesale electric energy markets are the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy Markets. (Also see energy market.) In general, use wholesale electric energy markets not wholesale electric markets when specifically referring to the Day-Ahead and Real-Time Energy Markets. | |
| wholesale electricity | Electric power bought and sold among generators, utilities, municipalities, and other wholesale entities (see market participants). | |
| wholesale electricity markets, wholesale electric power market | The sale of electric energy by generators to resellers (retailers) along with the ancillary services needed to maintain reliability and power quality at the transmission level. Use wholesale electricity markets or wholesale electricity marketplace not wholesale electric markets. Use the plural when collectively referring to New England’s wholesale electricity markets. | |
| Wholesale Markets Plan | WMP | (See Wholesale Markets Project Plan, the current report name.) |
| Wholesale Markets Plan | WMP | See Wholesale Markets Project Plan, the current report name. |
| Wholesale Markets Project Plan | WMPP | Report ISO-NE published annually to describe key wholesale energy market initiatives underway and planned for the upcoming three years to ensure an efficient and reliable power system in New England. Updates to the WMPP are published throughout the year on the ISO’s website. Abbreviation often includes report year (e.g., WMPP15 for 2015 report). |
| Wholesale Markets Project Plan | WMPP | The ISO’s key market initiatives underway and planned for the upcoming three years to ensure an efficient and reliable power system in New England. Updates to the WMPP are published throughout the year. |
| Wholesale Price Index | WPI | A measurement that tracks a country’s changes in the price of goods at stages before the retail level, indicating the country’s level of inflation; expressed as a ratio or percentage. |
| wind energy area | WEA | Area on the Outer Continental Shelf established by the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) considered appropriate for commercial offshore wind energy development, with a goal of minimizing conflicts with existing uses and the environment; several WEAs are off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. |
| Wind Power Forecast Integration Project | WPFIP | A centralized wind power forecasting service completed in 2014 that includes (1) communications and database systems for exchanging data relevant to wind power forecasting between wind plants throughout ISO New England and the wind power forecaster service; (2) wind power situational awareness displays and functions for operators; (3) incorporation of the forecasts into the day-ahead and periodic unit-commitment refinement processes; (4) a suite of wind power forecast services, including intraday, day-ahead, and week-ahead deterministic and probabilistic forecasts with corresponding event-type forecasts and a daily updated forecast narrative. |
| wind project development area | WPDA | For its 2011 Economic Study, an ISO-NE-defined area within the bulk power system for quantifying the economic impacts on potential wind resource development in that area (based on projects in the ISO’s Interconnection Request Queue at that time) from transmission interface constraint between the area and load centers. WPDAs were defined for Vermont, western and southeastern Massachusetts, northern and southern New Hampshire, northern and central Maine, and Connecticut. |
| winter seasonal claimed capability | WSCC | For participation in the Forward Capacity Market, the capability for most types of new or existing nonintermittent generator asset to perform under specified winter conditions (October to May of the following year) for a specified duration; its median net output during hours ending 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (i.e., 5:01 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) and any applicable shortage-event hours. |
| Winter Supplemental Program | WSP | A prior ISO program (2005/2006) for maintaining system reliability that increased the availability of up to 450 MW of additional demand capacity resources to respond in the event of an energy-shortage condition during that winter. Program participants that reduced or transferred load or provided incremental generation received an incentive payment. |
| WIP | Wright Interconnection Project (of the Iroquois Transmission System) | |
| withdrawal | The location where electric power is withdrawn from the power system (see sink point). | |
| without-price contract | A contract for the flow of electric energy under the assumption that transfer capacity and conforming arrangements with the external system are available. | |
| with-price contract purchases and sales | The buying and selling of electric energy that will not flow unless transfer capacity is available, conforming arrangements with the external system are in place, and the New England locational marginal price is above the specified price level for purchases or below the specified price levels for sales. | |
| WMA | Western Massachusetts subarea | |
| WMP | Wholesale Markets Plan | |
| WMP | Wholesale Markets Plan | |
| WMPP | Wholesale Markets Project Plan | |
| WMPP | Wholesale Markets Project Plan | |
| WPDA | wind project development area | |
| WPFIP | Wind Power Forecast Integration Project | |
| WPI | Wholesale Price Index | |
| Wright Interconnection Project (of the Iroquois Transmission System) | WIP | A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-approved natural gas pipeline expansion project in Wright, New York, owned by Iroquois Gas Transmission, being developed in conjunction with the proposed Constitution Pipeline to enable the delivery of up to 650,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas from the terminus of the Constitution Pipeline in Schoharie, New York, into both the Iroquois and Tennessee Gas Pipelines 15-year capacity lease with Constitution. The proposed Constitution Pipeline is being developed to bring natural gas supplies from northeastern Pennsylvania (i.e., the Marcellus supplies) to New York and New England, markets presently served by Iroquois. Planned in-service date is the end of 2018. |
| WSCC | winter seasonal claimed capability | |
| WSP | Winter Supplemental Program | |
| Zero-Emission Renewable Energy Certificate | ZREC | A market-priced product in Connecticut representing the positive environmental attributes associated with each megawatt-hour of electricity produced by a zero-emission form of generation, such as solar photovoltaics, wind, and some small hydroelectric facilities, which the system owner can sell to its local utility, earning a financial benefit in addition to selling the energy the facility produced. The utilities use the resulting ZRECs for compliance with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards. |
| zonal price | The hourly price for electric energy received in a defined load zone calculated using a load-weighted average of the locational marginal prices for the nodes within the load zone. | |
| zone | An aggregation of nodes in the New England Balancing Authority Area. | |
| ZREC | Zero-Emission Renewable Energy Certificate |
