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Glossary
- Biodiesel
- Diesel fuel derived from plant or animal sources.
- Bioethanol
- A form of alcohol derived from plant or animal sources. May be blended in low concentrations with petrol and used in conventional petrol vehicles, or used in higher concentrations in specially modified petrol vehicles.
- Biofuels
- Any (generally liquid) fuel derived from plant or animal sources, including biodiesel
- Biomass
- Any (generally solid) organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis, including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crop residues, wood and wood wastes, animal wastes and other waste materials.
- Business as usual
- "Business as usual" is used in New Zealand's Energy Outlook to 2030 as a neither optimistic nor pessimistic view of New Zealand's energy future. Business as usual can be forecast with the least number of controversial assumptions about how the world will change in the future, with the additional advantage that it can be used to gauge the impact of actual and/or possible policy actions.
- Carbon capture and storage
- A technology under which carbon dioxide is extracted from the flue gases of power plants or industrial facilities and injected back into geological structures, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unminable coal beds, or deep saline aquifers.
- Carbon dioxide
- Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a naturally occurring gas, and also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and biomass, as well as of land-use changes and other industrial processes. It is the most important man-made greenhouse gas.
- Carbon sequestration
- Any process for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. May be natural (such as forests) or artificial (see Carbon capture and storage above).
- Climate change
- Increasing industrialisation and human activity (such as industry, agriculture and transportation) are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and causing Earth not only to heat up, but to heat up at an unprecedented rate. This effect is known as global warming. Since this warming will also affect our weather patterns and climatic conditions, we refer to it as climate change.
- CO2-e or CO2-equivalent
- Measures the combined climate changing potential of emissions of multiple greenhouse gases. Emissions of each gas are converted to an amount of CO2 that would cause the same climate change impact and summed.
- Combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT)
- A gas turbine whose exhaust is used to heat a boiler, allowing generators to be driven by both a gas turbine and a steam turbine.
- Consumer energy
- The amount of energy used by consumers, excluding energy used or lost in the process of transforming primary energy into other forms - such as electricity - and transporting it.
- Cost curve
- A graphical representation relationship between the cost and quantity of a good or service.
- Cost-effective
- Utilising a specified amount of money in a way that delivers the largest benefits from all available alternative uses (minimise opportunity cost).
- Distributed generation
- Any electricity generation facility that produces electricity for use at the point of location, or supplies electricity to other consumers through a local lines distribution network.
- Economic potential
- For the purposes of the NEECS, economic potential is the fraction of overall technical potential that can theoretically be realised in the market based on cost-benefit analysis and assuming full uptake rates.
- EECA
- The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, whose role is to encourage, promote and support energy efficiency, energy conservation and the use of renewable energy sources in accordance with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000.
- Electricity Commission
- A Crown entity established under the Electricity Act to oversee New Zealand's electricity industry and markets.
- Electricity system
- The electricity system comprises electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption.
- Emissions trading
- An emissions trading scheme creates a responsibility for a defined group of emitters to hold tradable units or allowances to match some or all of their greenhouse gas emissions over a defined period. Entities subject to the scheme are able to either reduce their own emissions or trade units or allowances to meet their obligations.
- Energy efficiency
- Any measure of the ratio of useful energy services to energy input. For the purposes of the NEECS, energy efficiency is defined by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2000 as a change to energy use that results in an increase in net benefits per unit of energy used.
- Energy productivity
- Gross domestic product per unit of energy - the inverse of economic energy intensity. It can be specified at an economy-wide level or at a sector level.
- Energy security
- Energy security has two key dimensions, reliability and resilience. Reliability means users are able to access the energy services they require, when they require them. Resilience is the ability of the system to cope with shocks and change.
- Energy system
- An energy system includes all forms of energy (such as electricity, transport fuel, and direct uses) and all aspects of the process that takes energy from producers or generators and transports that energy to the final consumers.
- Environmental sustainability
- A movement towards redesigning the ways society's needs and wants are met so that they can be accommodated within the long-term carrying capacity of the environment.
- Externality
- Occurs when an action impacts on parties (either negatively or positively) not directly involved in the activity and these impacts are not reflected in the cost or price of the goods or services being produced.
- Fossil fuels
- Coal, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), crude oil and fuels derived from crude oil, including petrol and diesel. They are fossil fuels because they have been formed over long periods of time from ancient organic matter.
- Greenhouse gases
- Atmospheric gases that retain more energy from outgoing infra red radiation than from incoming solar radiation. Man-made greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (NO). Nearly half of New Zealand's total emissions are produced by agriculture, predominantly methane from farm animals and nitrous oxide from soils and fertilisers. However, the principal growth in New Zealand's emissions comes from increased carbon dioxide (CO2), primarily from the energy sector. Most of this increase has come from transport and electricity generation.
- Greenhouse gas pricing
- Placing a value on greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. through a carbon tax or emissions trading system), which internalises the environmental cost of the emissions and creates an incentive for actions to reduces such emissions.
