Glossary - c

For your convenience, this page contains an alphabetically organized list of terms, definitions and common acronyms used in the electric utility industry.

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Term/Acronym

Definition
CR Competitive Retailer
CSC Commercially Significant Constraint
Central Prevailing Time Either Central Standard Time or Central daylight time as established by national time standards.
Certificate of Compliance A certificate issued by ERCOT stating that the Metering Facilities referred to in the certificate satisfy the certification criteria for Metering Facilities contained in these Protocols.
Check Meter A redundant revenue quality meter, which produces equal or better accuracy than the primary revenue quality meter, connected at the same metering point, which must be certified in accordance with the ERCOT Protocols.
Commercial Model Transmission model developed by ERCOT that arranges groups of Generation Resource and Load busses into Congestion Zones that have similar impacts on Commercially Significant Constraints.
Commercially Significant Constraint (CSC) A constraint in the ERCOT Transmission Grid that is found, through the process described in Section 7, to result in Congestion which limits the free flow of energy within the ERCOT market to a commercially significant degree.
Commercially Significant Constraint (CSC) Limit The maximum power flow across a CSC allowed to maintain reliable operation.
Competitive Retailer (CR) Municipally Owned Utility or an Electric Cooperative that offers Customer Choice and sells electric energy at retail in the restructured electric power market in Texas; or a Retail Electric Provider (REP) as defined in 25.5 of the PUCT Substantive rules.
Congestion The situation that exists when requests for power transfers across a Transmission Facility element or set of elements, when netted, exceed the transfer capability of such elements.
Congestion Zone A grouping of busses that create a similar Shift Factor on CSCs.
Continuous Service Agreement (CSA) An arrangement between the owner or controller of a leased Premise and a CR wherein the CR provides service to the leased Premise between tenants so that the Premise does not experience discontinuation of electric service during vacancy.
Control Area An electrical system, bound by interconnect (tie line) metering and telemetry, which continuously regulates, through automatic generation control, its generation and interchange schedules to match its system Load, regulates frequency, and meets all applicable Control Area requirements.
Control Area Operator An individual or set of individuals responsible for monitoring and control operation of the Control Area.
Current Operating Plan See Ancillary Services Plan
Current Resource A percentage based on the number of times a specific resource is used to resolve a localized problem where a Market Solution does not exist.
Current System Conditions The Real-Time status of the ERCOT System, which may affect ERCOT's operational decisions.
Customer An Entity that purchases electricity for its own consumption.
Customer Choice The freedom of a retail Customer to purchase electric services, either individually or on an aggregated basis with other retail Customers, from the provider or providers of the Customer's choice and to choose among various fuel types, energy efficiency programs, and renewable power suppliers.
Customer Choice Pilot A project used to allow the PUCT to evaluate the implementation of Customer Choice as provided in PURA 39.104.
Customer Premise See Premise.
Customer Registration Database The database maintained by the Registration Agent containing information identifying each Premise, including current and previous Competitive Retailers serving the Premise.