A

Above-Market Generation: Electricity produced at costs higher than prevailing market prices.

Actual Peak Load Reductions: The actual reduction in annual peak load (measured in kilowatts) achieved by consumers that participate in a utility Demand Side Management (DSM) program. It reflects the real changes in the demand for electricity resulting from a utility DSM program that is in effect at the same time the utility experiences its annual peak load, as opposed to the installed peak load reduction capability (i.e., Potential Peak Load Reduction). It should account for the regular cycling of energy efficient units during the period of annual peak load.

Advanced Metering: Device for recording or communicating actual electric use during minutes, hours, days or weeks useful for time-of-day, on-peak/off peak or other billing rates.

Affiliated Retail Electric Provider: A Retail Electric Provider (REP) that is owned, but separately operated, by a former monopoly electric utility.

Aggregator: A person joining two or more customers, other than municipalities and political subdivision corporations, into a single purchasing unit to negotiate the purchase of electricity from retail electric providers. Aggregators may not sell or take title to electricity. Retail electric providers are not aggregators.

Ancillary Services: Those services necessary to support the transmission of energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation. They include reactive power supply, voltage support, regulation, and frequency control, among other things.

Average Revenue per Kilowatt hour: The average revenue per kilowatt-hour of electricity sold by sector (residential, commercial, industrial, or other) and geographic area (State, Census division, and national) is calculated by dividing the total monthly revenue by the corresponding total monthly sales for each sector and geographic area.

Avoided Cost: The cost to the utility if it had generated or otherwise purchased the power. It is a benchmark price for energy services, used to compare resource alternatives. Avoided cost is the marginal long-term or short-term production cost that could be avoided by an alternative supply-side or demand-side resource. In many states, avoided cost rates have been used as the power purchase price offered to independent suppliers (co-generators).