| Fortnightly

Generation Reserves: The Grid Security Question

A cost-benefit study shows the value of adding synchronized generating reserves to prevent blackouts on the scale of Aug.14.

A study reveals how increasing the availability and flexibility of generation resources is cheaper than adding transmission.

Byline:

Rajat K. Deb

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What's New at the Firewall

Utilities search for ways to combat viruses and spam.

Spam costs utilities hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, but the threat from spam quickly is becoming a security issue as well.

Byline:

Jennifer Alvey

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Trading Spaces? Will CFTC Move Into FERC's House?

Will the CFTC move Into FERC's house?

As the law is written, PJM looks like a commodity futures exchange.

Byline:

Robert C. McDiarmid

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The Utility Sector: A Wall Street Takeover?

Financial players bring credit depth to energy markets, but will they play by the rules?

The center of gravity for energy marketing and trading is moving from Houston to Wall Street. Who’s in, who’s out, and who’s testing the waters?

Byline:

Michael T. Burr

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Commission Watch: Grid Battle Is Joined

FERC's AEP ruling begs the question: Can the feds bypass states that block transmission reform?

A recent ruling puts the question squarely on the table: Can FERC overturn orders issued by the state public utility commissions that otherwise would stand in the way of its vision of regional transmission organizations with a standard market design?

Byline:

Lori A. Burkhart and Bruce W. Radford

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What Is a Power Plant Worth?

The consequences of exuberance are all around us.

Investors put $50 billion into new generating capacity because they expected that electricity restructuring would lead to the formation of a small number of effective, regional transmission organizations, which would make the location of a generating facility less important in the future. Based on that assumption, developers placed many plants close to a source of fuel, not close to market. For many companies, that has turned out to be a fatal mistake.

Byline:

Edward N. Krapels

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Reliability and Markets: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Locational pricing makes the network secure, since the utilities and other market participants get 'paid' to monitor the grid.

LMP enhances reliability in a manner that no penalty regime can achieve.

Byline:

W. Scott Miller, III

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Natural Gas and California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard

A successful initiative should reduce state dependence on volatile supplies.

California will save approximately $1 billion in annual natural gas expenditures by 2015 as a result of the RPS. Our modeling efforts indicate that market clearing power prices in California are likely to remain relatively unchanged when comparing the "No RPS" to the "Full RPS" case.

Byline:

Brandon Owens and Jack Ihle

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