Industry Terms

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Scheduled Outage
The shutdown of a generating unit, transmission line or other facility, for inspection or maintenance, in accordance with an advance schedule.

Sectors
The retail power market is commonly divided into several sectors for energy planning. These can include residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, public agency and street lighting.

Selective Discounting
The ability of pipelines to charge discounted transportation rates to customers under FERC Order No. 436.

Self-Generation
A generation facility dedicated to serving a particular retail customer, usually located on the customer's premises. The facility may either be owned directly by the retail customer or owned by a third party with a contractual arrangement to provide electricity to meet some or all of the customer's load.

Service Area
The territory in which a utility system is required or has the right to supply service to ultimate customers.

Service Connection (Service Pipe)
The pipe that carries natural gas from a main to a customer's meter.

Service Obligation
The obligation of a natural gas company to perform the services required by law or certificate regardless of whether the company has contractual duties.

Shipper
One who contracts with a pipeline for transportation of natural gas and who retains title to all natural gas while it is being transported by the pipeline.

Short (or short position)
A short position is the trading position of a person who has sold securities or commodities that they do not own with the hope of buying at a later date at a lower price. A short sale is a contract for the sale of something, such as a commodity or futures contract, that the seller does not own. It is a method of profiting from the expected fall in price of the commodity but risky because if the commodity goes up, the owner of the short will have to purchase the underlying commodity at whatever price it reaches to cover the short sale.

Solar Generation
The use of radiation from the sun to substitute for electric power or natural gas heating.

Spot Market
Commodity transactions in which the transaction commencement is near term (e.g., within 10 days) and the contract duration is relatively short (e.g., 30 days).

Spot Pricing
The price of a commodity or service established by the market for short term transactions. This price can change with each transaction and reflects the continually changing balances between supply and demand.

Spread
The difference between two prices, amounts or numbers such as the bid/ask prices in a commodity trading. In the futures and options markets a spread is the simultaneous purchase and sale of two different contracts in the expectation of a favorable change in their relative prices.

Standard Offer
The “retail market price” which an end user will receive if they remain a customer of the incumbent utility.

Standby Facility
A facility that supports a utility system and is generally running under no load. It is available to replace or supplement a facility normally in service.

Standby Service
Support service that is available, as needed, to supplement a consumer, a utility system or to another utility to replace normally scheduled power that becomes unavailable.

Storage Facility
Facility used for the storage of natural gas; usually a cavern carved out of natural salt domes or depleted natural gas reservoirs into which natural gas can be reinjected and produced with minimal loss.

Stranded Cost
Any commitment (contract for power, generating plant, nuclear facility, etc.) that a utility undertook to meet it’s obligation to serve any and all customers within its geographic service region that is unrecoverable at competitive prices. Also known as uneconomic assets.

Stranded Investment
An investment with a cost recovery schedule that was initially approved by regulatory action that subsequent regulatory action or market forces has rendered not practically recoverable. Costs that electric utilities are currently permitted to recover through their rates but whose recovery may be impeded or prevented by the advent of competition in the industry.

Sub-Metering
Remetering of purchased energy for distribution to tenants through privately owned/rented meters.

Substation
Facilities that route and control electric power flow, transform voltage levels, and serve as delivery points to industrial customers.

Sunk Cost
In economics, a sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred, and therefore cannot be avoided by any strategy going forward.

Sustainability
An approach to business that creates long-term stakeholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. In short, sustainability is the result when responsible actions lead to long-term success.

Swing Supply
A supply of natural gas that is the last to be taken and the first to be curtailed by the customer. Swing supply serves the variation in the customer's demand.

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