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Cape & Islands Energy Glossary
This page is intended
to provide definitions - and some local spin - on terms of relevance
to our Energy Present and Energy Future. It represents a work
in progress.
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here.
Glossary
of Terms
A
B C
D E
F G
H I
J K
L M
N O
P Q
R S
T U
V W
X Y
Z
A
Acid Rain
Airfoil
represents another name for a turbine blade.
Air Emissions
include gaseous and particulate releases from power plants,
vehicles, heating systems, and other sources. Generally include
nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), air toxics, volatile
organic compounds (VOCs), and other pollutants. Combustion-related
emissions also include the world's most important greenhouse
gas, carbon dioxide (CO2).
Air Pollution
Air Quality
Air Toxics
are pollutants associated with fossil fuel combustion that have
adverse ecological effects and pose risks to human health. Mercury
represents the most prominent threat in local communities: Lakes
and ponds on the Cape and Nantucket are off-limits to fishing
due to bioaccumulation of this neurotoxin in top-level predators,
and pregnant women and other sensitive populations are urged
to limit their consumption of tuna for the same reason.
Aggregation
occurs when consumers
join together to increase buying power. Cape & Islands Self-Reliance
has been running a heating oil cooperative in southeastern Massachusetts
for years, with members gaining access to lower-cost fuel through
affiliated dealers. Cape and Vineyard electricity consumers
in the Cape Light Compact's service territory represent a municipal
aggregation.
Aggregators
deliver energy services by joining together consumers. The Cape
Light Compact is the most prominent local example, providing
energy efficiency services and negotiating power supply agreements
for municipal consumers, residents, and business consumers on
the Cape and Vineyard. Nantucket town meeting recently approved
further examination of the potential to create a municipal aggregation.
In Marlborough, where municipal electric accounts are already
dedicated to a larger aggregation, Colonial Power is forming
a municipal aggregation devoted solely to getting a better deai
for residential and small business consumers.
Alternative
Fuels represent energy sources other than those conventionally
used. For electricity generation, alternatives to coal, natural
gas, oil, nuclear, and large-scale hydro include solar, wind,
bioenergy, ocean energy, and geothermal. For transportation
applications, alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuel include
ethanol, biodiesel, compressed natural gas, and electricity.
For heating applications, alternatives to heating oil, natural
gas, coal, wood, and electricity include solar thermal, biodiesel,
wood and corn pellets, and geothermal.
Argo Merchant
needs no definition for locals who've been around for a while.
This is the name of the massive tanker that foundered off Nantucket
in the 1970s, spilling millions of gallons and helping set the
region's resolve against exploration of offshore oil resources.
It is shown in the third image from left within this website's
masthead; click on the photo for more information.
Asthma
Attributes are the characteristics of electricity that
must be tracked and reported by power plants and other facilities
under the provisions of the renewable portfolio standards passed
by Massachusetts and other states. Fuel sources and air emissions
are two of a number of attributes that are monitored
through the New England Generation Information System. "Boutique
green" power products are based on renewable energy certificates,
which are based on attributes from power generated by solar,
wind, hydro, and other green facilities.
Avian Interactions
is a term used in the power industry to characterize unhappy
intersections between flying birds and spinning turbines, high-voltage
lines, or transmission towers. It would represent a technical
euphemism for bird kill, but for the fact that it also covers
the use of poles, towers, transformers, and wires as perches
or nesting sites.
B
Bioaccumulation
results from bioconcentration. Helpful, huh?
Bioconcentration
occurs when mercury and certain other pollutants associated
with fossil fuel combustion enter food chains and accumulate
to reach potentially toxic levels in top-level predators. For
example, imagine a big fish - a perch - eating a whole lot of
medium fish, each of which has eaten a whole lot of small fish,
each of which has eaten a whole lot of smaller critters, and
so on, to the point where you reach bottom-dwelling organisms
that consume sediments and detritus. Their food supply contains
mercury deposited from the atmosphere or otherwise present in
the environment. When a
small predator consumes
these organisms, its flesh absorbs the relatively small amount
of mercury contained in each individual victim's body, producing
a bioconcentration effect. By the time the small predator meets
its maker - perhaps a fish, its tissue ends up containing a
relatively large amount of mercury. And this mercury ends up
in the flesh of larger fish - as does the mercury present in
other critters eaten by these fish. By the time all this bioaccumulating
mercury reaches the top of the food chain, the predator in which
it resides may represent a hazardous waste unfit for human consumption.
A number of ponds and lakes on Nantucket and Cape Cod are contaminated
by mercury, as evidenced by fish consumption advisories posted
by the state. Pregnant women and other sensitive populations
are urged to limit their consumption of tuna for the same reason.
Bioenergy
Biodiesel
Biofuels
Biomass
Blackout is the term
used to denote anything more than a momentary power outage,
regardless of what time of day electrical service is interrupted.
As "wires" companies serving local communities, NStar and National
Grid are responsible for turning the lights back on when the
power goes out.
Blades are the turbine components
that spin in the face of wind, water, compressed air, steam,
combustion gases, and other fluids, turning a rotor to drive
an electrical generator.
