Appendix F: Glossary

ccess Charge: A fee levied for access to a utility's transmission or distribution system. It is a charge for the right to send electricity over another's wires and is not typically tied to the actual amount of power shipped.

Aggregator: An entity that brings together customers into a buying group for the purchase of a commodity or service. The vertically integrated investor owned utility, public utility districts, municipal utilities, and rural electric cooperatives perform this function in today's power markets. Other entities such as buyer cooperatives or brokers could perform this function in a restructured power market. This is not to be confused with a marketer, which is an entity that represents different suppliers.

Alaska North Slope (ANS): A crude oil and natural gas producing region, located on the northern coastal plain in Alaska and offshore in the Beaufort Sea.

Ancillary Services: For electric power, includes the provision of reactive power, frequency control, and load following.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): A National Wildlife Refuge located adjacent to the ANS producing region, thought to contain large crude oil reserves.

Association of Northwest Gas Utilities (ANGU): An organization that consists of the natural gas local distribution companies and pipelines operating in the Northwest. Contact Rich Gallagher; 503-228-4754.

Association of Public Agency Customers (APAC): Formed in 1981, APAC is a non-profit association representing its members in Bonneville Power Administration rate proceedings and rate-related issues. Its membership consists of industries that purchase power from public utility districts, municipals, or cooperatives in the Northwest. APAC is closely affiliated with Industrial Customers of Northwest Utilities. Contact Ken Canon; 503-239-9169.

Average Cost: The revenue requirement of a utility divided by the utility's sales. Average cost typically includes the costs of existing power plants, transmission, and distribution lines, and other facilities used by a utility to serve its customers. It also includes operating and maintenance, tax and fuel expenses.

Average Megawatt (aMW): Equivalent to the energy produced by the continuous operation of one megawatt of capacity over a period of one year (8,760 megawatt hours).

arrel: A volumetric unit of measure for crude oil and petroleum products equivalent to 42 U.S. gallons.

apacity: The maximum power that a machine or system can produce or carry under specified conditions. The capacity of generating equipment is generally expressed in kilowatts or megawatts. In terms of transmission lines, capacity refers to the maximum load a line is capable of carrying under specified conditions.

Captive Customers: Any customer that cannot readily purchase power from suppliers other than the local utility, even if they have the legal right to do so. Captive electricity customers are generally considered to be the residential and small commercial customers. The large commercial and industrial customers, in contrast, are thought to be more mobile. This mobility, or lack thereof, relates to the restructuring debate since the larger customers can threaten to leave the area (causing greater rates as fewer customers share the bill for fixed or sunk costs) or are able to win greater concessions in a negotiated process through their buying power.

Committee for Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC): Created by the Western Interstate Energy Board, in conjunction with the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners, consists of the public utility commissions, energy agencies, and facility siting agencies in the western states and Canadian provinces in the western electricity grid. CREPC works to improve the efficiency of the western electric power system. Contact Roger Hamilton; 503-378-6611.

Comparability Tariffs: In a restructured wholesale electrical market, according to FERC Order 888, there should be non-discriminatory, open access charges or tariffs for use of the transmission network by all generators of wholesale electricity on a comparable basis. These tariffs provide that the same prices, terms and conditions would apply to both the utility for its own transactions and to other generators.

Crude Oil (including lease condensate): A mixture of hydrocarbons that exists in liquid phase in underground reservoirs and remains liquid at atmospheric pressure after passing through surface separating (refining) facilities. Included are lease condensate and liquid hydrocarbons produced from tar sands, gilsonite, and oil shale.

emand-Side Management (DSM): Refers to the use of cost-effective conservation, efficiency acquisition, and load management in order to reduce the demand for and cost of energy services. Energy efficiency, generally speaking, refers to investments that result in reductions in annual energy use while load management means shifting the time of that use.

Direct Access: The ability of a retail customer to purchase commodity electricity directly from the wholesale market rather than through a local distribution utility.

Direct Service Industries (DSIs): A group of industrial customers, mostly aluminum industries, entitled by federal statute to receive power directly from Bonneville. No new DSIs can be created under current statutes and DSIs are prohibited from reselling the power they purchase from Bonneville.

Disaggregation: The functional separation of the vertically integrated utility into smaller, individually owned business units (i.e., generation, dispatch/control, transmission, distribution). See Divestiture.

