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Beware of Vertical Arrangements for Gas Procurement

Owning gas reserves benefits consumers?

Regulators should start with the premise that long-term contracting with an independent gas producer or middleman is preferable (e.g., with a marketer). Vertical arrangements pose a number of tough questions for state public utility regulators.
Byline: 

Kenneth Costello

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Line Dividing Regulation and Management

Utility performance, investment versus dividends, rate of return incentives

Generally speaking, regulatory commissions and courts are not anxious to substitute their judgement for that of utility management. A recent example where state regulators found it prudent to gingerly cross the line can be seen in a recent case involving Indianapolis Power and Light Company.
Byline: 

Phil Cross

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Getting Berned

What’s the price tag of banning fracking?

Ironically, a ban on fracking would increase coal generation, which emits carbon dioxide at twice the rate of gas generation.
Byline: 

Steve Huntoon

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EPRI Explores Augmented Reality to Improve Grid Reliability

Innovating Like Edison: Utility workers with superpowers?

Smart meters are a reality but are smart poles and smart helmets right behind them? Often in the form of wearable computers or “wearables,” devices are potentially able to communicate from an endless variety of devices in the form of visual cues and data, sound, and even information based on touch.
Byline: 

John Simmins

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Tax Implications of NEM Successor Policies

Federal income tax treatment has nothing to do with pricing sale of electricity to utility or customer.

Advocates for net metering argue that if the electricity delivered by the customer to the utility is credited at the full retail rate, the amount is not taxable, but if credited at less than the full retail rate, such as under a feed-in tariff or a value of solar tariff, the IRS might count the credited amount as taxable income. A tax expert fills us in on the other side of the story.
Byline: 

Alex Zakupowsky

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Chasing the Uncatchable

Why trying to fix mandatory capacity markets is like trying to win a game of Whack-A-Mole (Parts I & II)

FERC has little to show for more than a decade of tinkering with mandatory capacity markets.
Byline: 

Delia D. Patterson and Harvey L. Reiter

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