This glossary belongs to a cooperation with Grist and WABE to debunk the Georgia Public Service Commission, the little, however effective state-elected board that makes crucial choices about electrical power costs to energy production. It is implied to assist you much better comprehend the acronyms and terms utilized by chosen authorities, energy business, and media outlets.
Energy Commissions
Terms that are crucial to comprehending how state energy regulators make choices about electrical power cost and energy sources.
Civil Service Commission (PSC): A public company entrusted with controling energies. The format of these boards differs by state: some are chosen, some are designated, and their guidelines and obligations vary. In addition to PSCs, they are called a Public Utilities Commission, a Board of Public Utilities, or something comparable. In Georgia, the PSC is a five-member chosen body that controls the primary electrical energy, Georgia Power, along with gas pipelines and telecoms.
Rate: The rate per system of electrical power. Since February 2024, the typical retail rate in Georgia is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. Utility commissions usually have last approval of these numbers for investor-owned energies. You can discover your state’s rate through the Energy Information Administration.
Rate Structure/Tariff: The mix of the rate, extra costs, and other factors to consider that comprise power costs. In addition to the rate for the real power utilized, Georgia Power clients pay charges or riders for fuel expenses, sales tax, nuclear building and construction funding, and other expenses.
Ratepayer: A consumer of an electrical service provider who pays rates for electrical energy. There are a range of rates and rate structures since the expenses for a local, a small company, and a big factory differ.
Integrated Resource Plan (IRP): An electrical supplier’s long-range prepare for producing and providing electrical energy. In Georgia, it’s a 20-year strategy upgraded every 3 years with input from the PSC and stakeholders, which are called intervenors.
Rate Case: The procedure of setting the rates an electrical energy charges consumers for the power they utilize. In Georgia, this takes place every 3 years following the IRP.
Intervenor: A stakeholder or advocacy group that declares and is approved authorization to weigh in on a power business’s strategies in front of regulators. These consist of customer and ecological supporters, significant power buyers like corporations and transit authorities, cities, federal companies, and agents of markets (i.e. solar). In Georgia, these groups have the capability to cross-examine Georgia Power’s agents before the PSC and advanced their own witnesses to weigh in on the business’s propositions.
Investor-owned energy (IOU): A personal business offering electrical energy to clients and owned by investors. These are the electrical energies managed by PSCs. Almost two-thirds of electrical consumers in the U.S. get their power from an investor-owned energy.
Openly owned energy: An energy that is run as a department of city government. Citizens pay a city, state, or local firm, instead of a personal business like Georgia Power. These are exempt to the PSC in Georgia other than for territorial conflicts.
Electric cooperatives: Utility that are owned by their consumers. Cooperatives are expected to have more versatility and be responsible to members’ feedback. After costs are paid, remaining cash must be gone back to members and/or utilized to purchase neighborhoods. Cooperatives were recognized to bring power to backwoods; there are over 900 of them in the U.S.
Energy
These terms are typically utilized by energy and energy business, renewable resource supporters, and regulators.
Megawatt (MW): A system of power that determines just how much energy a big resource, like a power plant or solar field, produces. One megawatt (MW) is one million watts. Georgia’s brand-new atomic power plant, for instance, Plant Vogtle Unit 3, can create simply over 1,000 MW, which Georgia Power approximates suffices to power 500,000 homes and organizations.
Kilowatt-hour (kWh): A step of the quantity of energy used up over an hour. This is the system utilized to track power use and billing. The typical U.S. electrical energy client utilizes simply under 900 kWh monthly
Supply-side: The procedure of producing electrical energy and getting it to clients. Power plants, photovoltaic panels, and wind turbines are all supply side resources. Often this is called “front-of-the-meter.”
Demand-side: A procedure that decreases the quantity of electrical power customers require, such as enhancing energy performance or setting up photovoltaic panels. It is often called “behind-the-meter.”
Need reaction: A method that looks for to minimize the general quantity of energy required by using rewards for consumers to move their power usage to off-peak hours. Energies typically utilize this method to prevent blackouts throughout durations of very high need, such as when it’s exceptionally cold or hot and heat or cooling usage is up.
Renewable resource: Energy created from the wind, sun, and the heat listed below the Earth’s surface area (geothermal). These are thought about “eco-friendly” since no quantity of usage diminishes them, whereas the quantity of nonrenewable fuel sources is limited.
Tidy or carbon-free energy: Electrical energy produced without burning nonrenewable fuel sources. The term is typically utilized interchangeably with “renewable resource,” although they stand out. Carbon-free consists of atomic energy and biomass energy, the burning of wood items, which is frequently categorized by federal governments as carbon-neutral due to the fact that trees are replanted (though that is controversial due to the fact that regrowth takes so long).
Dispersed energy resource: An energy source that produces electrical power closer to where individuals really take in power instead of at a central area like a power plant or solar field. Roof photovoltaic panels, storage batteries, or an electrical automobile utilized to power a home are some examples of these “off-the-grid” services.
Photovoltaic (PV) cells: The innovation that comprises most photovoltaic panels. PV cells, frequently called solar batteries, transform sunshine straight into electrical energy. Learn more about how solar works here
Utility-scale solar: Big ranges of numerous photovoltaic panels that offer electrical power to the grid. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) specifies these as tasks that produce more than one megawatt, though utility-scale solar jobs are frequently much bigger.
Neighborhood solar: Regional solar power tasks that permit neighboring citizens or organizations to pool resources to gain access to renewable resource otherwise too pricey or logistically challenging as a specific family. This design makes solar more available to low-to-moderate earnings individuals, along with tenants or homeowners of multi-tenant structures.
