Acronyms in Electricity Industry

IOU (Investor owned utility)
A utility entity whose assets are owned by investors. 

LMP (Locational Marginal Pricing)
Energy price which reflects market value of energy on locational basis in the case of both constrained and unconstrained by transmission capacity.

SCED (Security Constrained Economic Dispatch)
The basic way RTO and ISO dispatch generation to meet load reliably at the lowest cost within the constraints of the facility limits and certain contingencies (such as line outages and weather).

LSE (Load-Serving Entity)
LSE represents any company provides electric service to end-users and wholesale customers. An LSE is usually an electricity supplier that generates the electricity but it can also be a power marketing firm that sells electricity.

TLR (Transmission Loading Relief)
A procedure used in the interconnection system to relieve potential or actual overloads on transmission facilities.

RTO (Regional Transmission Organizations)
As a way to handle the challenges associated with the operation of multiple interconnected independent power supply companies as stipulated in the FERC Order No. 2000 usually interstate.

ISO (Independent System Operators)
An entity who coordinates, controls and monitors the operation of the electrical power system to satisfy the requirement of providing non-discriminatory access to transmission particularly in single state. ISO grew out of Orders No. 888/889.

FTR (Financial Transmission Right)
A financial instrument that entitles the holder to receive compensation for Congestion Costs that arise when the transmission grid is congested in the Day-Ahead Energy Market, and differences in Day-Ahead Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) result from the dispatch of generators to relieve the congestion.

QF (Qualifying Facility)
Mandated by PURPA 1978 referring to co-generation facility that uses renewables as energy sources which would receive special rate and regulatory treatment.

Cogen (Cogeneration facility)
A generating facility that sequentially produces electricity and another form of useful thermal energy (such as heat or steam) in a way that is more efficient than the separate production of both forms of energy.

NERC (The North American Electric Reliability Council)
An entity which is established  to enforce reliability standards for the bulk power system in North America.

FERC (The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
The United States federal agency which has jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates.  FERC also reviews and authorizes liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, interstate natural gas pipelines and non-federal hydropower projects.

IPP (An Independent Power Producer) 
Also known as Non-utility generator (NUG) is an entity, which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users. NUGs may be privately held facilities, corporations, cooperatives such as rural solar or wind energy producers, and non-energy industrial concerns capable of feeding excess energy into the system. 

RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard)
A state law requiring that a certain percentage or volume of electricity sales in a state come from renewable energy sources.

RES (Renewable Electricity Standard)
Same as an RPS, but the term used at the federal level when discussing clean energy proposals.

EWG (Exempt Wholesale Generator)
Refers to a generator of energy for sale exclusively to competing wholesale customers, and who is exempt from some requirements of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935. An exempt wholesale generator may sell to publicly-owned municipal utilities, but their exemption allows them to sell - or not sell - energy to whomever they choose at whatever rate they choose. The exemption applies federally, but is usually subject to approval by state and regional bodies who may override the exemption if it is felt that this is in the public interest and require a generator to sell within a certain price range or to a certain customer or group of customers.

ICC (Illinois Commerce Commission)
A quasi-judicial tribunal which regulates public utility services in the U.S. state of Illinois.

ARES (Alternative Retail Electric Supplier)
An ARES or Supplier is a business that sells electricity to residential and/or commercial customers in a competitive market.

LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program)
Helps low-income families pay their heating bills. LIHEAP is a grant that offers assistance in the form of a cash grant, sent directly to the utility company, or a crisis grant for households in immediate danger of being without heat. 

ESP (Energy Service Provider)
An ESP is an individual or company that contracts directly with its customers to provide electric supplies. ESPs may serve only selected markets, such as large commercial and industrial customers, or all customers including residential.