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Glossary
| Alternate Fuel | A fuel other than natural gas or compressed natural gas. |
| APSC | Alabama Public Service Commission |
| Billing Cycle | The regular periodic interval used by a utility for reading the meters of customers for billing purposes. |
| Boiler Fuel | Natural gas used as a fuel for the generation of steam or hot water (including natural gas used as a fuel for externally fired pressure vessels using heat transfer fluids other than water) or electricity, including the utilization of gas turbines for the generation of electricity. |
| Btu | One British thermal unit, the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. |
| Business Day | Any weekday when the Company's business office is open in the normal course of business. Class of service – Defines the type of customer. The common class of service applied to ultimate consumers. |
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Cogeneration |
1. Any of several processes which either ruse waste heat from generation of electricity to satisfy thermal needs or process waste heat in the stream generation of electricity or production of mechanical energy. 2. The use of a single prime fuel source in a reciprocating engine or gas turbine to generate electrical and thermal energy in order to optimize the efficiency of the fuel used. The dominate demand for energy can be either electrical or thermal. Usually it is the latter, with excess electrical energy, if any, being transmitted into the local power supply company's lines (with a reciprocal situation existing when electrical demands exceed the cogeneration plant's output). A parallel exists with total energy plants, which are typically designed for the electrical demands rather than thermal. Under the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), regulated utilities are required to purchase electricity furnished by cogenerators and small power producers at rates set by regulatory bodies having jurisdiction over the utility receiving the electricity based on "full avoided cost. |
| Commercial | Service to customers who are primarily engaged in wholesale or retail trade, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transportation, communications, sanitary services, finance, insurance, real estate, personal services, government and service that does not fall directly within one of the other classifications. |
| Commercial Service | Covers service to customers engaged in wholesale or retail trade, agriculture, communications, finance, fisheries, forestry, government, insurance, real estate, transportation, etc., and to customers not directly involved in other classes of service. |
| Curtailment | A reduction in gas deliveries or gas sales necessitated by a shortage of supply. |
| Customer | A consumer of natural gas distributed in any one billing period at one location through one meter. An entity using gas at separate locations is considered a separate customer at each location. |
| Dekatherm | The quantity of heat energy which is equivalent to one million (1,000,000) Btu. Distribution - The process of transporting natural gas through the Company's facilities to the customer's facilities. |
| Distribution Company | A gas utility company that obtains its major gas operating revenue from retail gas sales to the public. |
| Distribution System | the mains, service piping and equipment operated by a distributing company to deliver gas from local points of supply or manufacture through the customer’s meter. |
| Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | An agency of the government of the United States created by an Act of Congress, the Department of Energy Organization Act, in 1977. This Act transferred to the FERC most of the former Federal Power Commission’s interstate regulatory functions over the electrical power and natural gas industries. The Act also transferred from the Interstate Commerce Commission the authority to set oil pipeline transportation rates and to set the value of oil pipelines for ratemaking purposes. In 1978, Congress passed the Natural Energy Ct, broadening the FERC’s jurisdiction and regulatory functions. The FERC now also regulates producer sales of natural gas in intrastate commerce. The FERC establishes uniform ceiling prices for each of several categories of natural gas, and these prices apply to all sales on a nationwide basis. |
| Firm Customer | A customer receiving service under Rate Schedules or contracts designed to provide customer's gas supply and distribution needs on a continuous basis. |
| Firm Service | A service offered to customers under schedules or contracts which anticipate no interruptions. |
| Gas | Natural gas, manufactured gas, propane-air gas or any mixture of hydrocarbons or of hydrocarbons and noncombustible gases, in a gaseous state, consisting predominately of methane determined on a Btu basis. |
| Gas Research Institute or GRI | An organization sponsored by a number of U.S. gas companies to investigate new sources of supply and uses for natural gas. |
| High-Flow Constraint Day | A day when the Company expects natural gas demand to exceed its available deliverable supply of gas for gas sales service needs. On such a day, the Company will interrupt Interruptible customers and/or require customers using third-party natural gas supplies to use no more than their daily confirmed pipeline deliveries to avoid incurring pipeline penalties and assure that adequate supplies are available for Firm Sales Service needs. |
| Industrial | Service to customers who are primarily engaged in a process which creates or changes raw or unfinished materials into another form or product. This includes mining and manufacturing. |
| Industrial Service | Covers service to customers engaged primarily in a process which either involves the extraction of raw materials from the earth, or a change of raw or unfinished materials into another form or product. |
| Interruptible Customer | A customer receiving service under Rate Schedules or contracts which permit interruption of service on short notice due to insufficient gas supply or capacity to deliver that supply. |
| Interruptible Service | Low-priority service offered to customers under schedules or contracts which anticipate and permit interruption on short notice, generally in peak-load seasons, by reason of the claim of firm service customers and higher priority users. Gas is available at any time of the year if the supply is sufficient and the supply system is adequate. |
| Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) | Natural gas cooled to -259° F, so it forms a liquid at approximately atmospheric pressure. As natural gas becomes liquid, it reduces volume nearly 600 fold, thus allowing both economical storage and long distance transportation economically feasible. Natural gas in its liquid state must be regasified and introduced to the consumer at the same pressure as other natural gas. The cooling process does not alter the gas chemically and the regasified LNG is indistinguishable from other natural gases of the same composition. |
| Natural Gas | A naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon gases found in porous geologic formations beneath the earth’s surface, often associated with petroleum. The principal constituent is methane. Nomination - A request for a physical quantity of gas under a specific purchase, sales or transportation agreement or for all contracts at a specific point. |
| Peak Day | The maximum daily quantity of gas distributed through the Company's system. |
| Process |
Gas used in appliances which were designed to burn a gaseous fuel so as to utilize those combustion characteristics of gaseous fuels, such as complete combustion, safe combustion products, flame geometry, ease of temperature control to precise levels, and optimum safety of heat application. Specifically excluded are steam and hot water boilers, gas turbines, space-heating equipment and indirect air heaters, where, for all such equipment, alternate fuel-burning equipment is available. A process gas load by this definition is a load for which there is no usable alternate to a gaseous fuel. |
| Regulator | Devices that maintain a constant pressure in a gas or liquid flow line, less than its inlet pressure, regardless of the rate of flow in the line. Various kinds include spring loaded, balanced valve and pilot regulators. |
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Residential |
Service to customers under the Residential Distribution Service Rate Schedule RD-1. |
| Residential Service | Covers service to customers for domestic purposes (single, mutilfamily or mobile homes, etc.). In residential service, the number of housing units within a structure determines the customer classification. |
| Supplier | A party that sells the commodity of natural gas. |
| System Supply | Purchases of natural gas for Alagasco's customers who purchase all of their natural gas supply from Alagasco. |
| Therm | The quantity of heat energy which is equivalent to one hundred thousand (100,000) Btu. |
