Business cost reduction specialists focusing on telecommunications, energy and water services
Glossary
The utilities industry is awash with jargon and apparently meaningless abbreviations. We aim to explain what some of them mean. Please use either the search box (above and left) or the A to Z matrix to the right.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 144 definitions.
- 21CN
- The 21st Century Network (21CN) programme is the network transformation project of the UK telecommunications company BT Group plc. It will see the UK incumbent's telephone network move from the present AXE/System X Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to an Internet Protocol (IP) system. As well as switching over the PSTN, BT has revealed plans to deliver many additional services over their new network, including services such as on-demand interactive TV services.
- 3G
- 3G is third-generation technology in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G include wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. In marketing 3G services, video telephone has often been suggested as the killer application for 3G, although roll-out to date has been slow.
- ACMC
- The Association of Cost Management Consultants. The professional body that regulates the conduct of members who provide cost management services to businesses for energy, water and telecommunications. A copy of the Code of Conduct can be found at ACMC Code of Conduct
- Annual Quantity
- The Annual Quantity (more commonly referred to as the AQ or Annual Offtake) is the amount of gas that National Grid (formerly Transco) believes was comsumed by a specific gas supply point or meter during the previous year. It is used by gas suppliers for price setting.
- Availability
- The agreed level of electricity supply capacity provided by the networks and the energy suppliers to meet the consumers highest predicted monthly demand (measured in kVA. Also known as Supply Capacity. If the site exceeds this specified capacity it is likely that a financial penalty will be levied.
- Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC)
- The Code governing the operation of the balancing mechanism and the imbalance settlement process and the relationships and responsibilities of all electricity market participants.
- Balancing mechanism
- System used by electricity generators and suppliers to balance their supply and demand positions. Operated by National Grid Transco to maintain the necessary national and local balances between electricity generation and consumption.
- Baseload
- The load continuously supplied by generators into the electricity networks over a period of tirne that demand does not fall below.
- BES
- BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The middleware software package that is part of the BlackBerry wireless platform from Research in Motion (RIM). BES connects to messaging and collaboration software (Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise) on enterprise networks to synchronize email and PIM information between desktop and mobile software.
- BlackBerry
- The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1999 which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on e-mail, and for 6 years had little real competition. In the last 2 years devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 operating system have started to gain ground on BlackBerry. Both systems have strengths and weaknesses - please contact us for advice - we have used both.