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Fortnightly Magazine - December 2009

3Rs for Power And Demand

Dynamic monitoring and decision systems maximize energy resources.

The operations and planning rules for integrating variable resources aren’t the same across the electric power industry in the United States at present. Opinions are somewhat divided about what these should be, as well as the assessments of potential benefits and costs. In order to support sustainable deployment of variable resources at value, it’s critical to identify major sources of potential problems and to proactively design and implement a systematic framework for managing their unique characteristics as reliably and efficiently as possible.

Byline: 

Marija Ilic

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Nuclear Standoff

Can climate-policy brinksmanship create a sustainable nuclear industry?

American voters dashed the nuclear industry’s hopes for a renaissance last November—or so it seemed. Recent developments in Washington have rekindled those hopes, but will climate-policy brinksmanship lead to a sustainable future for nuclear power?

Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Carbon Solutions

Capture and storage tech developments secure coal’s future.

Capture and sequestration will help ensure the future of coal-fired power plants. Demonstration projects are allowing utilities to kick the tires on the latest technologies, and to learn how CCS will affect operations and economics at state-of-the-art plants.

Byline: 

William Atkinson

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Can We Afford Climate Regulation?

Lawmakers are rushing a costly decision.

Utilities are struggling to predict the costs of greenhouse gas regulation. In the quest for a greener planet, how much should consumers be asked to pay for environmental benefits that might be difficult to measure?

Byline: 

Larry G. Berg

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New Day for Prudence

Pre-approvals demand a new approach to managing risks and costs.

Proving the need for new infrastructure construction for energy purchases has become more complicated for utilities. State commissions reserve the right to revisit rate-base investments after the fact, even when they’ve been pre-approved.

Byline: 

Kris R. Nielsen, Patricia D. Galloway and Charles W. Whitney

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Buying Into Solar

Rewards, challenges and options for rate-based investments.

Utilities traditionally have met renewable portfolio standards with power purchases from IPPs. But new approaches are allowing utilities to build their rate bases with investments in solar generation.

Byline: 

Paul Alvarez and Benjamin Hodges

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Solar Expansion

Technologies are scaling up quickly to meet industry needs.

Like other California electric utilities, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has been scrambling to meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires suppliers to obtain at least 20 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2010. Though the RPS includes a variety of technologies, renewables developers are choosing utility-scale solar power more than any other resource, says Hal La Flash, PG&E’s director of emerging clean technologies.

Byline: 

Scott M. Gawlicki

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Nuclear Standoff - Hope for Change

With the administration and Democratic lawmakers in Congress pushing to enact greenhouse-gas (GHG) regulation, nuclear power has taken center stage as both a clean technology solution and a political bargaining chip. Consequently, the industry’s hopes for new construction projects have brightened considerably. Whether this policy momentum can usher in a sustainable nuclear renaissance, however, remains questionable at best.

Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Nuclear Standoff - Nuclear Breach

Federal failure to fulfill spent-fuel obligations creates expensive risks.

 

For more than 50 years, the federal government has failed to manage spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW), imposing the burdens for this critical function on the private sector. Nuclear plant operators incurred upwards of several hundred million dollars per reactor in uncompensated expense and risk premiums, and potentially face decades of additional costs and risks coping with SNF and HLW.

Byline: 

Stephen Maloney

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