Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel

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Glossary of Terms

A

Aggregator: a person, local government or organization that brings a group together to buy energy.

Aggregation: combining individual energy purchasers in a collective buying group to give them more “buying power” than as individual customers.

B

Broker: a firm licensed by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) that acts as an agent in the sale and purchase of energy but never owns the energy and typically does not own generating facilities or oil wells.

C

Certification: the application process for energy suppliers, brokers, marketers and certain aggregators required by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to ensure the managerial capability, financial resources and technical experience of parties participating in choice.

Contract: an agreement between a customer and competitive retail energy service provider that specifies the terms and conditions of the service.

Customer choice: the ability of customers to choose their own energy supplier through legislation (electric) or a voluntary program by the local utility (natural gas).

D

Delivery: the part of electric service that includes delivering electricity or natural gas to homes and businesses. In Ohio, the delivery of electricity and natural gas continues to be regulated.

Deregulation: removal or relaxation of regulation or controls governing a business or service operation such as a utility.

Distribution: the local wires, transformers, substations and other equipment used to deliver electricity to consumers from transmission lines or the natural gas to consumers from a pipeline system.

G

Gas Cost Recovery (GCR): the quarterly updated gas cost that natural gas utilities charge consumers in order to recover the amount the companies pay for the gas supplied to customers.

Generation: the production of electricity in a power plant.

I

Investor-owned utility: a utility company owned by private investors.

K

Kilowatt hour (kWh): the standard measurement for the amount of electricity a customer uses.

L

Load: the amount of energy delivered to or required from a natural gas or electric system.

Local utility: the company that delivers energy to homes and businesses.

Local government officials: county commissioners, township trustees, mayors, city council members and other elected or appointed officials that could participate in aggregation-related decisions.

M

Marketer: a certified supplier that takes title to energy, capacity and other wholesale suppliers and then resells those services to residential and business customers.

Market development period: a three to five year period where electric rates are capped as the state adjusts to a restructured electric market. During this time, utilities are allowed to recover costs for past investments from their customers.

Municipal utility company: a utility that is owned and operated by a city.

N

Natural gas company: the company that is responsible for transporting natural gas to customers.

Natural gas service: commodity sales service, ancillary service, natural gas aggregation service, natural gas marketing service or natural gas brokerage service.

O

Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC): the residential utility advocate serving as a resource for individuals who have questions and concerns or would like more information about the services provided by their publicly owned electric, natural gas, telephone and water companies. The state agency also educates consumers about utility issues and resolves complaints from individuals.

Opt-in aggregation: each customer is required to agree to participate in that aggregation program before being included in the pool.

Opt-out aggregation: each customer is automatically included in buying pool unless the customer affirmatively decides not to participate.

P

Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP): program in Ohio to assist low income customers to manage payment of their utility bills.

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO): the state regulatory agency that governs retail utility rates and services and, in many cases, approves the construction of new utility facilities.

R

Restructuring: the reorganization of traditional monopoly electric service to allow operations and charges to be separated or “unbundled” into generation, transmission, distribution and other services. Customers may purchase generation services from competing suppliers.

Rural electric cooperative: a utility owned by its customers. These utilities were established in rural areas to ensure service.

S

Supplier: a corporation, generator, broker, marketer, aggregator or any other entity that sells electricity or natural gas to customers using the transmission or distribution facilities of the local utility.

T

Transmission: the movement of high voltage electricity from a generation facility or natural gas from the oil wells to the distribution systems of electric or natural gas companies.