Distillate Fuel Oil: Light fuel oils distilled during the refining process and used primarily for space heating, on-and-off highway diesel engine fuel (including railroad engine fuel and fuel for agricultural machinery), and electric power generation. Included are products known as No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 fuel oils, and No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 diesel fuels. No. 2 fuel oil is used in atomizing-type burners for domestic heating or for moderate commercial-industrial burner units. Diesel fuels are used in compression-ignition engines.

Distribution: The transfer of electricity from the transmission network to the consumer. Distribution systems generally include the equipment to transfer power from the substation to the customer's meter.

Distribution Utility (Disco): The regulated electric utility entity in a competitive world that would construct and maintain the distribution wires connecting the transmission grid to the final customer. This entity would make distribution service available to any qualified energy service company on comparable bases.

Divestiture: The stripping off of one function from the others by selling or in some way changing the ownership of the assets related to that function. In the utility industry most commonly associated with spinning off generation assets so that they are no longer owned by the shareholders that own the transmission and distribution assets. Divestiture, or legal separation, is distinguished from functional separation.

mbedded Cost: The average cost of a system, typically including the depreciated or book value of historic investment plus running costs.

Environmental Externalities: An "externality" exists when one party's activities affect the life or activities of the other parties in ways that are not factored into the production and pricing decisions of the first party. Such impacts may be positive or negative. With respect to utility activities, if costs are imposed on society that are not counted in electricity resource selection and operation decisions, two effects can be expected: 1) certain resources may be selected to meet incremental capacity requirements over alternatives that have higher "direct" costs, but whose external costs are so low that these alternatives, if selected, would impose lower total costs on society; and 2) the product (electricity) will be underpriced, so that, from an economic perspective, too much will be consumed. In sum, these two effects will result in inefficient utilization of society's resources, as well as the imposition of costs, without compensation, on parties who have little or no say in the polluting firm's decisions.

ederal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): The federal agency that oversees the nation's utility industry. It regulates the price, terms and conditions of power sold in interstate commerce and regulates the price, terms and conditions of all transmission services.

Firm Power: Firm power is power that is available under a recurrence of the worst water conditions since 1929 (when system-wide river data became available).

Fish Cap: The Bonneville fish and wildlife budget agreement first agreed to by the Clinton Administration in the Fall of 1995 and then memorialized and implemented in the inter-agency "Memorandum of Agreement Concerning the Bonneville Power Administration's Financial Commitment for Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Costs. In this Agreement, which runs through Fiscal Year 2001, Bonneville has agreed to (a) absorb the financial consequences of the current bundle of planned system operations -- implementing the 1995 Biological Opinions for Snake River salmon (National Marine Fisheries Service) and Kootenai sturgeon (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), as well as a few other elements, such as the Lake Pend Oreille reservoir levels in the Council's program, and (b) provide an average of $252 million per year over the term of the Agreement for expenditures in the direct program, capital investments, and reimbursable operations and maintenance categories. The Agreement also provides for contingency fund credits of an estimated $325 million that Bonneville may use to offset against its Treasury repayment (under Section 4h(10)(c) of the Northwest Power Act) to cover additional fish and wildlife costs to Bonneville resulting from adverse water conditions, from court orders, or from certain emergencies (up to $15 million per year). The Agreement states that its purposes are to provide greater financial certainty for Bonneville through a stable, multi-year budget; to identify a budget that, barring unforeseen events, will meet Bonneville's fish and wildlife funding obligations; and to provide for mechanisms to help assure that the funds are spent wisely and efficiently. If unforeseen events (or unexpected financial consequences of foreseen events) impose unexpected additional fish and wildlife funding obligations on Bonneville, the federal agencies will consult with the Council and the region's Indian Tribes to decide how to manage the additional costs.

Flow Augmentation: As used in the Pacific Northwest in reference to the hydroelectric system, "flow augmentation" means increasing water flows through the system, above the levels that would maximize the value of the system's electricity production, in order to assist anadromous fish migration to the ocean.

Fossil Fuels: Sources of energy from the earth, primarily crude oil, natural gas, and coal.

Fuel Efficiency: The efficiency with which a new vehicle uses fuel, measured in miles per gallon.

Fuel Efficiency, EPA-Rated: New vehicle fuel efficiency, measured in miles per gallon, as measured in laboratory conditions by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Energy Information Administration estimates that EPA laboratory tests overestimate actual on-road performance by approximately 16 percent.

