BY 2010, SOME $21.8 BILLION WORTH OF EMISSION control technologies will have to be installed at steam-generating plants to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
Increased costs at these plants will boost power prices. These higher costs and higher revenues will increase profits of the five least competitive companies will lose $1 billion.
Power companies must increasingly incorporate environmental factors into strategic planning.
Power Pools & Reliability
SUMMER IN WISCONSIN. Responding to concerns about the electric shortages of the summer of 1997 and fears that they could happen again, Wisconsin PSC Commissioner Joseph P. Mettner has indicated that the state's energy supply outlook for the summer of 1998 appears much better in eastern Wisconsin than it did one year ago.
Mettner noted that Wisconsin's electric supply system is operating with expected reserve margins of 19.2 percent. But he cautioned that electric power flows do not respect borders.
IN RECENT YEARS, THE high demand for local exchange codes from incumbent local exchange carriers and new competitors has mandated scores of new area codes across the United States, created through processes that generate a high degree of local controversy. Yet even after the new area codes are created, the demand for exchange codes for local calling areas continues unabated, leading in some cases to the exhaustion of exchange codes within brand new area codes in as little as two to three years -- a period much shorter than their expected life.
DOES THE KYOTO CLIMATE CHANGE TREATY POSE A SEVERE threat to the U.S. economy or is that claim simply a "Chicken Little" prediction of detractors?
Pro-business Republicans, environmentalist bureaucrats and industry observers debated the merits of each position at the Ninth Annual Energy Efficiency Forum in Washington, D.C., on June 10.
One of the most vociferous opponents of the treaty was Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Committee on Science, who headed the Congressional delegation to Kyoto, Japan.
Other speakers included Ambassador Stuart E.
AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs is increasing. Conversely, American support of nuclear power and fossil fuels is on the decline.
That's according to a recent survey, America Speaks Out on Energy: A Survey of Federal Energy Funding Priorities, conducted by the Sustainable Energy Coalition.
A thousand registered voters were asked about federal energy budget issues.
SET UP in January by the Ontario Minister of Energy, Science and Technology, and led by Ronald J. Daniels, law faculty dean at the University of Toronto, the Market Design Committee issued its first interim report on March 31, presenting recommendations on two issues: (1) governance, operation and regulation of the Independent Market Operator, and (2) principles of market design.
IMO FUNCTIONS. The functions of the IMO were set out in November in the Ontario provincial white paper on electricity sector reform.
LAST NOVEMBER, Energy Secretary Federico Peña asked the DOE
to study what to recommend about the Tennessee Valley Association in drafting proposed legislation on electric restructuring for the Clinton Administration. He referred the project to a committee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, led by former South Carolina Congressman Butler Derrick.
The committee issued its report on March 31. The DOE had already released its legislative guidelines on March 25, six days earlier.
HYDROELECTRIC POWER ENGINEERS might fare all right. But office
administrators could face staff reductions of up to 50 percent.
Such are the recommendations filed March 10 by the Cost Review Management Committee assigned to recommend measures to the Bonneville Power Administration for its own internal cost review.
CROSS THE COUNTRY, CRITICISM RISES FROM INVESTOR-owned utilities as public power agencies are drawn into regional or national markets through power pools and the geographic expansion of power marketing activities. Whether these agencies are seen as federally funded or just indirectly subsidized, the complaints remain the same: tax advantages, no reciprocity, exemptions from regulation.
Who really has power over the power? Do public power agencies enjoy an advantage, as private industry claims?
AS A FOLLOW UP TO OUR APRIL 1 ARTICLE ON CANADIAN-U.S. energy convergence, Public Utilities Fortnightly interviewed Ontario Energy Minister Jim Wilson to find out what's in store for the province as it moves ahead with restructuring its electricity industry.