- C.I.F.
- Cut in Flat.
- Cable
- A conductor composed of a number of wires twisted together.
- Cal-ISO
- The California Independent System Operator is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation charged with managing the flow of electricity along California’s open-market wholesale power grid. The mission of the California ISO is to safeguard the reliable delivery of electricity, and ensure equal access to 25,000 circuit miles of “electron highway.” As the impartial operator of the wholesale power grid in the state, the California ISO conducts a small portion of the bulk power markets. These markets are used to allocate space on the transmission lines, maintain operating reserves and match supply with demand in real time.
- Cal-ISO Declares Power Supply Emergencies
- Stage 1: When real-time operating electric power reserves drop below 7%. Consumers are urged to voluntarily conserve energy.
Stage 2: When operating power reserves drop below 5%, Cal-ISO directs SCE and the state’s other investor-owned utilities to notify interruptible customers to curtail prescribed load within 10 minutes of the declaration.
Stage 3: When operating reserves drop below 1½%. Cal-ISO directs investor-owned utilities to shed a certain amount of load, which is achieved by controlled rotating outages. SCE will drop blocks of customers one hour at a time, except those circuits that include “essential” customers (e.g., hospitals, public safety and medical operations).
- California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE)
- A state program that currently provides a 20% discount to residential customers who meet certain qualifications and income requirements.
- California Department of Water Resources (CDWR)
- The state agency assigned responsibility by the California Legislature in January 2001 with procuring power for the investor-owned utilities (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) after these utilities lost their ability to purchase power for their customers during the energy crisis. The investor-owned utilities resumed this responsibility in January 2002.
- Capacitor
- A piece of equipment used to absorb surges or swells, or to alleviate voltage sag, occurring in a distribution system.
- Capacitor Bank
- A group of capacitors connected for three-phase application to improve voltage.
- Capacity
- The amount of load a piece of equipment or line can generate or carry.
- Check Meter
- An instrument used to establish the amount of electricity used by a customer’s appliances.
- Circuit
- The path taken by electrical current flowing through a conductor from one terminal of the source of supply to the other.
- Circuit Breaker
- A safety device to sense overloading and interrupt a circuit.
- Closed Circuits
- A complete electric circuit through which current will flow when voltage is applied.
- Cogeneration
- A process that reuses thermal energy by coupling a thermal industrial process with thermal electric generation.
- Conductor
- A wire or path through which a current of electricity flows.
- Contract Demand
- A minimum demand charge based on transformer capacity necessary to serve a customer’s measurable demand.
- Core/non-core Customers
- Core customers are served by a utility and do not have a choice of their energy supplier. Non-core customers are not served by a utility unless they make that choice (in some states, non-core customers do not have a choice to be served by the utility). Core/non-core is not currently in place for electric utility customers in California.
- CPUC
- California Public Utilities Commission, the governing body that regulates investor-owned utilities in the state.
- Crossarm
- A wooden beam fastened at the top of a pole to separate and support conductors and apparatus.
- CSI - California Solar Initiative
- A statewide effort to install 3,000 megawatts of new, grid-connected solar systems by 2016. The program is directed by the California Public Utilities Commission and provides more than $1.1 billion dollars in rebates and cash incentives on solar systems to utility company customers.
Learn more about CSI.
- Current
- The flow of electricity though a circuit measured in amperes (amps).
- Current Transformer (CT)
- A transformer that steps down the current in a circuit by a fixed percentage from a high value to a low value in order to provide a useable current for metering purposes.
- Customer Service Conductors
- Conductors between meter panel and SCE service drops.
- CVR
- Conservation Voltage Regulation – Reduces transmission/distribution line voltages to conserve energy.
- Cycle
- One complete period of the reversal of an alternating current from positive to negative and back again.
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