Fuel Efficiency, Stock Average: Fuel efficiency of the average existing vehicle, measured in miles per gallon. Stock average fuel efficiency is calculated as the quotient of vehicle-miles traveled and fuel consumption.

asoline: See Motor Gasoline, Finished

Generation Company (Genco): A regulated or non-regulated entity (depending upon the industry structure) that, in a restructured environment, would operate and maintain generating plants. The Genco may own the generation plants or interact with the short-term market on behalf of plant owners. Genco is sometimes used to describe a specialized "marketer" for the generating plants formerly owned by a vertically integrated utility.

Green Marketing/Green Pricing: The offer for sale at either wholesale or retail, power products from renewable resources, i.e., "green power." Providing consumers who believe that the benefits of renewable resources are not fully reflected in market-driven resource development with the opportunity to purchase "green power."

Grid: A system of interconnected power lines and generators that is managed so that the generators are dispatched as needed to meet the requirements of the customers connected to the grid at various points. See Independent Grid Operator.

eating Oil: A distillate fuel oil for use in atomizing-type burners for domestic heating or for moderate-capacity commercial and industrial burner units. (See also Distillate fuel oil.)

ncremental Cost: The cost of building and running a new resource. See also marginal cost. Typically, incremental cost refers to the cost of another resource, while marginal cost refers to the cost of adding a single small unit of power, e.g., a kilowatt-hour.

Independent Grid Operator (IGO): A neutral operator responsible for maintaining instantaneous balance of the grid system. The IGO performs its function by controlling the operation of the transmission system and enough generation capacity to ensure short-term transmission reliability.

Industrial Customers of Northwest Utilities (ICNU): ICNU is a non-profit organization formed in 1981. ICNU represents 25 industrial companies with facilities throughout the Northwest. ICNU members purchase power from the region's public agencies and investor-owned utilities, rather than directly from Bonneville. ICNU focuses on policy matters and works actively with the Northwest Power Planning Council, Bonneville, and the region's utilities. Areas of interest include conservation, cogeneration, forecasting, and reliability. Contact Ken Canon; 503-239-9169.

Integrated Resource Planning (IRP): Also known as Integrated Resource Management, or least-cost planning (LCP), a planning process for new energy resources that evaluates the full range of alternatives, in order to provide adequate and reliable service to its customers at the lowest system cost. The alternatives can include new generation capacity, power purchases, energy conservation and efficiency, cogeneration and renewable energy resources. In a restructured electric industry there may be no mechanism to continue this process.

Investor-Owned Utility (IOU): A for-profit company owned by stockholders, that provides utility services.

et Fuel: Includes both naptha-type and kerosene-type jet fuel. Although most jet fuel is used in aircraft, some is used for other purposes, such as fuel for turbines to produce electricity.

erosene: A petroleum middle distillate, with burning properties suitable for use as an illuminant when burned in wick lamps. Kerosene is used primarily in space heaters, cooking stoves, and water heaters.

ease Condensate: A natural gas liquid recovered from gas-well gas in lease separators or natural gas field facilities. Lease condensate consists primarily of pentanes and heavier hydrocarbons. Generally, it is blended with crude oil for refining.

Least Cost Planning: Same as Integrated Resource Planning (IRP)

Light Oil: No. 1 and No. 2 fuel oils, kerosene, and jet fuel used by the electric utility sector. The term light oil is applied only to fuel used in the electric utility sector.

Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG): Ethane, propane, normal butane, ethane-propane mixtures, propane-butane mixtures, and isobutane produced at natural gas processing plants. LPG also includes liquefied refinery gases (ethylene, propylene, butylene, and isobutylene) produced from crude oil at refineries.

Load: The amount of power that needs to be generated to supply demand.

Lubricants: Substances used to reduce friction between bearing surfaces. Petroleum lubricants may be produced from either distillates or residuals. Other substances may be added to impart or improve certain required properties.

arginal Cost: In the utility context, the cost to the utility of providing the next (marginal) kilowatt-hour of electricity, irrespective of fixed costs.

Market-based Price: A price set by the mutual decisions of many buyers and sellers in a competitive market. In a competitive market this price is expected to approximate the marginal cost. (See marginal cost)

Market Transformation: Type of DSM activity which focuses on improving energy efficiency by encouraging long-term changes in the market for energy efficient technologies or practices.

