General Terminology
Carbon Footprint – It is a measure of the impact that human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. These gases are produced by the burning of fossil fuels for our everyday living; for example - heating and electricity. Its purpose is for individuals, businesses, organizations and even nations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) carbon dioxide contribution.
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Demand – The rate at which electricity is being used at any one given time (or averaged over any designated interval of time). Demand differs from energy use, which reflects the total amount of electricity consumed over a period of time. Demand is often measured in kilowatts (kW = 1 kilowatt =1000 watts), while energy use is usually measured in kilowatt hours (kWh = kilowatts x hours of use = kilowatt hours). The term "load" is considered synonymous with demand. Load also can be defined as an end-use energy-consuming piece of equipment or customer that receives power from the electric system. Using this definition of load, demand is the measure of power that a load receives or requires.
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Distribution – The process of delivering electricity from points on the transmission system to consumers.
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DOE (Department of Energy) – This is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. Its responsibilities include energy conservation, energy-related research, domestic energy production and more. DOE also sponsors more basic and applied scientific research than any other US federal agency; most of this is funded through its system of United States Department of Energy National Laboratories.
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Electric Distribution Company – The utilities that provide regulated services for the distribution of electricity to customers and serve customers who do not choose direct access.
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Electric Supplier –An entity (including an electric aggregator or participating municipal electric utility) licensed to provide electric generation services to customers. With electric choice, customers can choose their electric supplier. The customer's electric distribution company then delivers the power.
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Energy Audit –An inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows in a building, process or system with the objective of understanding the energy dynamics of the system under study. Typically an energy audit is conducted to seek opportunities to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s). When the object of study is an occupied building then reducing energy consumption while maintaining or improving human comfort, health and safety are of primary concern. Beyond simply identifying the sources of energy use, an energy audit seeks to prioritize the energy uses according to the greatest to least cost-effective opportunities for energy savings.
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Energy Efficiency – Using less energy to provide the same level of energy service. An example would be insulating a home to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve the same temperature. Another example would be installing fluorescent lights and/or skylights instead of incandescent lights to attain the same level of illumination. Efficient energy use is achieved primarily by means of a more efficient technology or process rather than by changes in individual behavior.
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Energy Engineering – A broad field of engineering dealing with energy efficiency, energy services, facility management, plant engineering, environmental compliance and alternative energy technologies. Energy engineering projects often combine expertise from civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. Energy minimization is the purpose of this growing discipline. Often applied to building design, heavy consideration is given to HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, to both reduce energy loads and increase efficiency of current systems. Energy Engineering is increasingly seen as a major step forward in meeting carbon reduction targets.
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Energy Independence – The goal of reducing energy consumption, so as to decrease reliance on fossil fuels and foreign sources of oil.
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Energy Star Benchmark – Energy Star® is a program to promote energy efficiency and cost savings, started through the combined efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Energy Star® hosts an interactive energy management on-line tool to manage energy and water consumption. The Portfolio Manager benchmarking tool allows you to streamline the collection, documentation and sharing of your facility’s energy and water data. The tool tracks portfolio-wide consumption, performance, and cost information… providing custom reporting. The Energy Star® benchmark rating may allow you to display the Energy Star® label, and promote your company as having “green” facilities endorsed by a U.S. governing body.
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Environmental Stewardship – The concept that we are entrusted with the care and protection of our planet. Promoting good environmental stewardship can be through safeguarding of our water and soil, as well as other natural resources. It also involves utilizing “green” technology in as many aspects of life as possible, such as alternative cars, and energy-efficient building systems.
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Generation – The act or process of transforming other forms of energy into electric energy, expressed in kilowatt hours.
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Greenhouse Gases - Gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic (natural sources are the Earth's ecosystem, and anthropogenic sources include industrial, transportation, residential, commercial and agricultural processes) that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases are essential to maintaining the temperature of the Earth; without them the planet would be so cold as to be uninhabitable, with too much the planet is in peril of overheating and destroying the ecosystem.
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Green Technology – Also sometimes called clean technology or environmental technology, is technology engineered to apply the environmental sciences to conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement. Sustainable development is the core of green technology. When applying sustainable development as a solution for environmental issues, the solutions need to be socially equitable, economically viable, and environmentally sound.
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Kilowatt (kW) – One kilowatt equals 1,000 watts.
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Kilowatt-hour (kWh) –The basic unit of electric energy equal to one kilowatt of power supplied to or taken from an electric circuit steadily for one hour. One kilowatt-hour equals 1,000 watt hours.
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LEED EB Certification – The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Since its inception in 1998, LEED has grown to encompass more than 14,000 projects in 50 US States and 30 countries. The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the more than 10,000 membership organizations that currently constitute the USGBC. LEED EB, stands for Existing Building and uses a system of points to certify a facility into one of several pre-designated categories.
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Load – The term "load" is considered synonymous with demand. Load also can be defined as an end-use device or an end-use customer that consumes power. Using this definition of load, demand is the measure of power that a load receives or requires.
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Load Profile – Shows the quantity of energy used by a class of customers at specific time intervals over a 24-hour period.
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Performance Contracting – A mechanism to implement energy efficiency improvements with minimal up-front costs. It uses savings resulting from the efficiency project to pay for the work over a period of time.
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Renewable Energy – Energy generated from natural resources â?? such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat â?? which are renewable (naturally replenished).
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Solar Power – Energy generated by the sun through the collection, transfer and storage of the sun's heat.
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Solar Photovoltaic – Photovoltaics (PV) is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells for energy by converting sunlight directly into electricity.
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Sustainable Energy – The provision of energy such that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable sources, such as biofuels, solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power and tidal power. It usually also includes technologies that improve energy efficiency.
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Transmission – The act or process of transporting electric energy in bulk from a source or sources of supply to other principal parts of the system or to other utility systems. Also a functional classification relating to that portion of utility plant used for the purpose of transmitting electric energy in bulk to other principal parts of the system or to other utility systems, or to expenses relating to the operation and maintenance of transmission plant.
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Thermal Energy Systems – Refers to a number of technologies that store energy in a thermal reservoir for later reuse. They can be employed to balance energy demand between day time and night time. The thermal reservoir may be maintained at a temperature above (hotter) or below (colder) than that of the ambient environment. The principal application today is the production of ice, chilled water, or eutectic solution at night, which is then used to cool environments during the day. Thermal energy storage technologies also store heat, usually from active solar collectors, in an insulated repository for later use in space heating, domestic or process hot water, or to generate electricity. Most practical active solar heating systems have storage for a few hours to a day's worth of heat collected.
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Water Conservation – Refers to reducing the use of water, through human efforts and water-efficient technologies.
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