Dictionary of Energy - G

G

Gallon: A volumetric measure equal to 4 quarts (231 cubic inches) used to measure fuel oil. One barrel equals 42 gallons.

Gas: A non-solid, non-liquid combustible energy source that includes natural gas, coke-oven gas, blast-furnace gas, and refinery gas.

Gas cooled fast breeder reactor (GCFB): A fast breeder reactor that is cooled by a gas (usually helium) under pressure.

Gas oil: European and Asian designation for No. 2 heating oil and No. 2 diesel fuel.

Gas plant operator: Any firm, including a gas plant owner, which operates a gas plant and keeps the gas plant records. A gas plant is a facility in which natural gas liquids are separated from natural gas or in which natural gas liquids are fractionated or otherwise separated into natural gas liquid products or both.

Gas processing unit: A facility designed to recover natural gas liquids from a stream of natural gas that may or may not have passed through lease separators and/or field separation facilties. Another function of natural gas processing plants is to control the quality of the processed natural gas stream. Cycling plants are considered natural gas processing plants.

Gas to liquids (GTL): A process that combines the carbon and hydrogen elements in natural gas molecules to make synthetic liquid petroleum products, such as diesel fuel.

Gas turbine plant: A plant in which the prime mover is a gas turbine. A gas turbine consists typically of an axial-flow air compressor and one or more combustion chambers where liquid or gaseous fuel is burned and the hot gases are passed to the turbine and where the hot gases expand drive the generator and are then used to run the compressor.

Gas well: A well completed for production of natural gas from one or more gas zones or reservoirs. Such wells contain no completions for the production of crude oil.

Gas well productivity: Derived annually by dividing gross natural gas withdrawals from gas wells by the number of producing gas wells on December 31 and then dividing the quotient by the number of days in the year.

Gasification: A method for converting coal, petroleum, biomass, wastes, or other carbon-containing materials into a gas that can be burned to generate power or processed into chemicals and fuels.

Gasohol: A blend of finished motor gasoline containing alcohol (generally ethanol but sometimes methanol) at a concentration between 5.7 percent and 10 percent by volume. Also see Oxygenates.

Gasoline: See Motor gasoline (finished).

Gasoline blending components: Naphthas which will be used for blending or compounding into finished aviation or motor gasoline (e.g., straight-run gasoline, alkylate, reformate, benzene, toluene, and xylene). Excludes oxygenates (alcohols, ethers), butane, and pentanes plus.

Gasoline grades: The classification of gasoline by octane ratings. Each type of gasoline (conventional, oxygenated, and reformulated) is classified by three grades - Regular, Midgrade, and Premium. Note: Gasoline sales are reported by grade in accordance with their classification at the time of sale. In general, automotive octane requirements are lower at high altitudes. Therefore, in some areas of the United States, such as the Rocky Mountain States, the octane ratings for the gasoline grades may be 2 or more octane points lower.

• Regular gasoline: Gasoline having an antiknock index, i.e., octane rating, greater than or equal to 85 and less than 88. Note: Octane requirements may vary by altitude.
• Midgrade gasoline: Gasoline having an antiknock index, i.e., octane rating, greater than or equal to 88 and less than or equal to 90. Note: Octane requirements may vary by altitude.
• Premium gasoline: Gasoline having an antiknock index, i.e., octane rating, greater than 90. Note: Octane requirements may vary by altitude.
s or fluids at various depths beneath the surface of the earth. The energy is extracted by drilling and/or pumping.

Gasoline motor, (leaded): Contains more than 0.05 grams of lead per gallon or more than 0.005 grams of phosphorus per gallon. The actual lead content of any given gallon may vary. Premium and regular grades are included, depending on the octane rating. Includes leaded gasohol. Blendstock is excluded until blending has been completed. Alcohol that is to be used in the blending of gasohol is also excluded.

Gate station: Location where the pressure of natural gas being transferred from the transmission system to the distribution system is lowered for transport through small diameter, low pressure pipelines.

Gatherer: A company primarily engaged in the gathering of natural gas from well or field lines for delivery, for a fee, to a natural gas processing plant or central point. Gathering companies may also provide compression, dehydration, and/or treating services.

