Aquila: Better Off Dead?
Bankruptcy may not be better for ratepayers.
In an ironic twist, Aquila now looks more and more like a traditional, stick-to-the-knitting electric utility. There is no longer any unregulated operation to worry about.
Fortnightly Magazine - September 1 2003
People
People for September 2003.
New positions at Mirant, Chesapeake Utilities, Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners, and others.
Byline:
PUF
Letters to the Editor
Letters from Andrew Paterson, a principal at Environmental Business International, and Professor Sheldon Landsberger, Director, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab, University of Texas at Austin.
Byline:
PUF
Cycle Frequencies Drive Turbine Choices
The 50 hertz market is poised for growth as the 60 hertz market levels off.
At the beginning of 2003, 59.2% of the world’s installed generating capacity operated on 50 hertz and 40.8% on 60 hertz. As markets such as Southeast Asia and China, which run on 50 hertz, begin to surpass traditional markets in capacity additions, this balance will shift even further toward 50 hertz.
Byline:
Arnold Leitner
Edison Shrugged
The crisis of confidence in today's power industry is, at its heart, a crisis of ideas.
A market-based system requires that regulators establish a level playing field but not interfere unduly with the game itself.
Byline:
John B. Howe
Bankruptcy Courts vs. FERC Smackdown!
The developing jurisdictional battle over authorizing rejection of wholesale power supply agreements is getting white-hot, pitting creditors against ratepayers.
Creditors and ratepayers are at odds in a high-stakes jurisdictional battle over wholesale power supply agreements. In an industry littered with bankrupt and troubled energy marketers, the issue is more than academic.
Byline:
Howard L. Siegel
The New Dividend Kings
Sizable gains return to the market.
SNL’s safe dividend picks appeared to do well for any market. However, like the fine golden years of the late ’90s for all things technology, recent months have returned sizable gains to investors of energy stocks—not what one would expect from slow growth, dividend-paying electric and gas utilities that make up the majority of the SNL Energy universe.
Byline:
Scott Barclay
The Politics of AMR
The industry continues to debate the costs and technology of automated meter reading, even as some regulators insist on immediate implementation.
Whether a PUC should order AMR implementation may become an issue industrywide. Additionally, the merger of two prominent AMR vendors has executives worried.
Byline:
Lori A. Burkhart and Richard Stavros
Water Heaters to the Rescue: Demand Bidding in Electric Reserve Markets
With just a few changes in reliability rules, regulators could call on consumer loads to boost power reserves for outages and contingencies.
By accommodating loads with limited storage and deploying resources in a more sophisticated manner, grid operators could expand the range of reliability resources. Consider the electric water heater.
Byline:
Eric Hirst and Brendan Kirby
Combined Heat & Power, Revisited
Outdated "wisdom" wastes the nation's electricity infrastructure. Distributed CH&P is the answer.
One of the system’s greatest flaws has been its inefficient — even wasteful — use of fuel resources in the face of opportunities to implement combined heat and power.
Byline:
Gary Nakarado and Holly Thomas