Here is a guide to those sometimes intimidating terms and acronyms thrown about from time to time by people in the power industry. This glossary should eliminate some of the confusion.

AB 1890
Assembly Bill 1890, Public Utilities: Electric Restructuring is the State Law, signed by Governor Wilson on September 23, 1996, an act restructuring the electric utility industry in California.

Access
See Direct Access

Alternate Suppliers
Providers of electric energy other than the current monopoly supplier of electric energy. Alternate suppliers may include other utilities, independent power producers, brokers, or power pools.

Alternating Current (AC)
Electric current that reverses its direction at regular intervals or periods, typically sixty times a second.

Ampere
A unit of measure for electric current flowing in an electric conductor.

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
A state agency that has jurisdiction over intrastate sales of electricity and retail electric rates (among others) by IOUs, but not by municipal utilities.

Charter City
A City governed on the basis of a Charter that establishes its powers and authorities as contrasted with a General Law City that enjoys only those powers specifically granted to it by the State. Santa Clara is a Charter City.

Competitive Transition Charge (CTC)
A charge imposed by a utility to assure recovery of the costs of investments in resources or other power contracts. Customers have always paid this charge as part of their normal rate. Customers choosing SVP, or another supplier, will continue to contribute to the payback of these investments. Collection of a CTC may be made under the authority of State Law or of a local regulatory body such as a City Council.

Competitor
See Alternate Supplier.

Contracts
Long-term agreements for the supply of electrical capacity and/or energy under specified terms and conditions. Such agreements may be of a duration as short as six months or as long as 25 years.

Contribution in Lieu of Taxes (CLT)
A transfer made by the Electric Department to the General Fund Pursuant to Section 1320 of the City's Charter. This transfer may not exceed 5% of the gross receipts of the Electric Department.

Cost Reduction Fund
A fund accumulated from savings due to debt refinancings, contract reformations and other cost reductions that are used to reduce debt service and other expenses.

Debt Service
The periodic payment of principal and interest on debt. Santa Clara's Electric Department Debt Service relates entirely to Revenue Bonds. Joint Powers Agency Debt Service is often secured by a "Take or Pay" power sales contract for the use of a particular project.

Degree Day
A unit of measure expressed as Heating Degree Days (HDD) and/or Cooling Degree Days (CDD). Derived from the variance between the average temperature during a given time period (month, season, year) and a reference point, usually 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Demand
The amount of energy drawn by customers at a specific time.

Demand Ratchet
A method of calculating the demand-charge component of a customer's bill, taking into consideration the customer's historical maximum demand levels.

Direct Access
The ability of a consumer of electric energy to select the supplier of the electric energy commodity services that will be delivered to them by their local electric utility.

The terms and conditions under which electric energy consumers can select their supplier of electric energy commodity services pursuant to State Law or by action of a local regulatory body such as a City Council.

Direct Current (DC)
Electric current that flows in a single direction and at a constant voltage.

Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)
Energy fields that result from the existence and movement of electric charges. Electromagnetic fields occur naturally and can also be created.

End-Use Retail Customer
The ultimate consumer of electric energy, in contrast to a customer that may purchase electric energy for resale to others.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
A federal agency that has jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales and wholesale electric rates (among others).

Fiscal Year
The period July 1 through June 30.

Financial Instruments
Contracts designed to hedge price risks in a commodity market.

Franchise Fees
Fees charged by a City for the use of the public right of way.

General Fund
Those unrestricted funds of the City of Santa Clara used for the general operation of the City, such as police and fire protection, and are not required to be accounted for in another fund.

Gigawatt Hour (GWh)
1000 MWh or 1 million kWh.

Independent System Operator (ISO)
An entity, as defined in AB 1890, responsible for operating the high-voltage electric transmission grid in a particular geographic area, as well as being responsible for scheduling power transmission and providing support services such as spinning, capacity reserve, and voltage support.

Interconnection Agreement with PG&E
The Agreement between the City of Santa Clara and PG&E that governs (among other things) operations of our respective utility systems with respect to the transmission of power from Santa Clara's electric resources to the City distribution system via PG&E's high-voltage transmission facilities.

Investor-Owned Utility (IOU)
A utility organized as a publicly traded corporation for the purpose of providing electric power service and earning a profit for its shareholders. A local example of an IOU is PG&E.

Joint Powers Agency (JPA)
An entity formed pursuant to Government Code Section 6500 et seq. to allow government agencies to act jointly within the electric utility industry. Joint Powers Agencies have been typically formed for the purposes of owning, constructing, or operating electric power generating plants or transmission facilities that were either too large or too costly for a single agency to perform by itself.

