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burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, land use and land-use changes (LULUC),
livestock production, fertilization, waste management and industrial processes.
Arbitrage
In the context of energy, energy arbitrage is to purchase electricity during off-peak
times, and selling or releasing it during peak times in order to save or profit off of the
price discrepancy.
B
Backup generator
Also referred to as a standby generator, is a reserve electrical system that can be
used in case of emergency. Backup generators often compensate for a shortage of
power necessary to meet energy demand. Backup generators widely run on fossil
fuels. These are different from generators found in a residential or commercial
setting; primary generators in these sectors are often used in the case of a power
outage.
Balancing authority
An entity that ensures power supply and demand are balanced in order to prevent
large blackouts on the grid. Balancing authorities in the US follow mandatory
reliability standards that are set by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Base load
This is the bare minimum amount of electrical power required on the grid at a given
time (i.e., the minimum level of consumer demand). More often discussed are the
issues of meeting peak load. Also see Peak load.
Base load capacity
This includes all the equipment that typically runs in order to serve electrical demand
on any given basis.
Biofuel