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Saving California with Distributed Generation

A crash program to use small, standby diesel generators to keep the lights on.

Fire up all the small, diesel-powered emergency generating units already installed on site in California. It would erase the power shortage, but it won’t happen without changing the way we think about unit dispatch.
Byline: 

Mark B. Lively

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Coal: No Longer a Dirty Word?

Benchmarks

It appears that coal will continue to play a role in meeting the need for new generating capacity in the U.S. Used in the proper context, perhaps coal does not have to be a "four-letter" word.
Byline: 

Ellen Ewart and Betsy Vaninetti

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People

Florida Water recently named four new senior executive vice presidents, plus news from the Independent Power Producers of New York, The Northwest Power Pool, and others.
Byline: 

PUF

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The Grid Is Dead

Gas pipelines compete against electric transmission lines. And the pipes are winning.

Years from now, we'll look back on the power crisis as the beginning of the end of electric transmission.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Off Peak

The city utility in Vernon, California thought it had bought plenty of power, but then got blacked out anyway.

Off Peak

June 1, 2001

Dear ISO: Why Me?

 

The city utility in Vernon, California thought it had bought plenty of power, but then got blacked out anyway.

March 19, 2001
Dear Mr. Winter:

Byline: 
City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst, of Vernon, California, joined with his city utility director Kenneth J. DeDario, and exchanged a series of letters with Terry Winter, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, and others, on the subject of rolling blackouts.
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News Analysis

East Coast prices bear an eerie resemblance to California of last spring, but pay no mind, say experts.

 

News Analysis

 



 

Byline: 
Jay S. Polachek
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Perspective

The argument is clever but not really symmetrical.

1. the incumbent utility companies should not have been promised an opportunity to recover the costs that everybody thought would be stranded by deregulation (he obviously includes himself among the "soreheads" who opposed the idea, insisting that "these behemoths should be treated just like everyone else who made investments that didn't pan out");

Byline: 
Alfred E. Kahn
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News Digest

 

News Digest


 

Byline: 
News Digest was compiled by Carl J. Levesque, associate editor for Public Utilities Fortnightly.
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