Kilovolt (kV)
Unit of measurement of electromotive force equal to 1,000 volts. A volt is the force required to produce a current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm.

Kilowatt (kW)
A unit of electrical power, equal to 1000 watts or 1.341 horsepower.

Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
A measurement of the quantity of electrical energy supplied at a steady rate of l,000 watts for a period of one hour.

Lay-Offs
The assignment of the use of an electric generation or transmission resource to a third party for a specified period of time or for an unspecified period of time with recall rights. Not to be confused with, or in any way suggesting, the laying-off of personnel.

Load Factor
A ratio that indicates the amount of variability in electric demand for a specified period of time.

Market Rate
The price established for electric energy on a commodity basis between willing buyers and sellers without reference to the embedded cost of production.

Megawatt
1 million watts or 1,000kW.

MOU
A utility under the local control of a Municipality or District for the purpose of providing electric power services on a non-profit basis. Local examples include City of Santa Clara (Silicon Valley Power), City of Palo Alto and Alameda Bureau of Electricity.

M-S-R Public Power Agency (M-S-R)
A California joint powers agency consisting of the City of Santa Clara, the City of Redding, and the Modesto Irrigation District.

Northern California Power Agency (NCPA)
A California joint powers agency consisting of the City of Santa Clara, the City of Alameda, the City of Biggs, the City of Gridley, the City of Healdsburg, the City of Lodi, the City of Lompoc, the City of Palo Alto, Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative, the Port of Oakland, the City of Redding, the City of Roseville, the Truckee- Donner Public Utility District, the Turlock Irrigation District, and the City of Ukiah.

Ohm
The unit of measure for electrical resistance

Phased Access (Phased-in Access)
A method of implementing Direct Access by providing a certain number of electric energy customers with Direct Access in sequential time periods until Direct Access is available to all customers. A utility's Direct Access Implementation Plan would specify the numbers of customers and time periods to be utilized in Phased Access.

Power Factor
The fraction of power actually used by a customer's electrical equipment, compared to the total apparent power supplied, usually expressed as a percentage. Power factors apply only to alternating current circuits; direct current circuits always exhibit a power factor of 100 percent.

Power Pools
Entities wherein electric utilities and power producers may combine the output of electric generating resources and sell the combined output. AB 1890 contemplates a mandatory power pool, the Power Exchange (PX), for California's Investor Owned Utilities.

Purchased Power
The expenditures of the Electric Department for the purchase of electric energy on the Spot Market, pursuant to a Contract, or from a Joint Powers Agency.

Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4
Calendar year quarters.

Solar Power
Electric power generated by using sunlight either to create electron flow in a photovoltaic cell or to heat a fluid that is used in the operation of an engine or turbine-generator.

Spot Market
A commodity market for the purchase and sale of electric energy for a short-term basis (often one day or less.)

State Law
AB 1890 or any other applicable law, ordinance, or regulation, pertaining to the operation of electric utilities imposed by the State of California or its political subdivisions.

Stranded Investment
On-going costs of investments or power purchase contracts rendered uneconomic by utility restructuring. See CTC.

Strategic Planning Council (SPC)
A body consisting of management and line employees of the City and the Electric Utility, appointed by the City Manager, and responsible for the preparation of Strategic Plan(s) for the Electric Utility.

Substation
An assemblage of equipment that switches, changes, or regulates voltage in the electric transmission and distribution system.

System Load Factor
The ratio of average load to peak load during a specific period of time, expressed as a percent.

Supply Costs
All costs of the production of electric energy as measured at the point the electric energy is transferred to the local distribution utility for delivery to a customer.

Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC)
A California joint powers agency consisting of the City of Santa Clara, the City of Alameda, the City of Biggs, the City of Gridley, the City of Healdsburg, the City of Lodi, the City of Lompoc, the Modesto Irrigation District, the City of Palo Alto, the Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative, the City of Redding, the City of Roseville, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the Turlock Irrigation District, and the City of Ukiah.

Unbundling
Separation of costs or rates into their various components.

Unit Costs
The Supply Costs of a particular electric generating resource expressed in terms of costs per unit of production such as cents per kilowatt-hour.

Utility Tax
A levy imposed by a governmental entity on the consumption of utility service within its jurisdiction.

Voltage
A measure of electric potential, which is the condition that causes electric energy to flow. Voltage has the following characteristics: a push or force, does nothing by itself, has potential to do work, appears between two points, and is always there.

Watt (W)
A unit of electrical power, equal to the power developed in a circuit by a current of one ampere flowing through a potential difference of one volt.

Year
Calendar year unless otherwise specifically indicated.