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<br />New Brighton Energy Action Plan iii <br />GLOSSARY OF TERMS <br />15 x 15: Xcel Energy’s privacy rule, which requires all data summary statistics to contain at least 15 <br />premises, with no single premise responsible for more than 15% of the total. Following these rules, if a <br />premise is responsible for more than 15% of the total for that data set, they are removed from the <br />summary. <br />Beneficial Electrification: The transition from fossil fuels to electricity where benefits are achieved <br />through reduced emissions and energy costs. <br />British Thermal Unit (BTU): The amount of heat needed to raise one pound of water at maximum <br />density through one-degree Fahrenheit. <br />Carbon-free: Carbon-free refers to sources of energy that will not emit additional carbon dioxide into <br />the air. Wind, solar and nuclear energy are all carbon-free sources but only wind and solar are <br />renewable. <br />Carbon-neutral: Carbon-neutral, also described as “net zero”, could include carbon-free sources but is <br />broader and refers to energy that removes or avoids as much carbon dioxide as is released over a set <br />period of time. Carbon-neutral is sometimes used to describe a site that produces an excess amount of <br />electricity from a renewable energy source, such as solar, compared to what it consumes. That excess <br />energy is put back into the grid in an amount that offsets the carbon dioxide produced from the <br />electricity it draws from the grid when it is not producing renewable energy. <br />Climate Action Plan (CAP) and Climate Action Team: The climate plan that was developed through the <br />City of New Brighton is formally named the Climate Action Plan. The Climate Action Team is the team of <br />volunteers who committed to develop the actions in that plan. The Energy Action Team is a subset of <br />the Climate Action Team. <br />Demand Side Management (DSM): Modification of consumer demand for energy through various <br />methods, including education and financial incentives. DSM aims to encourage consumers to decrease <br />energy consumption, especially during peak hours, or to shift time-of-energy use to off-peak periods <br />such as nighttime and weekend. <br />Energy Burden: Percentage of gross household income spent on energy costs. <br />Energy Reduction: The result of behavior changes that cause less energy to be used. For example, <br />setting the thermostat to a lower temperature reduces the energy used in your home during the winter. <br />Since energy reductions can be easily reversed, they are not accounted for when calculating changes in <br />energy usage. <br />Energy Savings: Energy savings come from a permanent change that results in using less energy to <br />achieve the same results. A new furnace uses X% less energy to keep your home at the same <br />temperature (all things being equal), resulting in energy savings of X%. For accounting purposes, energy <br />savings are only counted in the year the new equipment is installed.