Marketer: An agent for generation projects who, in a restructured electrical market, would sell power on behalf of the generator. The marketer may also arrange transmission, firmness, or other ancillary services as needed. Although a marketer may perform many of the same functions as a broker, the difference is that a marketer would represent the generator, while a broker would act as a middleman.

Megawatt (MW): The electrical unit of power that equals one million watts or one thousand kilowatts.

Mill: A tenth of a cent. The cost of electricity is often given in mills per kilowatt-hour.

Miscellaneous Petroleum Products: Includes all finished petroleum products not classified elsewhere, e.g., petrolatum, absorption oils, ram-jet fuel, rocket fuels, specialty oils, and medicinal oils.

Motor Gasoline, Finished: A complex mixture of relatively volatile hydrocarbons, with or without small quantities of additives, that have been blended to form a suitable fuel for spark-ignition engines. Included are gasohol and finished leaded and unleaded gasoline.

atural Monopoly: A situation where one firm can produce a given level of output at a lower total cost than can any combination of multiple firms. Natural monopolies occur in industries that exhibit decreasing average long-run costs with increasing size (economies of scale). Historically, electrical generation has been assumed to be a natural monopoly. This assumption is being questioned in the electrical industry restructuring debate.

Net Billed Plants: Refers to the 30 percent share of the Trojan Nuclear Plant, all of Washington Public Power Supply System's nuclear project 1 (WNP-1) and WNP-2, and 70 percent of WNP-3.

Net Billing: A financial arrangement that allowed Bonneville to underwrite the costs of electric generating projects. Utilities that owned shares in thermal projects, and paid a share of their costs, assigned to Bonneville all or part of the generating capability of the resources. Bonneville, in turn, credited and continues to credit the wholesale power bills of these utilities to cover the costs of the thermal power with lower cost hydropower.

North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC): NERC is a nonprofit corporation owned by ten regional councils. The members of the regional councils are electric utilities, independent power producers, and electricity marketers. The electric utility members are from all ownership segments of the industry investor-owned, federal, state, municipal, rural electric cooperative, and provincial. These members account for virtually all the electricity supplied in the United States, Canada, and a part of Mexico. The reliability council for Washington utilities is the Western Systems Coordinating Council (see below). The primary responsibility of NERC is to study transmission issues and determine when national standards are appropriate. Contact Donald Benjamin; 609-452-8060.

Northwest Industrial Gas Users: An organization that represents industrial gas users in a number of forums, including rate proceedings and before the legislature. Contact Mary Ann Hutton: 503-538-0600.

bligation to Serve: In exchange for the regulated monopoly status of a utility for a designated service territory with the opportunity to earn an adequate rate of return, comes the obligation to provide electrical service to all customers who seek that service at fair and reasonable prices. This has been known as the "regulatory compact" and also includes the requirement to provide a substantial operating reserve capacity in the electrical system.

Office of Public Council (OPC): A branch of the Washington Attorney General's Office designated to represent the interests of consumers in proceedings before the Utilities and Transportation Commission. Contact Rob Manifold; 206-464-6595.

Open Access: See Direct Access.

acific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee (PNUCC): PNUCC membership is open to all Pacific Northwest public and private electric utilities and Direst Service Industries. It is a forum for sharing information and views on national, regional, and local power industry issues and is governed by a 10-member board of directors elected by the membership. PNUCC assists members by keeping them aware of changes that may have a significant impact on how the electric industry does business. Acting as forum for its membership, PNUCC is a catalyst for examining energy and environmental issues, encouraging dialogue among its members, and acting as the hub for technical analysis and data on vital Northwest power industry issues. Contact Richard Adams; 503-294-1268.

Petroleum: A generic term applied to oil and oil products in all forms, such as crude oil, lease condensate, unfinished oils, motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil (diesel), heavy oil, aviation gasoline, kerosene, and LPG.

Petroleum Products: Products obtained from the processing of crude oil, natural gas, and other hydrocarbon compounds.

Postage Stamp Rate: A transmission price that does not vary with the distance power is being transmitted. Postage stamp rates are the predominant form of pricing in the United States currently.

