The Utility Management Glossary

The full form of APPA is American Public Power Association. It stands for national trade organization for community-owned electric utilities.

One-way meter data collection, typically drive-by or walk-by. It is a predecessor to AMI.

The two-way communication network between smart meters and the utility. It collects interval consumption data in near-real-time.

The outsourced or in-house process of printing and delivering paper bills, integrated with the billing system.

An option that averages a customer's annual usage into equal monthly payments to smooth seasonal bill swings.

The network and business of piping natural gas to homes and businesses within a city.

The margins an electric cooperative returns to its member-owners, a defining feature of the co-op model.

An online portal where customers view usage, pay bills, and manage their account, cutting call-center volume.

The annual water-quality report utilities must deliver to customers. The revised rule adds twice-yearly reports for systems over 10,000 people.

The utility software system that manages customer accounts, meter data, billing, and service orders in one database.

Small, customer-side energy sources like rooftop solar and batteries that feed into the grid.

Moving customer, meter, and billing records from a legacy system to a new platform, validated before go-live.

A charge based on a customer's peak power draw rather than total consumption, common for commercial electric accounts.

Software for tracking the lifecycle, maintenance, and replacement of utility infrastructure assets.

Mapping software that ties utility assets and service connections to their physical location.

Consumption recorded at fixed intervals (hourly or 15-minute), the input for TOU billing and usage analytics.

EPA's 2024 rule requiring replacement of virtually all lead service lines within 10 years, with compliance beginning October 16, 2027.

A water service line made of lead, now subject to a federal replacement mandate. Utilities must inventory and replace them under the LCRI.

The workflow for starting and stopping service and transferring account balances when occupants change.

The full billing cycle: meter read → validation → bill generation → delivery → payment → reconciliation.

Software that ingests, validates, estimates, and edits meter reads from AMI and AMR systems before they're billed.

Water that's produced but not billed. It includes leakage, meter inaccuracy, and unauthorized use. NRW is the top water-utility KPI.

NRECA stands for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. It represents 900+ electric co-ops across the United States.

The full form for NERC CIP is North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection. It contains mandatory cybersecurity standards for bulk electric systems.

Software that detects, tracks, and coordinates response to electric service outages. It integrates with SCADA and AMI.

California's constitutional requirement for a notice-and-protest process before water and sewer rate increases.

A class of "forever chemicals" regulated in drinking water under EPA's PFAS rule, with PFOA and PFOS limits set at 4.0 parts per trillion.

Public Utility Commission is the state-level regulator that oversees utility rates, service territories, and compliance.

The full form for PHMSA is Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. It is a US regulator of natural gas pipeline safety and integrity.

The regulatory proceeding in which a utility requests approval to change its rates.

Measuring individual unit usage within a property that has one master meter, then billing tenants for their share.

A digital meter that records interval usage and communicates reads automatically over an AMI network.

SOC stands for Service Organization Control 2. It is the audit standard for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of cloud software.

The approved set of rates, fees, and rules a utility bills under, filed with its regulator.

A rate structure that charges different prices by time of day to reflect demand, enabled by interval data from smart meters.

Billing tied to actual measured consumption rather than a flat fee, the standard model for metered utilities.

The quality-control process that flags bad meter reads, fills gaps with estimates, and lets staff edit before billing.

The system for creating, assigning, and tracking field jobs like meter swaps, leaks, and service connections.