A power primer

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Wholesale power market: where surplus electricity is bought and sold among generators, dealers and utilities. Power can be bought years in advance, or be used immediately.

Spot market: a trading forum in which energy is sold for use the next day or the next hour. By contrast, a forward or futures market allows trading for power to be delivered in future months or years.

Megawatt-hour: A flow of one million watts for an hour. Enough electricity to power approximately 715 Northwest homes for an hour.

Mid-C or Mid-Columbia: the main wholesale electricity marketplace for the Northwest.

Risk management: strategies used by energy traders or utilities managers to minimize exposure to risk when prices swing rapidly up and down.

Risk limits: policies that utility managers set up to prevent losses.

Deregulation: a series of actions by Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, stepped up in the 1990s, that opened the sale of energy in wholesale markets and transmission of power over wires to all comers. Some states also deregulated at the retail level, meaning customers could buy electricity from any source they please.