Definitions:

The type of electricity used in most homes and businesses.

A more actual rating of what a solar system will produce, includes energy loss of panels and inverter in less than perfect conditions.

The type of energy solar panels and batteries produce.

All the components that make up the electrical process, from the customers meter to the plant producing energy. This includes transmission lines, power plants, transformers, relay stations etc.

A device that converts DC electricity (from the solar panels) to AC electricity (to connect to the electrical system).

Is usually measured in hours (kWh = kilowatt hours). One Kilowatt-hour is equal to 1,000 watts. Another way to look at it is a kilowatt of electricity can run 10, 100-watt light bulbs for an hour.

Is the lowest cost usage, and is everything not in the peak or partial peak time periods.

Is usually broken into two main categories, Summer Partial Peak, and Winter Partial peak. For PG&E summer partial peak is defined as May 1 to October 31, and Winter as November 1 through April 30. Partial peak during the summer is usually the hours just before and just after peak rates (for example 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm for residential E6 users), and on weekends in the late afternoon, (for example from 5 pm to 8 pm for residential E6 customers).

Defined differently by each utility. PG&E defines the peak time of the year as May – October, Monday through Friday. For a business (A6) the time is from noon to 6 pm and for residential (E6) from 1 pm to 7 pm.

The rates PG&E charges for a customer. These can be residential, commercial or agriculture, and many rate schedules exist in each category.
See PG&E ELECTRIC SCHEDULES

The factory rating in KiloWatts of a solar system (number of panels times their wattage).

Time of Use metering is a rate tariff that bills differently, depending on the time of year, and the time of day. Most TOU meters break up billing into summer and winter, and further into partial peak, and off peak.

Usually used to raise or lower voltage and current, while keeping the frequency of the energy the same. A typical use of a transformer is to raise voltage and current over long electrical runs (i.e. power lines), to minimize the wire size and voltage drop (loss), and then lowering the voltage and current so a home or business can utilize it.