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One in Seventy-One Dollars Spent on Electricity

Last week’s Commerce Dept. GDP report: April 2016 was second-lowest April ever for electricity expenditures

Last week the Commerce Department published its estimate of the Gross Domestic Product through April. And the numerous components of the GDP. 

Including consumer expenditures on everything from window coverings to spirits to flowers, seeds, potted plants to lotteries to dentists to ... electricity.

In April, consumption expenditures totaled 12,645.7 billion dollars, on an annual basis. About 12.7 trillion. 

Expenditures on electricity were 177.6 billion dollars, again annualized. About 0.2 trillion.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Received Your June Issue of PUF?

92 pages, 20 articles, 24 authors including Flaherty, Jensen, Patterson, Hyman, etc., columns by EPRI and Nat. Governors Assn.

To whet your appetite for the June issue of PUF, here are three excerpts from my interview with Jim Fama, on his last day before retiring as EEI's vice pres. for transmission and distribution. An amazing career.

 

"Disney World was one of our partial requirements customers [at Florida Power Corp.]. 

One of my very first trips over there, I went to Epcot for a contract negotiation. Every one of their guys had a Disney 'My name is Bob' badge. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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David Bowie, Nikola Tesla and The Iron Giant

It takes Hogarth to pull down a massive off-switch to disconnect and save Iron Giant and protect grid assets.

Tesla and Edison have been depicted in a number of films over the years. “The Secret of Nikola Tesla” was a 1980 biopic made in Yugoslavia. “The Prestige” was a 2006 thriller, and in the role of Nikola Tesla, David Bowie in his final picture.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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James Maxwell and Charles Coulomb

June Birthdays

On June 14, 1736, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was born in France.

The name might seem vaguely familiar. In an electrical engineering or physics class that you struggled to keep awake in, the prof defined the unit of electric charge.

The coulomb, or just C, is the unit of electric charge. It is the charge transported by a constant electrical current of one ampere in one second.

C comes into plays in capacitance, the storing of charge. C is also the amount of excess charge on a capacitor of one farad charged to a potential difference of one volt.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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First Look at 2015 CO2 Emission Trends for the U.S.

Part 2 – Electric Power Sector

Shifts in the generation mix in recent years have had an enormous impact on carbon dioxide emissions. For 2015, the carbon intensity of total generation was more than 20 percent lower than in 2005, accounting for 476 million metric tons in reductions. The dramatic decline is our focus here in Part 2.
Byline: 

Daniel Klein

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Who Are You Guys?

I asked ACS.

ACS, Advanced Control Systems, a high-tech company based in Atlanta, is a go-to, real-time energy management solution provider of the highest quality innovative products.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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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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