Electric Utility Jargon

Every industry has it’s jargon, electric utilities and smart homes are no different. The definitions list below is a simple reference point. This covers the standard and some one off Electric Industry acronyms I’ve come across in my 10+ years experience. Great list for you and I to refer throughout other Smart Grid Marketplace posts and other industry posts.

AMI - Advanced Metering Infrastructure

AMI End Point - AMI Meter, IHD, DR Device

AMI Meter - A digital solid state electric revenue meter.

AMI Network - The combination of hardware and software that support AMI data transport from AMI End Points to the AMI Head End.

AMI Provider - The primary vendor, either installer, software, or manufacturer that provides the overall solution or acts as Prime Contractor.

AMI Backhaul or Wide Area Network - The infrastructure used to connect the AMI Head End system to the AMI Network.

Customer Information System (CIS) - A software system that manages customer information and PII.

Demand Response (DR) - Is the behavioral or automated action of reducing energy usage at specific points in time, typically to reduce power costs. (See Detailed Blog Post)

Home Area Network (HAN) - An RF network that is intended to cover a single home, typically 2.4Ghz or sub-gig type communications.

AMI Head End - The system (typically primarily software based) that manages, controls, monitors, and provides visibility to AMI Meters and End Points.

Kilovolt (kV) - A measurement equivalent to 1000 Volts (Example: 1kV = 1,000V)

Killovolt-amps (kVA) - Apparent Power or the total of true and reactive power (kW + kVAr).

Kilovolt-amps-reactive (kVAr) - Reactive Power, or power used that doesn’t perform work.

Kilowatt (kW) - A measurement equivalent to 1000 watts (Example: 1kW = 1000W)

Meter Data Management System (MDMS) - The data warehouse for large sets of electric (or other) metering data. These systems provide analytics and reporting of metering data.

Outage Management Systems (OMS) - Used on distribution and transmission systems. Distribution system OMS alarm and track electric outage for end customers. OMS can include simple alarming / alerting, to full SAIFI, SADI, and CADI reporting metrics.

Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) - A software tool that manages the expanded energy assets within the growing smart grid.

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA)

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - Information stored in a single database table and that can directly identify

In Home Display (IHD) - A networked device that gave homeowners a notice of high power prices or act as a hub to send DR commands.

Time of Use (TOU) - An electric rate that changes based on the time of day. Typically aligned with high usage times.

Watts (W) - A unit a electric true power