Residential Customer Equivalent (RCE) is a unit of measures used by the energy industry to denote the typical annual commodity consumption by a single-family residential customer. [1] Also known as "RCE" for short, a single RCE represents 1,000 therms of natural gas or 10,000 kWh of electricity.
RCE is often used to help normalize the size of energy companies. Energy companies serve a number of customers that is typically different from the RCE value consumed by those customers. For example, an LDC or ESCO may serve 50,000 customers but many of those can be commercial or industrial customers, so that same company can be said to serve 400,000 RCE.
Net metering is an electricity billing mechanism that allows consumers who generate some or all of their own electricity to use that electricity anytime, instead of when it is generated. This is particularly important with renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which are non-dispatchable. Monthly net metering allows consumers to use solar power generated during the day at night, or wind from a windy day later in the month. Annual net metering rolls over a net kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit to the following month, allowing solar power that was generated in July to be used in December, or wind power from March in August.
NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energy generation and retail electricity. Their portfolio includes natural gas generation, coal generation, oil generation, nuclear generation, wind generation, utility-scale generation, and distributed solar generation. NRG serves over 7 million retail customers in 24 US states including Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio; the District of Columbia, and eight provinces in Canada.
Vectren Corporation was a Fortune 1000 energy holding company headquartered in Evansville, Indiana. Through its utility subsidiaries, the company distributed natural gas to approximately one million business and residential customers in Indiana and Ohio. It also distributed electricity to 141,000 customers and had 1,425 MW of primarily coal-fired generating capacity in Indiana. Vectren's nonutility subsidiaries and affiliates offered energy-related products and services to customers throughout the Midwest and Southeast. These included energy performance services and energy infrastructure services.
Npower Limited is a British supplier of gas and electricity to businesses. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON UK since January 2019. The company was formerly known as Innogy plc and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Southern Company Gas, formerly AGL Resources, is an American Fortune 500 energy services holding company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company's operations consist of natural gas distribution, wholesale services, retail operations, and midstream operations. Southern Company Gas is one of the largest natural gas distribution companies in the United States. The company serves approximately 4.5 million utility customers through its regulated distribution subsidiaries across four states. Southern Company Gas made the Fortune 500 list in 2015, Forbes 2000 in 2006, and is a member of the S&P 500 Index. In 2016, Southern Company acquired AGL Resources and renamed it Southern Company Gas.
SunPower Corporation is an American provider of photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 by Richard Swanson, an electrical engineering professor from Stanford University. Cypress Semiconductor bought a majority interest in the company in 2002, growing it quickly until SunPower went public in 2005. TotalEnergies, a French energy and oil company purchased a controlling interest in SunPower for US$1.37 billion in 2011.
SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded on July 4, 2006, by Peter and Lyndon Rive, the cousins of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Tesla acquired SolarCity in 2016, at a cost of approximately US$2.6 billion and reorganized its solar business into Tesla Energy.
Sunrun Inc. is an American provider of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
PECO, formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company, is an energy company founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1929. It became part of Exelon Corporation in 2000 when it merged with Commonwealth Edison's holding company Unicom Corp.
Solar power has been growing rapidly in the U.S. state of California because of high insolation, community support, declining solar costs, and a renewable portfolio standard which requires that 60% of California's electricity come from renewable resources by 2030, with 100% by 2045. Much of this is expected to come from solar power via photovoltaic facilities or concentrated solar power facilities.
There is a large array of stakeholders that provide services through electricity generation, transmission, distribution and marketing for industrial, commercial, public and residential customers in the United States. It also includes many public institutions that regulate the sector. In 1996, there were 3,195 electric utilities in the United States, of which fewer than 1,000 were engaged in power generation. This leaves a large number of mostly smaller utilities engaged only in power distribution. There were also 65 power marketers. Of all utilities, 2,020 were publicly owned, 932 were rural electric cooperatives, and 243 were investor-owned utilities. The electricity transmission network is controlled by Independent System Operators or Regional Transmission Organizations, which are not-for-profit organizations that are obliged to provide indiscriminate access to various suppliers to promote competition.
The Bloom Energy Server or Bloom Box is a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power generator made by Bloom Energy, of Sunnyvale, California, that takes a variety of input fuels, including liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons produced from biological sources, to produce electricity at or near the site where it will be used. It withstands temperatures of up to 1,800 °F (980 °C). According to the company, a single cell generates 25 watts.
Enphase Energy, Inc. is an American energy technology company headquartered in Fremont, California, that develops and manufactures solar micro-inverters, battery energy storage, and EV charging stations primarily for residential customers. Enphase was established in 2006 and is the first company to successfully commercialize the solar micro-inverter, which converts the direct current (DC) power generated by a solar panel into grid-compatible alternating current (AC) for use or export. The company has shipped more than 48 million microinverters to 2.5 million solar systems in more than 140 countries.
Newpark Resources, Inc. is a worldwide provider of value-added drilling fluids systems and composite matting systems used in oilfield and other commercial markets. Industry partners include American Petroleum Institute, Independent Petroleum Association of America - IPAA, US Chamber of Commerce et al. The company was founded in 1932 and is based in The Woodlands, Texas. In 2013, the company was awarded as one of the Top Customer Satisfaction companies in the Annual EnergyPoint Research Global Oil & Gas Industry Survey. The enterprise value of the company is $1.14 billion.
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke Energy. Piedmont is an energy services company whose principal business is the distribution of natural gas to over one million residential, commercial, industrial and power generation customers in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including customers served by municipalities who are their wholesale customers. They are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage and regulated intrastate natural gas transportation businesses. In 2013, the company was awarded as a Platinum-level Start! Fit-Friendly Company by the American Heart Association for the fifth consecutive year. The award is the highest level of recognition in AHA's Start! Program and it is bestowed to Piedmont for its high quality working environment and well-being for its staff.
REX American Resources Corp. is an American producer and retailer of ethanol, distillers grains and natural gas as well as a holding company in energy entities. It was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. The company has the entire ownership of three affiliated corporations including Rex Radio and Television, Inc., Stereo Town, Inc. and Kelly & Cohen Appliances, Inc. As of 2012, the company has the ownership of 22 national retail stores and invested in five ethanol production entities nationwide. One of the plants the company invested in, One Earth Energy, LLC, has an annual capacity of 100 million gallons of ethanol and 320,000 tons of dried distillers grains. The company exited the retail industry and transferred to energy investment in 2009 with changing the name from Rex Stores Corporation to its current name in the following year.
Based in the United States and founded in 2001, HelioPower develops proprietary projects with third-party offtakers and currently owns and operates more than 100 energy systems at facilities such as the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and Ronald McDonald House in San Diego.
Home energy upgrades from public utilities are added home energy efficiency and renewable energy features planned or installed by public utilities. Help from a public utility can make it easier for a homeowner to select, install or operate climate-friendly components. The utility might assist with coordinated use of utility-supplied energy, building features, financing, operating options and neighborhood supplied energy.
Octopus Energy Group is a British renewable energy group specialising in sustainable energy. It was founded in 2015 with the backing of British fund management company Octopus Group, a British asset management company. Headquartered in London, England, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. As of September 2021 the company has over three million domestic and business customers, making it the fourth largest energy supplier in the UK.
Sunnova Energy International Inc. is an American solar energy company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2012, Sunnova has quickly emerged as one of the leading providers of residential solar power and energy storage solutions in the United States and several other countries.