Bouchard Oil attracted
lots of attention when one of its barges sprung a leak due to
operator negligence, spilling tens of thousands of oil in Buzzards
Bay.
Brayton Point Station has a dubious distinction
among all the power plants in New England: It produces the most
pollution. This 1599-MW plant is also the largest fossil-fired
facility, running largely on coal. It is located in Somerset
on Mt. Hope Bay at the head of Narragansett Bay. Every day,
its smokestacks introduce hundreds of thousands of pounds of
pollution into the atmosphere just upwind of the Cape & Islands
region. The plant is also renowned for its thermal releases
- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that
the heated water released from this facility's cooling towers
is ruining habitat and harming wildlife. The plant is owned
by a subsidiary of Dominion, one of the largest electricity
generators in the country. Another subsidiary, Dominion Retail,
began selling power to Cape and Vineyard consumers in spring
2006.
Broker
C
Cable
Canal Generating Station
Capacity
Capacity
Factor
Cape & Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative (CIREC)
Cape Cod Commission
Cape Downwinders
Cape Light Compact
(CLC)
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Carbon Efficiency
Carbon
Intensity
Carbon Neutral
Carbon Pricing
Cardiovascular Disease
Clean
Cleaner
Climate Change
Coal
Cogeneration
Combustion
Combustion By-Products
Commonwealth Electric
Competition
Competitive power supplier
ConEdison Solutions
Conservation
Consumer
Consumption
Contract Path
Control Center
Cooling
Credits
Customer
Migration
D
Decarbonization
Deepwater Wind
Default Service
Delivery
Delivery Service
Demand
Deregulation
Diesel
Dino-diesel
Disclosure Label
Distributed Generation
Distribution
Distribution Company
Direct Costs
Dirty Electrons
Dirty
Power
Dominion
E
Efficiency
Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1997
Electricity
Electricity Market
Electrons
Emergency
Management Zone (EMZ)
Emissions
Energy Broker
Energy
Commodity
Energy Conservation
Energy Conservation Charge
Energy Disclosure Label
Energy Economy
Energy Efficiency
Energy Footprint
Energy Present
Energy Future
Energy
Marketer
Energy Supplier
Energy Sustainability
Entergy
Externality
Externalized costs
F
Facts
Fish Consumption Advisory
Fixed Pricing
Fossil
Fuels
Fossil Plants
Fuel Oil
Fuel Cell
Fuels
G
Gasoline
Generation
Generation Attributes
Generation
Information System (GIS)
Generation Service
Geothermal
Energy
Gigawatt (GW)
Global Climate Change
Global Warming
Green Buildings
Green Design
Green Electrons
Green
Energy
Green Homes
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Gas
Green Power
GreenUp Program
Grid
Grid-Connected, Grid-Tied
H
Haze
Health Effects
Hummer
Hybrid
Hydroelectric
Plants
Hydrogen
I
Independent System Operator (ISO)
Ingestion Zone (IZ)
In-Stream Hydro
In-Stream Tidal
ISO New England (ISO NE)
Indirect Costs
Infrastructure
Integrated Infrastructure
J
Jet Fuel
K
Keyspan
Kilowatt (kW)
Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
L
Landfill Gas
Land-Based Wind
Light-Emitting Diode (LED)
Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP)
M
Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER)
Massachusetts
Department of Telecommunications & Energy (DTE)
Massachusetts
Technology Collaborative (MTC)
Megawatt (MW)
Mercury
Methane
Microturbine
Mirant
Monopoly
Multimedia
Emissions
Municipal Utility
Municipal Waste
N
Nacelle
Nantucket Electric
National Grid
Natural Gas
New England Electricity Marketplace
New England Power Pool
(NEPOOL)
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
No. 6 Fuel Oil
NStar
Nuclear Plants
Nutrient Enrichment
O
Ocean Energy
Ocean Thermal Energy
Off-the-Grid
Offshore
Wind
Outages
P
Particulate Matter
Physical Path
Pilgrim Nuclear Station
Portfolio
Potassium Iodide (KI)
Power Cable
Power Delivery
Power Delivery Services
Power Grid
Power Line
Power
Market
Power Plant
Power Supplier
Propane
Q
R
Radioactivity
Rated Capacity
Refuse
Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy Charge
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)
Renewable Energy Trust Fund
Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS)
Respiratory Illness
Retail Market
S
Service Territory
Small Hydro
Smog
Solar Energy
Solar Photovoltaic
Solar Thermal
Southeastern Massachusetts
(SEMA) Locational Marginal Pricing Zone (SEMA LMP)
Standard
Offer
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
Sulfur Oxides (SOx)
Supplier
Supply Portfolio
Sustainability
Sustainable Energy
T
Tailpipe of the Nation
Thyroid Gland
Tidal Current Technology
Tidal Energy
Toxics Release Inventory
Transition Charge
Trash
Transmission
True Costs
Turbine
U
Undergrounding
Undersea Cable
Utility
U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA)
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
V
Variable Pricing
Visions
Volatility
W
Waste-to-Energy
Water Quality
Watt (W)
Wave Energy
Wholesale Market
Wind Energy
Wind Power
Wind Turbine
Wires Company
X
Y
Z
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