Glossary of Terms
Manages real-time operations.
Generation of electric energy by a consumer for his own use.
An entity that makes its own supply arrangements directly with the wholesale market.
The area determined under the Hydro and Electric Energy Act in which the owner of an electric distribution system may distribute electric energy to consumers, or in the case of REAs, their members.
A period beginning on the hour and ending 60 minutes later and is the time increment that MWh amounts are settled financially by the AESO.
The collection of sites that are jointly settled by a load settlement system and over which UFE (unaccounted for energy) is calculated and allocated.
Circumstances where a retailer has updated the data necessary to become the retailer of record without receiving the customer's permission to become that customer's retailer.
The price of the last block of electric energy dispatched to meet the physical requirements of the system in Alberta, excluding exports and imports. The SMP is updated in real-time every minute; the time weighted average of the 60 one-minute SMPs is the market price or pool price for that hour.
Unloaded generation which is synchronized and ready to serve additional demand. It consists of Regulating Reserve and Contingency Reserve.
The real-time market where price is determined upon delivery.
A business that is established as a result of Legislative direction.
Standard costs arise in any circumstance where costs invested by a utility are no longer supported by current operations. An example would be where a generation market was developed and the prices in the market did not support the costs of a generator approved by the regulator in the regulated world. These unsupported costs are considered stranded and need to be dealt with by the regulator.
Utility assets that would lose value in a competitive market.
Under the Electric Utilities Act (2003), this term is replaced by the regulated default supplier under the regulated rate tariff.
The person within the AESO who is responsible for keeping supply and demand in balance by dispatching the next offers or bids in the merit order to ensure the reliability of the overall AIES.
