History teaches us that the most successful American businesses emerge from the crucible of competition.
Important challenges still confront the development of a coherent strategy to create an efficient modern transmission system. Assuming FERC and Congress are earnest about creating a 21st century grid, new ideas, projects, and technologies need to emerge.
Commodity price upheavals are energizing gas utilities to evolve their business models.
Top officials at several U.S. retail gas companies reveal how they are rethinking their business models and developing new approaches to serve customers in the face of supply concerns and price volatilities.
Congress gives FERC an impossible task: Craft long-term transmission rights to save native load from paying grid congestion costs.
If “perfect” be the enemy of the “good,” then look no further for proof than in Federal Power Act section 217(b)(4), enacted by Congress in EPACT 2005.
Should FERC look to all Securities and Exchange Commission precedent for a model?
New regulations from FERC to prevent energy industry market manipulation take deep root in securities industry law. Modeled in part on the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) outlaws direct or indirect use or employment of manipulative or deceptive devices or contrivances in energy industries FERC regulates under the Natural Gas Act (NGA), the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA), and the Federal Power Act (FPA).
Market risks and volatilities are driving asset values higher.
About 10 percent of the power-generating capacity in the United States has changed hands in the past three years. How buyers factor the variables and predict the future will distinguish winners from losers in the evolving power-generation industry.
The search for supply goes global, for better or worse.
The expected increase in gas consumption for electric generation and high commodity prices has fueled a renewed interest in developing more LNG and other non-conventional resources (coal-bed methane, tight sands and shales, Arctic gas)
(May 2006) Kinder Morgan Inc. named Steve Kean executive vice president and COO, and Larry Pierce was named vice president, corporate communications. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. completed the purchase of PacifiCorp from ScottishPower and announced new staffing. Progress Energy named Jeffrey J. Lyash president and CEO of Progress Energy Florida. Westar Energy Inc. announced several changes in leadership. And others...
Kyoto countries miss their targets, but scientists say climate change was already unstoppable.
Hollywood and the media are way ahead of the politicians when it comes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. But even as utilities try to be good corporate citizens and help devise a federal or national plan, the question remains as to whether the domestic economy can achieve even a modest reduction in CO2 releases—enough to put even a small dent in current predictions of global climate change.
What will it take for broadband over power line (BPL) technology to take hold? Is BPL on track to become, as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) once contemplated, the “third broadband pipe into residential consumers’ homes, providing significant competition for cable and DSL service,” and an integral part of the 21st century “smart grid”?
The time has come to start the transition from the current economic demand-response programs to demand response that arises naturally through market-based retail pricing.
Over the past few decades, utility sponsored conservation and load-management programs have helped thousands of customers better manage their energy costs. While these programs have helped lower overall electricity use, they generally have not provided an economic incentive for customers to reduce their consumption at specific times in response to wholesale electricity prices.