Priority Firm (PF) Rate: Under the Northwest Power Act of 1980 (get correct citation from BR), publicly owned utility customers of Bonneville are entitled to power at cost. The resulting rate for which publicly owned customers are eligible is termed "priority firm." This denotes the fact that the power purchased has priority over some other power (for example, out of region sales) and is "firm," i.e., cannot be interrupted. Bonneville has many other rates available to its customers as well.

Propane: A normally gaseous hydrocarbon extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams. It is primarily used for residential and commercial heating and cooling, and also as a fuel for transportation. Industrial uses of propane include use as a petrochemical feedstock.

Provider of Last Resort: A legal obligation (traditionally required of utilities) to provide services to a customer where competitors have decided they do not want that customer's business.

Public Power Council (PPC): Formed in 1966, the Public Power Council represents and advocates the common legal and technical interests of the Northwest's consumer-owned utilities. PPC interacts with Bonneville, the Northwest Power Planning Council, and other regional and national groups on subjects including Bonneville rate proceedings and power marketing policies, public preference issues, power supply planning, conservation, legislative concerns, and related issues. Contact C. Clark Leone; 503-232-2427.

Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA): In response to the energy crisis of the 1970s, Congress passed the National Energy Act (NEA) in 1978. Part of the NEA was the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act. This Act sought to encourage conservation and efficient use of existing energy resources. It also fostered the development of small power production and cogeneration (collectively known as Qualified Facilities) by requiring utility companies to purchase output from these sources at avoided cost rates, a rate not to exceed the utility's incremental cost.

Publicly Owned Utility (POU) or Customer-owned Utility (COU): As distinguished from investor-owned utilities, publicly owned utilities are owned and governed by their users. In Washington, publicly owned utilities can be Public Utilities Districts (PUDs), divisions of a municipality, or cooperatives, which are private organizations owned by their members. A special type of cooperative is the rural electric cooperative, which receives financial backing from the federal Rural Utility Service. Each type of publicly owned utility has special statutes relating to governance and authority.

egional Transmission Group (RTG): A large number of utilities, independent power producers, and state agencies join to provide more equitable and easier access to power lines in an area covering many states. The first such RTGs were approved in 1995 the Western and Northwest Regional Transmission Associations. The FERC has said it would defer to decisions made by such groups.

Regulatory Compact: See Obligation to Serve.

Reliability: Electric system reliability has two components -- adequacy and security. Adequacy is the ability of the electric system to supply the aggregate electrical demand and energy requirements of the customers at all times, taking into account scheduled and unscheduled outages of system facilities. Security is the ability of the electric system to withstand sudden disturbances, such as electric short circuits or unanticipated loss of system facilities.

Renewable Resources (Renewables): In the context of electricity restructuring discussions, the use of renewable resources commonly refers to those renewable energy sources that are still emerging technologies such as wind, solar (photovoltaic) biomass, and geothermal, that do not yet have a fully-developed market. This generally-accepted definition does not normally refer to electricity generated by hydropower.

Residual Fuel Oil: The heavier oils that remain after the distillate fuel oils and lighter hydrocarbons are distilled away in refinery operations.

Restructuring: The reconfiguration of the vertically integrated electric utility. Restructuring usually refers to separation of the various utility functions into separate entities.

Retail Competition: A system under which more than one electricity provider can sell to retail customers, and retail customers are allowed to buy from more than one provider. See also Direct Access.

Retail Rates: Rates and charges for the sale of electric energy directly to consumers.

Retail Wheeling : Unbundled transmission service from a third party supplier to an end user. Wholesale wheeling involves a producer of power selling that power to someone who will sell it again to an end user. Retail wheeling skips the middleman--a producer of power sells electricity directly to a consumer. Wholesale transactions are under federal jurisdiction. Retail transactions are under state jurisdiction. See direct access.

RTG: See Regional Transmission Group

elf-generation: A generation facility dedicated to serving a particular retail customer, usually located on the customer's premises. The facility may either be owned directly by the retail customer or owned by a third party with a contractual arrangement to provide electricity to meet some or all of the customer's load.

Stranded Benefits: Public interest programs and goals that could be compromised or abandoned by a restructured electric industry. These potential "stranded benefits" might include: environmental protection, fuel diversity, energy efficiency, low-income ratepayer assistance, and other types of socially beneficial programs. Sometimes used to describe the possible loss of low prices to consumers of utilities whose current prices are below the expected market price of electricity.

