PJM Addresses Local Supply Issues

Electric shortages and the generation overbuild continue to co-exist.

While maintaining its stance as the most sophisticated competitive electricity market in the country, PJM still faces several challenges, all of which are augmented by its expanded footprint. Most prominent is the RTO’s plan to implement a new reliability pricing model. Further, parts of PJM are ailing from transmission congestion issues that limit access to abundant, cheap power sources in the region.

One Nation, Two Markets

EEI’s David K. Owens seeks incremental improvements to competitive markets.

For a front-line perspective on FERC’s policy direction, we asked one of the industry’s most prominent policy representatives, David K. Owens at the Edison Electric Institute, to provide his take on FERC’s competition conference and Order 890.

People

(April 2007) FPL Group Inc. announced that Toni Jennings was elected to the company’s board of directors. Sierra Pacific Resources announced that Michael W. Yackira was elected president and COO and a member of the company’s board of directors, and Brian J. Kennedy was elected to the company’s board of directors. The board of directors of PG&E Corp. elected Thomas B. King as the corporation’s president. Energy East Corp. announced that its board of directors promoted Richard R. Benson, Robert D. Kump and F. Michael McClain. And others...

Basic Instinct

If private equity makes a killing, Congress should require full disclosure.

There’s just no stopping it. The capital amassed by private takeover firms is simply overwhelming. Any reasonable person could conclude that public utilities face wholesale changes in terms of corporate ownership. Investor-owed? You bet. But the “public” part may well give way to “private.”

Valuing Demand-Response Benefits In Eastern PJM

When summer heat waves cause electric demand to peak, they also often cause wholesale electricity prices to rise substantially above their average levels. However, since most electricity customers face retail rates that do not reflect this movement in wholesale market prices, they do not modify their consumption patterns, causing a significant drop in economic efficiency. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls upon states and utilities to evaluate and implement DR programs to mitigate this problem.

Utility M&A: Betting on the CIO

Presenting 5 critical factors in realizing merger-related savings.

Booz Allen consultants offer five critical factors in realizing merger-related savings.

Demand Response: The Missing Link

Everyone is in favor of more demand response, but little gets delivered when system operators need it the most.

Despite overwhelming theoretical and empirical evidence, we aren’t seeing more DR when it is needed most—during emergency periods. The reasons boil down to two obstacles, both of which must be addressed before widespread DR implementation can move forward.

Demand Response: Breaking Out of the Bubble

Using demand response to mitigate rate shocks.

In the minds of many policy-makers, DR has become associated with rate shocks, rate volatility, unpredictability, and loss of control over energy costs—the very things DR was designed to overcome. What can be done to change this?

Demand Response: The Green Effect

How demand response programs contribute to energy efficiency and environmental quality.

Demand response reduces overall energy usage, but the magnitude of the reduction depends on whether the technologies are developed and deployed with efficiency in mind.