COMMON TERMS

Block

Is the demand or consumption range to which a particular unit charge applies.

Consumption

Is the total integrated use of a commodity over the billing period. It is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) for electricity.

Demand

Is the peak use of a commodity within a specified time period. For electricity, demand is typically measured over a fifteen-minute interval and is measured in kilowatts (kW). For water, the equivalent quantity is measured by the capacity of the pipe connection to the consumer.

Effective Marginal Price

Is the cost of the last increment of electricity consumption. It is defined as the bill increment divided by the energy use increment, but includes all charges that appear on a consumer bill.

Load Factor

Is the ratio of average to peak load. The lower the load factor, the more "peaky" the load.

Marginal Load Factor

Is the ratio of average load decrement to peak load decrement, under implementation of an efficiency measure.

Tariff

Is the set of rules for calculating utility bills.