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Energy & Renewables vocabulary · Energy Markets and Tariffs

Tariff

Meaning in energy & renewables, with examples

/ˈtærɪf/nounCore term

In energy & renewables, tariff means: The set of prices and rules that decides how much a customer pays for electricity or gas, for example per kWh, per month or by time of day.

In Turkish: tarife, elektrik tarifesi

How it is used

Used by regulators, suppliers and customers. Tariffs are set, approved, raised and cut. Common types are residential and commercial tariffs, flat-rate tariffs and time-of-use tariffs with different peak and off-peak prices. Americans often say rate instead.

Example sentences

  1. With a time-of-use tariff, running the dishwasher at night saves money.

  2. The regulator approved new electricity tariffs for the next quarter.

Common collocations

  • time-of-use tariff
  • electricity tariff
  • residential tariff
  • tariff increase
  • set tariffs
  • feed-in tariffA support scheme that guarantees renewable energy producers a fixed price for each kWh they feed into the grid, usually for 10 to 20 years.
  • peak demandThe highest level of electricity demand in a given period, such as a day or a year, which the power system must be able to supply.
  • smart meterAn electricity or gas meter that records consumption at short intervals and sends the data automatically to the supplier or network operator.
  • utilityA company that supplies electricity, gas or water to the public and often owns or runs the network that delivers it. In energy texts it usually means a power company.
  • kilowatt-hourA unit of energy equal to using or producing 1,000 watts of power for one hour. Household electricity bills and many energy statistics are given in kWh.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Energy Markets and Tariffs

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