Roof solar: Photovoltaic panel set up on the roofing of a home or serviceThese power the structure they’re on while the sun is shining, however clients are still normally connected to their regional energy. They purchase electrical energy from their energy throughout durations of low solar production, such as in the evening, in addition to sell electrical energy back to the energy throughout durations of high production.
Net metering: A billing plan established in between the owner of a roof solar range and a power business that represents the consumer’s requirement to purchase power from the grid and offer back to the grid. This term is typically utilized interchangeably with “regular monthly netting” or “yearly netting.”
Instant netting: A plan under which the energy purchases excess power from a roof solar variety as it’s created, at an established rate that’s typically less than the retail rate clients pay to purchase grid power. This is the system utilized for a lot of Georgia Power clients with roof photovoltaic panels.
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS): A battery that can save energy for later usage, frequently paired with photovoltaic panels and other eco-friendly resources. At the energy scale, they can make the electrical power created by a solar field readily available throughout more of the day.
Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): An arrangement in between business, energies, or towns for one entity to purchase electrical energy from another. In many cases, a third-party designer installs, owns, and runs an energy system (i.e. solar) on a client’s home. In other circumstances, one energy purchases excess energy from another. Some states limit non-utility service providers from offering electrical power.
Energy effectiveness: Utilizing less energy to do the very same task. A more energy-efficient air conditioner utilizes less power to cool the exact same area to the very same temperature level. Energy effective upgrades, like LED light bulbs, normally result in long-lasting expense savings.
Weatherization: Modifications that enhance a structure’s energy performance. Windows that keep heat much better, enhanced insulation, and weather condition removing to close spaces can all lower the quantity of energy it takes to heat or cool a home. Lots of energies, state federal governments, and nonprofits have weatherization programs to assist low-income homeowners pay for these upgrades.
Energy concern: The share of home earnings that approaches paying energy expenses. According to the Department of Energy“the nationwide typical energy problem for low-income homes is 8.6%, 3 times greater than for non-low-income homes which is approximated at 3%. In some locations, depending upon place and earnings, energy concern can be as high as 30%.”
Energy price: The concept that individuals ought to have the ability to spend for their home electrical power usage while likewise spending for other fundamental living expenditures without needing to pick.
Federal Laws
These laws effect environment action, renewable resource advancement, and how energies run.
Inflation Reduction Act: A 2022 law typically described as the biggest piece of environment modification legislation in U.S. history. The law consists of billions of dollars in rewards for tidy energy, energy performance, and other environment actions.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law/Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: A 2021 law that, to name a few facilities financial investments, consists of billions of dollars for electrical grid upgrades and electrical lorry charging.
Ballot Rights Act of 1965: The landmark law forbiding racial discrimination in ballot. A claim brought by Black citizens in Atlanta declares that Georgia PSC elections break the Voting Rights Act. Commissioners need to reside in particular districts however are chosen by a statewide vote, which the complainants declare waters down Black votes.
Georgia
These specify programs, business, and terms.
Georgia Power: Georgia’s biggest electrical energy is a regulated monopoly, which implies it is the only electrical power supplier readily available to its property consumers. Georgia Power goes through oversight and seemingly kept in check not by competitors however by its regulators, the PSC. Georgia Power is a subsidiary of the publicly-traded Southern Company.
Southern Company: Among the biggest power business in the U.S. and the moms and dad business of Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Southern Nuclear (the operator of Plant Vogtle), a number of gas business, and other subsidiaries.
Plant Vogtle: A four-reactor nuclear reactor near Augusta, Georgia. 2 reactors have actually been functional for years, however the building and construction of 2 brand-new ones– Unit 3 and Unit 4– started in 2009. System 3 got in service in 2023, and Unit 4 is because of come online in 2024. Both are years behind schedule, and the overall rate of the job more than folded the course of its building. These are the very first brand-new atomic power plants integrated in the U.S. in years, and lots of market experts think they’ll be the last of their size constructed due in part to the prolonged and costly Vogtle building and construction procedure. Georgia Power owns the biggest share of the brand-new reactors.
Public Interest Advocacy personnel: Staffers of the Georgia PSC charged with representing the interests of ratepayers before the commission. The PIA Staff frequently winds up working out arrangements with Georgia Power and some intervenors that change the terms the business at first requested; it is generally these contracts that the PSC eventually votes on.
Stated Agreement: A contract in between celebrations, generally pending last approval by the commission. In Georgia, this describes a contract normally in between the PIA Staff and Georgia Power, often consisting of or backed by a few of the intervenors. Typically called “stips,” they generally consist of some modifications to the business’s initial demand based upon criticisms and issues raised throughout specialist testament. The celebrations often leave particular points open for the commissioners to choose, and the commissioners can modify the contracts before authorizing them.
Electric Membership Cooperative (EMC): A member-owned energy that runs in numerous parts of Georgia, particularly backwoods, beyond Georgia Power’s service location. These are exempt to the PSC other than in matters of funding and territorial disagreements, however rather to their own boards. Members can vote on those boards, in theory providing a voice in the management of the EMC, though their level of input differs in practice.
Local Energy Authority of Georgia (MEAG): A company that supplies electrical power to Georgia’s community energy companies. MEAG is a part-owner of the brand-new reactors at Plant Vogtle.
Oglethorpe Power: An electrical business that supplies power to a lot of Georgia’s EMCs and is a co-owner of the brand-new Plant Vogtle reactors.