Basic Terms of the Electric Utility Industry - eBook

As a result of liberalisation of the electricity markets and the related transition to “market-oriented electricity generation”, many new terms and descriptions have entered our everyday business lives. The influence of market and stock exchange jargon is especially evident in the daily work of power generators, traders, analysts, and other market players. At the same time, knowledge of particular terms is also needed to handle inquiries from authorities and trade associations.

After Booklet 3 “Fundamentals and Systematics of Availability Determination for Thermal Power Plants” was published in 2008, the project group “Definitions and Evaluations” at VGB PowerTech e. V. took over the responsibility for revising Booklet 1 “Basic Terms of the Electric Utility Industry”. With the introduced Europeanisation of VGB PowerTech e.V., the booklet will be converted to the new VGB-Standard. Apart from the familiar content relating to

• structural terms in the industry,
• power plant, grid and integrated supply system terms, and
• energy and capacity terms,

this booklet also contains, for the first time, terms from the stock exchanges and trading markets.

Synonymous explanations for terms have also been cleaned up and the calculation methods of time utilisation and availability revised. In Annex 1, apart from terms relating to thermal power plants, the differences compared to hydro power plants are also explained. This new publication is thus an extensive revision of the 7^th edition (1999). These comprehensive definitions will provide data for the general public and also create a common understanding of investigations, analyses, and acquisitions.