Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to statewide government monopolies .
Utility software is a program specifically designed to help manage and tune system or application software. It is used to support the computer infrastructure - in contrast to application software , which is aimed at directly performing tasks that benefit ordinary users.
Integrated resource planning (IRP, also least-cost utility planning, LCUP) is a form of least-cost planning used by the public utilities. The goal is to meet the expected long-term growth of demand with minimal cost, using a wide selection of means, from supply-side (increasing production and/or purchasing the supply) to demand-side (reducing the consumption). [1]
A utility program is designed to aid system administration and software execution. Operating systems execute hardware utility programs to check the status of disk drives, memory, speakers, and printers. [140] A utility program may optimize the placement of a file on a crowded disk. System utility programs monitor hardware and network performance.
Utility computing, or computer utility, is a service provisioning model in which a service provider makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to the customer as needed, and charges them for specific usage rather than a flat rate. Like other types of on-demand computing (such as grid computing), the utility model seeks to ...
These models usually involve the calculation of cycle stocks and buffer stocks, the latter usually modeled as a function of demand variability. The economic production quantity [48] (EPQ) differs from the EOQ model only in that it assumes a constant fill rate for the part being produced, instead of the instantaneous refilling of the EOQ model.
PURPA, however, established a class of non‐utility generators, called Qualifying Facilities (QFs), that were permitted to produce power for resale. PURPA was intended to reduce domestic dependence on foreign energy, to encourage energy conservation, and to reduce the ability of electric utilities to abuse the purchase of power from QFs.
A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a long-term contract between an electricity generator and a customer, usually an utility, government or company. [1] [2] PPAs may last anywhere between 5 and 20 years, during which time the power purchaser buys energy at a pre-negotiated price.