Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Power units
Energy units
Weight units
Voltage
A
APX – Amsterdam Power Exchange. An energy exchange for the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium.
Availability – Refers to technical availability, which is the percentage of planned production time for an asset without unexpected technical difficulties or maintenance needs.
B
Biomass – Renewable fuel, such as forest residues, bark and pine oil.
C
Circular economy – A circular economy is a framework for sustainable growth – with the overarching goal to reduce society’s resource use and the resulting environmental impact.
CHP (combined heat and power) – A plant that produces both heat and electricity. In such a plant a large share of the primary energy is used for electricity and heat production, with little wasted heat.
D
Derivative instrument – A derivative is a financial instrument that is commonly used to manage risk. The value and change in value of derivative instruments are derived from the value of an underlying asset, which can be commodities, precious metals, currency, bonds, stocks and similar. Examples of derivative instruments are options, forward contracts and swaps.
E
EEX – The European Energy Exchange. The German electricity exchange.
Efficiency – An efficiency rating indicates the relationship between energy input and energy output in a system.
EPD – Environmental Product Declaration – a third-party environmental declaration in accordance with ISO 14025 (www.environdec.com).
EPEX –The spot market of EEX. Since 2009 part of EPEX Spot SE, Paris.
EU ETS – The EU Emissions Trading System. The EU’s trading system for CO2 emission allowances. The system sets a cap for emissions from businesses within the system and facilitates optimisation through trading in emission allowances.
F
Fauna passage – A fauna passage in water is, for example, a drum or bridge that allows water from a natural watercourse to pass through a road or railway.
Forced labour – All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily
Forward market – A market in which buyers and sellers agree on a set price for a future delivery of the underlying instrument, such as an electricity contract (see also derivative instrument).
Fossil fuels – Fuels based on hydrocarbons from ancient sedimentary layers – mainly coal, oil and natural gas.
G
Global Compact – The United Nations’ (UN’s) ten principles for companies surrounding human rights, labour issues, the environment and anti-corruption.
GRI – Global Reporting Initiative – a global standard for sustainability reporting. (see https://www.globalreporting.org/)
Gross capacity – The electric output delivered directly from a plant’s generator. Measured in MW (Megawatt).
H
HOB (Heat only boiler) – A plant that produces heat for district heating as its sole output.
I
IFRS – International Financial Reporting Standards – Vattenfall has been reporting in accordance with IFRS since 2005.
Installed capacity – Also known as nameplate capacity. Refers to the maximum amount of electricity that a power plant can produce under specific conditions according to the design data. Commonly measured in MW (Megawatt).
ISO 14001 – An international standard in the ISO 14000 series for establishing environmental management systems.
ISO 9001 – An international standard in the ISO 9000 series for establishing quality management systems.
Just Transition and Responsible Decommissioning – A process involving employers, unions, governments and communities, planning and delivering the transition of economies, sectors, and companies to low carbon, socially just and environmentally sustainable activities. At the company level, a just transition is process that plans emissions reduction efforts to maximise positive impacts and minimise negative impacts on workers and communities through retention and redeployment, skills training, new job creation, social inclusion and community renewal.
L
LEC (Levelised Energy Cost) – The average cost of production per kilowatt hour electricity, calculated over the full lifetime of the generating asset. The net present value method is used to discount future costs with the average cost of capital (WACC).
Life cycle analysis (LCA) – Methodology to establish a product’s total environmental impact during its life cycle, from raw material extraction, through manufacturing processes and usage, to waste management, including all transportation and energy consumption.
LTI (Lost Time Injury) – Work-related accidents resulting in absence longer than one day, and accidents resulting in fatality. Commonly expressed as LTIF, or Lost Time Injury Frequency, the number of such accidents per 1 million hours worked.
M
Margin call – Margin is collateral and funds that are collected to protect against future or current risk exposures resulting from market price changes or in the event of a counterparty default. A margin call occurs when the price of the underlying asset changes.
Merit order – The sequence in which power stations contribute power to the market. It is based on the marginal cost of production for each power station in the system.
Microgrids – A local self-sufficient energy system that can distribute, consume and store energy. It can work on its own or be connected to the main grid.
N
Net capacity – The electric output that a plant delivers to distribution networks, that is gross capacity less the energy used by the plant itself. Measured in MW (megawatt).
Nominal capacity – The capacity that a generator is designed for. This concept is used mainly for electricity generation power plants, e.g. hydro power plants and wind turbines. Measured in MW (megawatt).
