The Death of the Grid?
As Mark Twain would say, the reports are exaggerated.
Contrary to rumor, the grid won’t die, but in fact must grow exponentially, in function, complexity, and usefulness.
Battery
2014 Utility Regulators' Forum
Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.
Interviews with public utility commissioners from key states – New York, California, Maryland, and Georgia – on coal carbon, climate, and the revolution in retail. What they’re thinking. What they’re planning.
Start the Conversation
The regulator’s role in a world divided by distributed generation.
A state utility commissioner urges her colleagues to begin planning now for distributed generation – before it’s too late.
Smart Transition
Embracing a competitive and digital future for utilities.
A recent Accenture survey shows utility executives believe smart grid capabilities will transform the industry and bring competitive opportunities.
GridSTAR Battery Helps Improve Reliability of the Electric Grid
Submitted by aburr on Fri, 2013-11-01 12:42GridSTAR brought a battery online to help improve the quality and reliability of the electric grid. The battery is part of the new GridSTAR Smart Grid Experience Center being developed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, spearheaded by Penn State and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The battery uses a special control system to inject or draw energy from the grid based on a signal from a utility.
Energy Storage Solutions
Barriers and breakthroughs to a smarter grid.
Technology is quickly making energy storage more economical and effective than ever before. But companies that wish to invest in storage capacity face a journey through a frustrating regulatory no-man’s land. Opening the gateway for storage to deliver smart grid benefits will require a more streamlined and coherent approach to regulating storage as utility infrastructure.
Edison Under the Hood
Can utilities put EV batteries in the rate base?
Thomas Edison once hoped to make a fortune in the auto business—selling electric cars. Of course it never happened; he and Henry Ford tried and failed to bring a low-cost electric car to market. They scuttled the project after investing $1.5 million toward the effort—more than $32 million in today’s dollars. Edison’s nickel-iron batteries just couldn't match the performance of Ford’s petrol-powered bang-bang.
Secure Channels
When disaster strikes, land-based radios become critical infrastructure.
Amid focused attention on cybersecurity for T&D networks and power plants, one critical system is often overlooked: land-based radios. During an emergency, field crews rely on their ability to communicate with radios, making these systems highly vulnerable targets for malicious attackers. Securing them requires robust technologies and tools, as well as training and practices to ensure their availability when the grid goes down.
Vendor Neutral
(December 2011) Lafayette Utilities System selects Elster’s EnergyAxis as its AMI system; ABB wins contract from Hydro-Quebec; Sapphire Power Holdings acquires gas-fired power generation from Morris Energy Group; Consumers Energy awards contract to Babcock & Wilcox; plus announcements and contracts involving BP Wind Energy, Abengoa Solar, Samsung C&T and others.
Battle Lines:
2011 Groundbreaking Law & Lawyers Survey and Report
With a flurry of major new environmental regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is altering the power generation landscape. But will the new federal rules survive court challenges—to say nothing of next year’s national elections? Fortnightly's Michael T. Burr considers the controversy over new environmental standards. PLUS: Top Utility Lawyers of 2011.