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP): Defined by the FASB as the conventions, rules, and procedures necessary to define accepted accounting practice at a particular time, includes both broad guidelines and relatively detailed practices and procedures.

Generating facility: An existing or planned location or site at which electricity is or will be produced.

Generating station: A station that consists of electric generators and auxiliary equipment for converting mechanical, chemical, or nuclear energy into electric energy.

Generating unit: Any combination of physically connected generators, reactors, boilers, combustion turbines, and other prime movers operated together to produce electric power.

Generation: The process of producing electric energy by transforming other forms of energy; also, the amount of electric energy produced, expressed in kilowatthours.

Generation company: An entity that owns or operates generating plants. The generation company may own the generation plants or interact with the short-term market on behalf of plant owners.

Generator capacity: The maximum output, commonly expressed in megawatts (MW), that generating equipment can supply to system load, adjusted for ambient conditions.

Generator nameplate capacity: The maximum rated output of a generator under specific conditions designated by the manufacturer. Generator nameplate capacity is usually indicated in units of kilovolt-amperes (kVA) and in kilowatts (kW) on a nameplate physically attached to the generator.

Geologic assurance: State of sureness, confidence, or certainty of the existence of a quantity of resources based on the distance from points where coal is measured or sampled and on the abundance and quality of geologic data as related to thickness of overburden, rank, quality, thickness of coal, areal extent, geologic history, structure, and correlations of coal beds and enclosing rocks. The degree of assurance increases as the nearness to points of control, abundance, and quality of geologic data increases.

Geologic considerations: Conditions in the coal deposit or in the rocks in which it occurs that may complicate or preclude mining. Geologic considerations are evaluated in the context of the current state of technology and regulations, so the impact on mining may change with time.

Geological and geophysical (G&G) costs: Costs incurred in making geological and geophysical studies, including, but not limited to, costs incurred for salaries, equipment, obtaining rights of access, and supplies for scouts, geologists, and geophysical crews.

Geological repository: A mined facility for disposal of radioactive waste that uses waste packages and the natural geology as barriers to provide waste isolation.

Geopressured: A type of geothermal resource occurring in deep basins in which the fluid is under very high pressure.

Geothermal energy: Hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the earth's crust. Water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs can be used for geothermal heat pumps, water heating, or electricity generation.

Geothermal plant: A plant in which the prime mover is a steam turbine. The turbine is driven either by steam produced from hot water or by natural steam that derives its energy from heat found in rock

Geyser: A special type of thermal spring that periodically ejects water with great force.

Giga: One billion.

Gigawatt (GW): One billion watts or one thousand megawatts.

Gigawatt-electric (GWe): One billion watts of electric capacity.

Gigawatthour (GWh): One billion watthours.

Gilsonite: Trademark name for uintaite (or uintahite), a black, brilliantly lustrous natural variety of asphalt found in parts of Utah and western Colorado.

Global climate change: See Climate change.

Global warming: An increase in the near surface temperature of the Earth. Global warming has occurred in the distant past as the result of natural influences, but the term is today most often used to refer to the warming some scientists predict will occur as a result of increased anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.

Global warming potential (GWP): An index used to compare the relative radiative forcing of different gases without directly calculating the changes in atmospheric concentrations. GWPs are calculated as the ratio of the radiative forcing that would result from the emission of one kilogram of a greenhouse gas to that from the emission of one kilogram of carbon dioxide over a fixed period of time, such as 100 years.

Government-owned stocks: Oil stocks owned by the national government and held for national security. In the United States, these stocks are known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Greenhouse effect: The result of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other atmospheric gases trapping radiant (infrared) energy, thereby keeping the earth's surface warmer than it would otherwise be. Greenhouse gases within the lower levels of the atmosphere trap this radiation, which would otherwise escape into space, and subsequent re-radiation of some of this energy back to the Earth maintains higher surface temperatures than would occur if the gases were absent.

