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 |
| CRE | Closely Related Elements |
| CSA | Continuous Service Agreement |
| CSC | Commercially Significant Constraint |
| Current Operating Plan | See Ancillary Services Plan |
| Customer Premise | See Premise. |
| Capital Asset | An asset expected to have a useful life of at least twelve (12) months that is not bought or sold in the normal course of business. |
| Capital Expenditure | An outlay of money to acquire a Capital Asset or extend the useful life of an existing Capital Asset for at least twelve (12) months. |
| 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. |
| Closely Related Elements (CREs) | Those transmission facilities that have shift factor impacts similar to those associated with a particular Commercially Significant Constraint (CSC), and for which there exists a limited amount of Boundary Generation Resources between it and the particular CSC, so that the zonal deployment of Balancing Energy Service is effective in mitigating Zonal Congestion. |
| Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) | The state-owned federal commission of electricity of Mexico. The government agency in Mexico charged with the responsibility of operating the Mexican national electricity grid (outside Mexico City). |
| 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. |
| Compliance Premium | A Compliance Premium is awarded by the program administrator in conjunction with a Renewable Energy Credit (REC) that is generated by a renewable energy source that is not powered by wind and meets the criteria of subsection (m) of P.U.C. SUBST. R. 25.173, Goal for Renewable Energy. For the purpose of the renewable energy portfolio standard requirements, one Compliance Premium is equal to one REC. |
| 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. |
| CR of Record | See Competitive Retailer |
| 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 Registration Database | The database maintained by the Registration Agent containing information identifying each Premise, including current and previous Competitive Retailers serving the Premise. |