The Paradox of Inclining Block Rates
What goes up doesn’t always come down.
Two California-based utilities are studied to determined if inclining block rates can be used to promote energy efficiency.
Energy Storage: Out of the Lab and Onto the Grid
As deployments take hold, real-world challenges abound.
Energy storage has advanced rapidly, leaving the lab and entering a phase of deployment on the grid. Storage's advancements are a result of its promise as well as the tireless support of industry stakeholders who modeled, tested, evaluated and demonstrated the technology.
Market Manipulation: Staying a Step Ahead
Law, compliance, and case management – plus the blurred boundary between FERC and CFTC.
In the aftermath of 2000-2001 energy crisis, Congress provided federal regulators more authority to crack down on fraud. To do so, FERC must show that the actor possessed the requisite state of mind and establish a connection between the alleged manipulative action and an interstate transportation or sale for resale of natural gas or electricity.
Securing the Smart Grid
Questions and answers on consumer privacy and threats to the grid – both physical and cyber.
The economic argument for investments in the smart grid is clear: the payback from those technologies in the U.S. is likely three to six times greater than the money invested, and grows with each sequence of grid improvement.
EPA, NERC and Reliability
Expect more analysis – more scenarios, more detail – as state compliance plans become better known.
As things stand today, even without the Clean Power Plan, we expect to see the retirement of more than 6 percent of North America’s generation capacity by 2030.
Transactions (April 2015)
Chesapeake Utilities agreed to acquire Gatherco for $59.2 million, merging it into wholly-owned subsidiary Aspire Energy of Ohio; Canadian Solar agreed with Sharp Corp. to acquire Recurrent Energy for $265 million; Iberdrola USA agreed to acquire UIL Holdings and create a newly listed U.S. publicly-traded company with a rate base of approximately $8.3 billion; Plus debt offerings from Williams Partners and Cheniere Energy.
People (April 2015)
FirstEnergy elected Samuel L. Belcher as president and chief nuclear officer; Dayton Power and Light named Tom Raga president and CEO; PSEG announced the retirement of Thomas P. Joyce, president and chief nuclear officer; Turkish economist Dr. Fatih Birol to be executive director of the International Energy Agency; Plus board of directors appointments at NextEra Energy, Ameren, IDACORP, PG&E and Entergy, and changes at Southern Company, Avista, PSEG Power, The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and California Public Utilities Commission.
Creative Disruption
Today’s technologies are causing utilities to rethink their business models.
Fifteen years into the 21st Century, the utility industry is being asked to think forward, beyond 2050. To some, that's a bit of a stretch for a mostly regulated enterprise that has been producing power and sending the electrons reliably for the last 150 years or so. To many others, though, it's past time for an evolution.
Toshiba to Participate in Large-scale Hydrogen Research Project in Scotland
Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2015-03-25 14:27Toshiba will participate in the Levenmouth Community Energy Project in Fife, Scotland, a 4-year project to investigate the potential of hydrogen as a future fuel. The project will run from 2015 to 2020 in a redevelopment area of the Methil Docks in Methil, Fife. Electricity generated by wind and solar power will be used to power a hydrogen producing water electrolysis system, and the hydrogen will be stored and used as a fuel source for hybrid commercial vehicles (HCV) powered by fuel cells and diesel engines.