Stranded Costs (also called Stranded Investments): Stranded costs can be thought of as the amount of book value above market value of a utility's assets. Stranded costs may be incurred when a customer stops buying power from a utility and, instead, simply uses the utility's transmission service to obtain power from another source. FERC Order 888 established that utilities are entitled to full recovery of legitimate and verifiable wholesale stranded costs at both the state and federal level. A standardized method for determining the stranded costs has not yet been established.

ariff: A document, approved by the responsible regulatory agency, listing the terms and conditions, including a schedule of prices, under which utility services will be provided.

Transmission: The act of process of long-distance transport of electric energy, generally accomplished by elevating the electric current to high voltages.

nbundling: Disaggregating electric utility service into its basic components and offering each component separately for sale with separate rates for each component. For example, generation, transmission, and distribution could be unbundled and offered as discrete services. See unbundled rates.

Unbundled Rates: Unbundled rates price the various components of electricity service separately. For example, a consumer's bill might have separate components for electricity, transmission, distribution, efficiency services, and various ancillary products. Typically, current electricity rates are bundled--all of the components are included in a total price for delivered electricity without the separate components being identified.

Universal Service: Electric service sufficient for basic needs (an evolving bundle of basic services) available to virtually all members of the population regardless of income. See Obligation to Serve.

ehicle Miles Traveled: The miles of travel by vehicles on roads and highways.

Vertical Integration: An arrangement in which the same company owns all the different aspects of making, selling, and delivering a product or service. In the electric industry, it refers to the historically common arrangement in which a utility owned its own generating plants, transmission system, and distribution lines to provide all aspects of electric service. See unbundling.

ashington Public Utility District Association (WaPUD): Founded in 1936, the Washington PUD Association serves PUDs operating electric, sewer and water utility systems in Washington. The Association coordinates action on matters of mutual interest and benefit to its members primarily in the legislative arena. It provides testimony to state and congressional committees and compiles and distributes information on its member districts. Contact Stephen Johnson; 206-682-3110. ant Tanner; 503-241-2300.

Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association: The Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association is an organization formed to consider issues and goals common to electric cooperatives in Washington. The association, composed of eight cooperatives, is active on such issues as state taxes, energy conservation and utility laws, and participates in state legislative matters. Contact Aaron Jones; 360-357-6048.

Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB): WIEB is an agency of western state governments and is the administrative unit for the Western Interstate Nuclear Compact. The purpose of the Board is to foster cooperative efforts among the member states and the federal government in the energy field, "to enhance the economy of the West and contribute to the individual and community well-being of the region's people." The Board consists of a state representative appointed by the governor of each member state. States eligible to participate in the Board are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan are associate members of the Board. Contact Douglas Larson; 303-573-8910.

Western Regional Transmission Association (WRTA): A voluntary association of transmission owners, transmission-dependent utilities, power marketers and regulatory agencies throughout the western United States. The chief functions of WRTA are to develop pricing policies, provide for reciprocal access to transmission of its members, coordinate planning, and resolve disputes. The functions of WRTA are very similar to those of NRTA (see above) but encompass a wider geographic area. Contact Jim Byrne; 801-583-3155.

Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC): WSCC is in international organization that promotes electric system reliability. WSCC was formed in 1967 and is the most diverse and largest of the nine regional electric reliability councils that comprise the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). The council provides the forum for its members to enhance communication, coordination, and cooperation for planning and operating a reliable interconnected electric system. Membership is voluntary and open to major transmission utilities, transmission dependent utilities, and independent power producers/marketers. Affiliate membership is available for power brokers, environmental organizations, state and federal regulatory agencies, and any organization having an interest in the reliability of interconnected system operation or coordinated planning. Contact Dennis Eyre; 801-582-0353.

Wheeling: The transmission of electricity by an entity that does not own or directly use the power it is transmitting. Wholesale wheeling is used to indicate bulk transactions in the wholesale market, whereas retail wheeling allows power producers direct access to retail customers. This term is often used colloquially as meaning transmission.

Wholesale Competition: A system in which a distributor of power would have the option to buy its power from a variety of power producers, and the power producers would be able to compete to sell their power to a variety of distribution companies.

Wholesale Power Market: The purchase and sale of electricity from generators to resellers (who sell to retail customers) along with the ancillary services needed to maintain reliability and power quality at the transmission level.

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