People
People for January 2004.
Positions filled at Southern Co., Southwest Power Pool, Avista Corp., and others.
FERC Throws Down The Gauntlet
The legal battle of the century is ready to begin.
A FERC order late last year — that AEP must join the PJM grid to meet conditions of its 2000 merger with Central and Southwest Corp. — was tantamount to a declaration of war with state regulators. At the center of the issue is whether FERC has authority to pre-empt the states on development of regional transmission organizations.
Technology Corridor
Experts say utilities are pushing transmission systems to unsafe limits.
Experts say utilities are pushing transmission systems to unsafe limits. Does the Aug. 14 blackout support that argument?
New Nuclear Construction: Still on Hold
A number of factors point to expanded nuclear generation. But when?
Skeptics believe investors will continue to shy away from nuclear in the coming decades, but conditions are changing, with several factors pointing to expanded nuclear generation.
Generation Roundtable: Power Flux
Generators struggle to plan for the future as they cope with an unstable present.
In a roundtable discussion, generation experts explain how environmental regulations, industry restructuring, investor confidence, and the bottom line are affecting their decision-making.
Utility Money Pools: Cause for a Downgrade?
FERC's ruling on cash management programs will introduce new transparency into how utilities manage their cash.
On Oct. 22, FERC ruled that FERC-regulated entities must file their cash management agreements with the commission and notify the commission when their proprietary capital ratio drops below 30 percent, and when it subsequently returns to or exceeds 30 percent. FERC’s ruling comes in response to analysis that found “severe record keeping deficiencies” by some FERC-regulated entities. This problem has led credit rating agencies like Fitch Ratings to warn that consolidated cash management accounts and failure to document fund transfers among affiliated companies as intercompany loans could be factors contributing to a U.S. bankruptcy court’s decision to consolidate a solvent company in the bankruptcy proceeding of its affiliate.
New England Reaches for the RTO Ring
ISO New England dares to dream, again.
ISO New England wants to become a regional transmission organization. But just the idea — prior to any official filing at FERC — has come under attack. ISO-NE is going to find rough waters ahead, despite a three-year effort aimed at a smooth transition to becoming an RTO. And now with the Oct. 31 filing of the 2,000-plus-page RTO proposal at FERC, the stage is set for these battles to be fought, again.
Controversial New Source Review Rules Revised
Will the changes help or harm generators?
New rules revising the New Source Review (NSR) provision of the Clean Air Act recently were published. The action formalized a process begun several years earlier with the objective of bringing greater clarity to the rule. The new rule is aimed at allowing operators to upgrade equipment at existing power plants without triggering NSR.
People
People for December 2003.
New opportunities at ScottishPower, Chesapeake Utilities, NRG Energy Inc., and others.
LNG: The Next Prize?
CERA's Daniel Yergin says global gas markets will define the new century, just as oil did for the last 100 years.
Cambridge Energy Research Associates Chairman Daniel Yergin captures in a few words oil's extraordinary past. Might those words one day describe the next 100 years of natural gas development? Talking with Yergin in early November, I found a man convinced that the forces that shaped a global oil market are at work in shaping a global market for natural gas. I'll be sharing some of his words with you.