Association of Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity

Accumulated benefit obligation; the liabilities of a pension plan based on service and pay to date, which differs from the PBO in that it does not reflect expected future salary increases

Allowance for borrowed and equity funds used during construction

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

Asset retirement obligation

A residential/commercial real estate area located near Petoskey, Michigan, in which CMS Energy sold its interest in 2002

Billion cubic feet

Big Rock Point nuclear power plant, formerly owned by Consumers Energy

British thermal unit

The Clean Air Interstate Rule

Cantera Gas Company L.L.C., a non‑affiliated company, formerly known as CMS Field Services

Cantera Natural Gas, Inc., a non‑affiliated company that purchased CMS Field Services

Chief Accounting Officer

Coal combustion residual

Chief Executive Officer

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980

Chief Financial Officer

An arrangement made for the point at which a local distribution company physically receives gas from a supplier or pipeline

Federal Clean Air Act of 1963, as amended

Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, as amended

CMS Capital, L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy

CMS Energy Corporation, the parent of Consumers Energy and CMS Enterprises

CMS Enterprises Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy

CMS Energy Resource Management Company, formerly known as CMS MST, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises

CMS Field Services, Inc., a former wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Gas Transmission

CMS Gas Transmission Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises

CMS Land Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Capital

CMS Marketing, Services and Trading Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises, whose name was changed to CMS ERM in 2004

CMS Viron Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS ERM

Consumers Energy Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy

Consumers Funding L.L.C., a wholly owned consolidated bankruptcy-remote subsidiary of Consumers Energy and special-purpose entity organized for the sole purpose of purchasing and owning Securitization property, issuing Securitization bonds, and pledging its interest in Securitization property to a trustee to collateralize the Securitization bonds

The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

Defined Benefit Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

Defined Contribution Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan

Defined Company Contribution Plan

Dearborn Industrial Generation, L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dearborn Industrial Energy, L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Justice

DTE Electric Company, a non‑affiliated company

DTE Gas Company, a non‑affiliated company

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization

Employer Group Waiver Plan

EnerBank USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Capital

Entergy Corporation, a non‑affiliated company

Environmentally beneficial projects that a party agrees to undertake as part of the settlement of an enforcement action, but which the party is not otherwise legally required to perform

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Earnings per share

Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in diameter

The indenture dated as of September 1, 1945 between Consumers and The Bank of New York Mellon, as Trustee, as amended and supplemented

Trust formed in Missouri bankruptcy court to accomplish the liquidation of Farmland Industries, Inc., a non‑affiliated entity

First mortgage bond

Finding of Violation

Financial transmission right

U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

Gas Customer Choice, which allows gas customers to purchase gas from alternative suppliers

Gas cost recovery

Genesee Power Station Limited Partnership, a VIE in which HYDRA‑CO Enterprises, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises, has a 50 percent interest

Grayling Generating Station Limited Partnership, a VIE in which HYDRA‑CO Enterprises, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises, has a 50 percent interest

Gigawatt-hour, a unit of energy equal to one billion watt-hours

Comprehensive health care reform enacted in March 2010, comprising the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the related Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act

Internal Revenue Service

Thousand volts, a unit used to measure the difference in electrical pressure along a current

Thousand volt-amperes, a unit used to reflect the electrical power capacity rating of equipment or a system

Kilowatt-hour, a unit of energy equal to one thousand watt-hours

The London Interbank Offered Rate

Ludington pumped-storage plant, jointly owned by Consumers Energy and DTE Electric

Maximum Achievable Control Technology, which is the emission control that is achieved in practice by the best-controlled similar source

Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which limit mercury, acid gases, and other toxic pollution from coal-fueled and oil-fueled power plants

Michigan Business Tax

Thousand cubic feet

Michigan Corporate Income Tax

A 1,647 MW gas-fueled, combined-cycle cogeneration facility operated by the MCV Partnership

Midland Cogeneration Venture Limited Partnership

PPA between Consumers Energy and the MCV Partnership

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality

A pending multi-district litigation case in Nevada arising out of several consolidated cases

Manufactured gas plant

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.

To place a generating unit into a state of extended reserve shutdown in which the unit is inactive and unavailable for service for a specified period, during which the unit can be brought back into service after receiving appropriate notification and completing any necessary maintenance or other work; generation owners in MISO must request approval to mothball a unit, and MISO then evaluates the request for reliability impacts

Michigan Public Service Commission

Market-related value of plan assets

Megawatt, a unit of power equal to one million watts

Megawatt-hour, a unit of energy equal to one million watt-hours

Net asset value

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a non‑affiliated company responsible for developing and enforcing reliability standards, monitoring the bulk power system, and educating and certifying industry personnel

Notice of Violation

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, a permit system for regulating point sources of pollution under the Clean Water Act

Part 201 of the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, a statute that covers environmental activities including remediation

New Source Review, a construction-permitting program under the Clean Air Act

The New York Mercantile Exchange

Other Post-Employment Benefits

Defined benefit post-retirement healthcare and life insurance plans of CMS Energy, Consumers Energy, and Panhandle

Palisades nuclear power plant, sold by Consumers Energy to Entergy in 2007

Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, a former wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Gas Transmission

Projected benefit obligation

Polychlorinated biphenyl

Trusteed, non‑contributory, defined benefit pension plan of CMS Energy, Consumers Energy, and Panhandle

Performance Incentive Stock Plan

Power purchase agreement

Power supply cost recovery

Prevention of Significant Deterioration

Renewable energy credit established under the 2008 Energy Law

ReliabilityFirst Corporation, a non‑affiliated company responsible for the preservation and enhancement of bulk power system reliability and security

Michigan’s Title V permitting program under the Clean Air Act

Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976

Routine maintenance, repair, and replacement

Retail Open Access, which allows electric generation customers to choose alternative electric suppliers pursuant to a Michigan statute enacted in 2000

Standard & Poor’s Financial Services L.L.C.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

A financing method authorized by statute and approved by the MPSC which allows a utility to sell its right to receive a portion of the rate payments received from its customers for the repayment of securitization bonds issued by a special-purpose entity affiliated with such utility

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Consumers’ Smart Energy grid modernization project, which includes the installation of smart meters that transmit and receive data, a two-way communications network, and modifications to Consumers’ existing information technology system to manage the data and enable changes to key business processes

T.E.S. Filer City Station Limited Partnership, a VIE in which HYDRA‑CO Enterprises, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Enterprises, has a 50 percent interest

A federal program under the Clean Air Act designed to standardize air quality permits and the permitting process for major sources of emissions across the U.S.

Trunkline Gas Company, L.L.C., a non‑affiliated company and wholly owned subsidiary of Panhandle

Total shareholder return

United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC

Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO

Voluntary employees’ beneficiary association trusts accounts established specifically to set aside employer-contributed assets to pay for future expenses of the OPEB Plan

Variable interest entity