Terms from A to Z
- Actual read
- A meter reading taken by the utility or a smart meter, not calculated. Often marked “A” on the bill.
- Additionality
- Whether a green power purchase caused new renewable generation that would not have been built otherwise.
Where this shows up in our work - Baseline
- A fixed record of past use and cost that later bills are measured against. We call ours the peg.
Where this shows up in our work - Benchmarking
- Reporting a building’s annual energy use, usually through Portfolio Manager, so it can be compared with similar buildings.
Where this shows up in our work - Billed demand
- The kW figure the demand charge is priced on. Ratchets or minimums can set it above measured peak.
Where this shows up in our work - Billing period
- The days between two meter reads. It varies from bill to bill, which skews month-to-month comparisons.
- Building Performance Colorado
- The Colorado Energy Office program for most commercial buildings 50,000 square feet and larger. Reports are due November 1.
Where this shows up in our work - Community solar
- A subscribed share of an offsite solar array, credited on your bill. The contract decides who keeps the RECs.
Where this shows up in our work - Customer charge
- A fixed monthly charge per account or meter, owed whether the site uses any energy or not.
- Degree days
- A measure of how cold or hot a period was, used to compare energy use across different weather.
Where this shows up in our work - Demand charge
- A charge per kW on the period’s highest demand, which NREL says is usually measured over 15 minutes.
Where this shows up in our work - Drift
- Our word for usage or cost moving away from the baseline with no reason anyone wrote down.
Where this shows up in our work - Energize Denver
- The City of Denver’s program for commercial and multifamily buildings in Denver of 5,000 square feet and larger.
Where this shows up in our work - Estimated read
- A usage figure the utility calculated instead of reading the meter. The next actual read trues it up.
Where this shows up in our work - EUI
- Energy use intensity: annual energy use divided by floor area, usually in kBtu per square foot.
Where this shows up in our work - Green tariff
- A utility program that matches some or all of your use with renewable supply, billed on your account.
Where this shows up in our work - Interval data
- Usage recorded every 15 minutes or every hour by a smart or interval meter. It shows when peaks happen.
Where this shows up in our work - kW
- Kilowatt: the rate of electricity use at a moment. Demand charges are priced on kW.
- kWh
- Kilowatt-hour: energy used over time, such as 1 kW running for one hour. Energy charges are priced on kWh.
- LOA
- Letter of authorization: a signed letter letting a named third party request your utility data or act for you.
Where this shows up in our work - Load factor
- Average demand divided by peak demand over a period. A low load factor means short, sharp peaks.
Where this shows up in our work - Meter multiplier
- The factor that turns dial reads into true kWh and kW on larger services. A wrong one skews everything.
Where this shows up in our work - Net metering
- Billing that credits power from on-site generation, such as rooftop solar, against power drawn from the grid.
- On-peak and off-peak
- The higher and lower priced hours on a time-of-use schedule. The tariff sets the exact hours and seasons.
- Portfolio Manager
- ENERGY STAR’s free online tool for tracking building energy use and filing benchmarking reports.
Where this shows up in our work - Power factor
- The share of power drawn that does useful work. Some tariffs adjust billed demand when it runs low.
- PPA
- Power purchase agreement: a long-term contract to buy a specific renewable project’s output or RECs at an agreed price.
Where this shows up in our work - Ratchet
- A tariff rule billing demand at a share of a recent high peak, so one spike bills for months.
Where this shows up in our work - Rate case
- A formal filing in which a utility asks its regulator, in Colorado the Public Utilities Commission, to change rates.
Where this shows up in our work - Rate schedule
- The part of a tariff setting prices and rules for one class of customer. Every account sits on one.
Where this shows up in our work - REC
- Renewable energy certificate. EPA says one is issued per MWh of renewable electricity generated and delivered to the grid.
Where this shows up in our work - Rider
- A charge or credit the tariff adds to base prices, such as fuel cost recovery. Amounts change often.
Where this shows up in our work - Therm
- A unit of gas heat content equal to 100,000 British thermal units. Gas use is usually priced per therm.
- TOU
- Time-of-use: a rate design that prices energy, and sometimes demand, by time of day and season.
Where this shows up in our work - True-up
- The bill correcting earlier estimated reads once an actual read arrives. It can be a large charge or credit.
Where this shows up in our work - Unbundled REC
- A certificate bought separately from the electricity it came from, often from a project in another state.
Where this shows up in our work - Utility portal
- The utility’s website for business accounts, where bills, usage history and interval data can be downloaded.
Where this shows up in our work - Weather normalization
- Adjusting usage for heating and cooling degree days, so a cold January is not mistaken for waste.
Where this shows up in our work
See these terms on your bills
Send three recent bills and we explain every line in writing, free, within five business days.