In the energy industry, a fire wall is a distinction which is made between two customer classes or subclasses as a way to insure that any unique treatment given to one class is not applied to the other. Fire walls are used to prevent the charging of residential customers from paying costs associated with serving industrial customers, and may also be used to prevent residential or commercial customers from receiving the same high-volume rates as industrial customers. A fire wall is normally intended to have a neutral effect by insuring that parties on both sides of the fire wall receive fair treatment.

Firewall as a single word has two meanings depending on the context. In computing and computer networks, a firewall is a software configuration scheme or specific software program that prevents some or all data from entering or leaving a given part of a network. In construction or manufacturing, a firewall refers to a protective barrier designed to insure that fires which may start in one area cannot easily spread to neighboring areas. All automobiles made today have firewalls installed between the engine and passenger compartments.

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