ELECTRICITY AND POWER DEFINITION

Makeup
Treated raw water, which is added to the system to replace steam and water lost to site requirements, blowdown, evaporation, sampling or venting.

Network Losses
Amount of energy lost when electricity flows in the power lines of a transmission and/or distribution network. The electrical resistance of the power lines is the main contributor to these losses.

Operating Hours
Total number of hours during which a unit generates electricity over a period of time.

Parasitics
The plant's internal power consumption and losses.

Peaking
Operating regime in which the generator operates at its full capacity (or close to it) only for short periods at times of high demand. The plant is shut down for the remainder of the time.

Planned outage rate (%)
Planned outages are due to overhaul (or other) work which is planned well in advance, usually by more than one year.
Energy lost due to planned outages (MWh) * 100
Total installed capacity (MW) * period hours

Pool Price
Price of electricity available for supply in the National Electricity Market. Each generator provides prices at which it is willing to supply designated levels of MW. The grouping of these prices within the NEM is known as the pool.

Process steam
Steam used within an industrial plant, usually for heating.

Pulveriser
A machine that grinds coal into a fine powder for injection into the furnace of a pulverised coal fired boiler.

Reciprocating engine
An engine characterised by the movement of the pistons in the cylinders back and forth in a straight line driving a crankshaft to convert the work into rotary shaft work. Typical vehicle engine.