- Hybrid vehicle
- A vehicle that is powered by a combination of petrol and electricity.
- Incentive
- An inducement for a firm or an individual to behave in a way that is consistent with their own best interests.
- Kyoto Protocol
- A 1997 international agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to address climate change, which sets greenhouse gas emission targets for developed countries.
- Lignite
- A low-grade brown or soft coal that burns less efficiently, producing particulates and more greenhouse gas emissions than high-quality coals.
- LNG - Liquefied natural gas
- Natural gas that has been converted to a liquid by chilling it to extremely low temperatures. Natural gas is frequently moved by ship in the form of LNG.
- Low carbon
- To minimise carbon dioxide emissions from a human activity.
- LPG - Liquefied petroleum gas
- It consists of propane (60%) and butane (about 40%). LPG is a gas at room temperature, but is a liquid under pressure.
- Marine energy
- Energy generated from forces in the marine environment such as tidal and wave energy.
- Market barriers to energy efficiency
- Features of the market for energy services that are thought to prevent uptake of existing opportunities to use energy more efficiently.
- Maui contract gas
- Gas from the Maui field that is produced under a "take or pay" contract with the Crown at a fixed price that tends to be lower than the market price for natural gas.
- National Environmental Standard
- Central government regulation under the RMA of activities that affect the environment, which overrides the rules that are contained in the district and regional plans of local government. See Electricity Transmission Reference Group Information Sheet 1 - An Introduction to the Process.
- National grid
- The national grid delivers electricity throughout the country, using a network of transmission lines, substations and a control system that matches generation to demand. See The National Grid [link to Transpower website].
- National Policy Statement
- A document issued by the Minister for the Environment under the RMA, which affects the way natural and physical resources are managed in relation to a matter of national significance. Local authorities must change their district and regional plans to give effect to these national objectives and policies. See Electricity Transmission Reference Group Information Sheet 1 - An Introduction to the Process.
- NEECS
- The National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy is developed in conjunction between EECA and the Ministry for the Environment and sets the agenda for government programmes to promote greater energy efficiency, energy conservation and the use of renewable energy across the economy in accordance with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.
- Peak oil
- The phrase used to describe the point when worldwide production of conventional crude oil peaks in volume, which is expected to result in an increase in oil prices from a decline in the availability of cheap and easily accessible oil sources.
- Petajoule
-
Energy can be measured in joules. The joule is the international unit of energy.
A petajoule = 1015 (one quadrillion) joules. It is the unit most often used to measure energy production and use on a national scale. One petajoule is roughly equivalent to:
- all the electricity used in Nelson in a year
- a coastal tanker load of 25,000,000 litres of oil
- over 10 days' output from the Huntly power station at full capacity.
- Photovoltaic
- A solar energy technology that uses semiconductor materials to convert sunlight directly into electricity.
- Policy measures
- Actions developed to address a perceived problem or further a government objective. Can include regulatory, fiscal, or information based tools.
- Primary energy
- Energy as it is first obtained from natural sources. Does not include electricity or refined petroleum products.
- Projects to Reduce Emissions
- A government programme providing Kyoto Protocol carbon credits to projects that will reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions during the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (2008-2012).
- Realisable potential
- Realisable potential is the fraction of overall technical and economic potential that can actually be realised in the market including the new expanded market potential that the strategy is expected to realise.
- Renewable energy
- A form of energy that can be produced indefinitely without depletion including solar, wind, hydro, biomass, tidal, wave and ocean current sources. Geothermal energy is considered renewable, although geothermal fields can be depleted if fluids are extracted at a higher rate than they are replenished.
- RMA - Resource Management Act
- The Resource Management Act 1991, which regulates the use of New Zealand's regional natural resources.
- Smart meters
- A smart meter can track how much electricity a consumer uses and when it is used. Smart meters can send/receive data i.e. sending usage data to an electricity company.
- Stationary energy
- All energy production and consumption including electricity and direct uses of energy for heating and industrial processes but excluding transport.
- Technology taker
- An entity that receives technology developed elsewhere and adapts that technology for its own needs rather than independently developing a unique technology for itself.
- Watt
-
Energy can be measured in watts. A watt is the unit of power, which is the amount of work done or energy transferred in a unit of time.
A megawatt (MW) is one million watts. It is the standard unit for electricity generation capacity. One megawatt of capacity is enough to supply the peak electricity needs of about 500 households. New Zealand's largest power station at Huntly has a capacity of 1,000 MW.
- Watt hour
- A gigawatt-hour (GWh) is one billion watts of power over an hour. It is the standard unit for measuring electricity production on a national scale. The 1,000 megawatt (1 gigawatt) Huntly power station running at full capacity for one hour would produce a gigawatt-hour of electricity. Total annual electricity production in New Zealand is about 40,000 GWh.
- Wholesale electricity market
- A computerised trading system enabling electricity purchasers, including retailers and large power users, to buy electricity from generators. It includes a half-hourly spot market, longer-term contract markets, and security and reserves markets.
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