Catching Fire
Climate policy heats up after the Great Recession.
GHG rules are coming soon. What happens next will depend on how states react.
Generation & Markets
Digest
Danish utility orders 582 MW of Siemens offshore wind turbines; Maui Electric contracts Greenlots and ABB for electric vehicle fast-charging system; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts Eaton for alternative energy and conservation projects at army facilities; Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy acquire SunEdison project in California; FERC approves Columbia Gas and Williams Partners pipeline expansion projects; plus contracts and announcements from Entergy, ITC Holdings, California ISO, PG&E, MidAmerican Transmission, Citizens Energy, CPS Energy, and others.
Digest
Siemens and Accenture joint venture on smart grid management systems; CenterPoint picks Itron for RF meter rollout; Memphis picks Elster electric, gas, and water AMI system; TransAlta acquires Wyoming wind farm from NextEra; NRG acquires Edison Mission Energy assets; Google to invest in Imperial Valley solar project; Sempra acquires Nebraska wind project; plus contracts and announcements from Babcock & Wilcox, Echelon, PJM, California ISO, and others.
Digest
Duke Energy Renewables begins construction on 5-MW solar project in North Carolina; Duke and Integrys partner with Canadian Solar and Community Energy Solar on 3-MW PV project; First Wind contracts for 333 MW in Massachusetts; EDF Renewable Energy buys into 20-MW anaerobic digester plant; AEP to retire Tanners Creek 4 coal plant; Opelika Power Services selects Tantalus for fiber-based triple-play system; ABB wins substation contract in Brazil and commissions offshore wind transmission link in Europe; Arista Power to develop microgrid system for U.S. Army facility; plus announcements and contracts from Standard Solar, ComEd, British Gas, Tenaska, and others.
Are Competitive Solicitations Actually Competitive?
Bidding, transparency, and foregone conclusions in Big Sky Country.
PURPA wars are heating up again, and self-dealing conflicts are re-emerging. A Montana commissioner identifies weaknesses in supply procurement processes.
Productivity Plateau
A mature industry faces a worrying round of hype.
Are we languishing, or working off a 20th-century legacy? Gartner’s hype cycle suggests the latter, as new technologies start producing value.
Digest
ABB energizes 500 MW HVDC line; MISO installs synchrophasors; Xcel plans transmission upgrades in Texas Panhandle; Panda orders power blocks from Siemens for Pennsylvania project; EdF starts operations at 110 MW solar project in Mojave Desert; plus contracts and announcements from Sensus, DTE, Calpine, PSNM, First Solar, NRG, and others.
America’s Energy Future: So Who Are the Good Guys?
Not just ‘all of the above,’ but ‘how much of each?’
For proponents of a clean energy economy, identifying the “good guys” is no easy task.
Digest
ComEd selects GE for 4 million smart meters; Duquesne contracts Itron for 625,000 smart meters; Consumers Energy plans 700-MW combined-cycle plant; Phoenix Solar contracts for 39-MW PV plant; NRG starts operation at two 20-MW PV plants in California; Edison files suit against Mitsubishi for SONGS defects; FirstEnergy plans 2 GW of coal-plant shutdowns; FERC approves PacifiCorp tie-in with Cal ISO; PSEG commissions EV-charging facilities; plus announcements and contracts involving Toshiba, Direct Energy, Alstom, and others.
Reliability by the Barrel
New England turns to fuel oil for the coming winter.
Burning oil when gas supplies are tight increases costs for customers. Is it also discriminatory?