Efficiency and Demand Response: Twins, Siblings, or Cousins?
Analyzing the conservation effects of demand response programs.
Does demand response increase or decrease overall electricity usage?
The Oracle of AMR: Interview With Howard Scott
The Oracle of AMR
The Oracle of AMR
In search of the top trends in utility automation.
Howard A. Scott, Ph.D., specializes in utility operations technology for Cognyst Consulting. His technical and business experiences include automatic meter reading, telecommunications, project and business management, market research, and software development. He has published numerous articles including an extensive market study of the automatic meter reading industry titled .
Special Metering Supplement
Metering Supplement
Metering Supplement
presents a special series of articles that clarifies misconceptions and reviews the progress and pitfalls regarding automated metering technology.
Time and time again, the advancement of new technologies has been misunderstood.
Distributed Generation: Who Benefits?
<font color="red">Distributed Generation</font>
Distributed Generation
In the first of three articles, experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory examine the technical obstacles, deployment, and economic issues surrounding distributed generation.
The existing electric power delivery system is a critical part of this country's economic and societal infrastructure, and proposals to increase the role of distributed energy resources (DER) within this system are welcomed by few in the utility industry.
The Global LNG Gamble
The Geopolitical Risks of LNG
The Geopolitical Risks of LNG
To many energy-industry analysts, 2005 is a make-or-break year for the U.S. gas market. If we don't have at least several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in construction by the end of the year, the country arguably will face serious gas-supply shortages and price spikes beginning in about 2008.1
Corporate Risk: What Does Management Really Know?
A short list of questions that every board member and senior manager should be able to answer.
“We pursue a disciplined approach to risk management" says the CEO of a major utility during the company's earnings call with analysts and investors. In this era of increased scrutiny over corporate governance, how can senior management and the board be certain that this statement is accurate, and where does the discipline begin?
Are Distributed Energy Resources Gaining Traction?
A 10-year horizon: 2005 - 2015.
What does the current landscape look like for distributed energy resources? What applications and business models are being pursued by leading companies, and where can we expect to find DER in the next 10 years – in 2015?
The Exelon-PSEG Super Merger: A Nuclear Liability?
Experts debate the risks of a proposed acquisition that would increase the largest nuclear fleet in the country.
Even as many energy and financial experts are touting the so-called “synergies” of the proposed merger between Exelon and PSEG, some are growing concerned over one of the deal’s chief selling points: the high concentration of nuclear power.
Alaskan Gas Development: One Pipeline, Two Systems
FERC may have to carve out a special set of rules if it wants to bring Arctic gas south to the lower-48.
When President Bush signed the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act of 2004, one might have thought that North Slope gas was on the fast track. With all the special provisions that Congress has added to the bill, the reality may prove otherwise.
The Need for Nuclear Now
States will play a significant role in the resurgence of nuclear power plants in America.
At times, various conditions align and set the stage for achieving goals that may have appeared to be unreachable. Last summer, the Boston Red Sox were all but eliminated from contention, but then won an amazing stretch of baseball games that resulted in a World Series championship.
A similar scenario can be applied to the U.S. nuclear industry-producer of a steady, low-cost, environmentally important electricity source poised to thrive with the possibility of new plant construction in the not-so-distant future.