Nord Pool – The Nordic electricity exchange. Started in Sweden and Norway in 1996.
NOx – Collective term for nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide and similar nitrogen compounds.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) – NPS is a score ranging from –100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others and is used to determine customers’ overall satisfaction with a company and loyalty to the brand.
O
OHSAS 18000 – A series of standards that can be used as a basis for an occupational health and safety management system.
Offtaker – An offtaker is a party that, in advance, agrees to buy or sell goods that are still to be produced. In the energy market, this typically refers to the party that buys electricity through a PPA (see below).
OTC (Over the Counter) – Trading outside of exchanges (directly or via brokers) in physical and financial contracts. Power-as-a-service (PaaS) – A business model which provides major energy users with guaranteed power services in exchange for a fixed monthly fee.
P
Power-as-a-service (PaaS) – A business model which provides major energy users with guaranteed power services in exchange for a fixed monthly fee.
Peer-to-peer – Two or more individuals or customers can connect and transact directly, without going through a company.
Power-to-Heat – Converting electricity to heat using electric boil ers combined with hot water storage. With Power-to-Heat systems, the excess power generated primarily from renewable energy can be utilised later as district heating.
Power-to-X – An umbrella term referring to the conversion of electricity to an energy carrier, heat, product or raw material. Power-to-X includes, for example, power-to-gas, power-to-liquid, power-to chemicals and power-to-heat. More specific examples are pro duction of hydrogen, methane, ammonia, methanol, jet fuel, diesel etc. using electricity as the primary energy source.
Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) – Typically refers to long-term bilateral electricity supply agreements, most commonly between the owner of a renewable asset and an electricity consumer.
Primary energy – Primary energy is the form of energy that is accessible directly from the original sources. Vattenfall uses the interpretation applied by Eurostat and IEA. This means that all fuels are assigned a primary energy content corresponding to their heating value. Uranium is assigned a primary energy content corresponding to the heat released in the power plant. Solar, wind and hydro power are assigned a primary energy content corresponding to the extracted electricity (or heat).
Prosumer – Someone who both produces and consumes electricity
R
Renewable energy sources – Non-finite energy sources such as hydro power, biomass, wind, the sun, ocean waves and geothermal energy.
Repowering – The process of replacing older wind power turbines with newer ones that either have a greater capacity or more efficiency, which results in a net increase of power generated.
Reservoir levels – Refers to the volume of water stored in a reservoir which on a specific occasion can be used for hydro power generation. Reservoir levels vary during the year depending on precipitation and hydro power generation.
S
SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) – An index of average power interruption times within electricity distribution. Measured in terms of interruption duration per customer and year.
SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index) – An index of average power interruption frequency within electricity distribution. Measured in terms of the number of power interruptions per customer and year.
SF6 – A greenhouse gas commonly used for electrical insulation that is 15,000 times more potent than CO2.
SKB – Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (The Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management Company) – responsible for handling radioactive waste in Sweden.
Spot market – A market in which trading is conducted for immediate delivery.
Swap – A financial instrument that is a combination of a spot and forward transaction – a type of financial swap agreement.
T
Thermal power – Electricity generated via a heating process, such as a gas turbine or a steam process in a coal or nuclear power plant (compare combined heat and power).
TPI (Third Party Integration) – A process in which excess or waste heat, which would otherwise be released to the atmosphere, is captured from the industrial facilities in which it is produced and integrated into the district heating network.
V
Value Chain – All activities, operations, business relationships and investment chains of an undertaking and includes entities with which the company has a direct or indirect business relationship, upstream and downstream.
Volatility – A measure of how the price of a product varies during a given period of time.
W
Waste hierarchy – The EU’s prioritisation framework for how waste is to be avoided and managed.
White label – A product or service that is provided to customers who then brand the product themselves and resell it as their own.
Power units
- Power is energy per unit of time
- Power output is measured in watts (W)
- 1 kW (kilowatt) = 1,000 W
- 1 MW (megawatt) = 1,000 kW
- 1 GW (gigawatt) = 1,000,000 kW
Energy units
- Energy is power multiplied by time
- 1 kWh (kilowatt hour) = 1 kW in one hour
- 1 MWh (megawatt hour) = 1,000 kWh
- 1 GWh (gigawatt hour) = 1,000,000 kWh
- 1 TWh (terawatt hour) = 1,000,000,000 kWh
Weight units
- ktonnes (kilotonnes) = 1,000 tonnes
- Mton (megatonnes) = 1,000,000 tonnes
Voltage
1 kV (kilovolt) = 1,000 volts (V)
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