Greenhouse gases: Those gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride, that are transparent to solar (short-wave) radiation but opaque to long-wave (infrared) radiation, thus preventing long-wave radiant energy from leaving Earth's atmosphere. The net effect is a trapping of absorbed radiation and a tendency to warm the planet's surface.

Green pricing: In the case of renewable electricity, green pricing represents a market solution to the various problems associated with regulatory valuation of the nonmarket benefits of renewables. Green pricing programs allow electricity customers to express their willingness to pay for renewable energy development through  direct  payments  on their monthly utility bills.

Grid: The layout of an electrical distribution system. See electric power grid.

Gross additions to construction work in progress for the month: This amount should include the monthly gross additions for an electric plant in the process of construction.

Gross company-operated production: Total production from all company-operated properties, including all working and nonworking interests.

Gross domestic product (GDP): The total value of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States. As long as the labor and property are located in the United States, the supplier (that is, the workers and, for property, the owners) may be either U.S. residents or residents of foreign countries.

Gross domestic product (GDP) implicit price deflator: The implicit price deflator, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, is used to convert nominal figures to real figures.

Gross energy intensity: Total consumption of a particular energy source(s) or fuel(s) by a group of buildings, divided by the total floor space of those buildings, including buildings and floor space where the energy source or fuel is not used, i.e., the ratio of consumption to gross floor space.

Gross gas withdrawal: The full-volume of compounds extracted at the wellhead, including nonhydrocarbon gases and natural gas plant liquids.

Gross generation: The total amount of electric energy produced by generating units and measured at the generating terminal in kilowatthours (kWh) or megawatthours (MWh).

Gross head: A dam's maximum allowed vertical distance between the upstream's surface water (headwater) forebay elevation and the downstream's surface water (tailwater) elevation at the tail-race for reaction wheel dams or the elevation of the jet at impulse wheel dams during specified operation and water conditions.

Gross inputs: The crude oil, unfinished oils, and natural gas plant liquids put into atmospheric crude oil distillation units.

Gross input to atmospheric crude oil distillation units: Total input to atmospheric crude oil distillation units. Includes all crude oil, lease condensate, natural gas plant liquids, unfinished oils, liquefied refinery gases, slop oils, and other liquid hydrocarbons produced from tar sands, gilsonite, and oil shale.

Gross national product (GNP): The total value of goods and services produced by the nation's economy before deduction of depreciation charges and other allowances for capital consumption. It includes the total purchases of goods and services by private consumers and government, gross private domestic capital investment, and net foreign trade.

Gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR): Vehicle weight plus carrying capacity.

Gross withdrawals: Full well stream volume, including all natural gas plant liquid and nonhydrocarbon gases, but excluding lease condensate. Also includes amounts delivered as royalty payments or consumed in field operations.

Gross working interest ownership basis: Gross working interest ownership is the respondent's working interest in a given property plus the proportionate share of any royalty interest, including overriding royalty interest, associated with the working interest.

Group: A group is a logical grouping of assemblies with similar characteristics. All assemblies in a group have the same initial average enrichment, the same cycle/reactor history, the same current location, the same burnup, the same owner, and the same assembly type.

Group name: The DOE/EIA-assigned name identifying a composite supply source (i.e., commonly metered gas streams from more than one field), which is often the case in contract areas, field areas, and plants. A group name can also be a pipeline purchase (i.e., FERC Gas Tariff, Canadian Gas, Mexican Gas, and Algerian LNG). Emergency purchases and short term purchases are also group names. Group Code - The DOE/EIA-assigned code identifying a composite supply source.

Group quarters: Living arrangement for institutional groups containing ten or more unrelated persons. Group quarters are typically found in hospitals, nursing or rest homes, military barracks, ships, halfway houses, college dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, convents, monasteries, shelters, jails, and correctional institutions. Group quarters may also be found in houses or apartments shared by ten or more unrelated persons. Group quarters are often equipped with a dining area for residents.

GWe: See Gigawatt-electric above.

Gypsum: Calcium sulfate dihydrate (C_aSO₄ 2H₂O) a sludge constituent from the conventional lime scrubber process, obtained as a byproduct of the dewatering operation and sold for commercial use.