Distributed Generation: Doomed by Deployment Details?
The industry makes strides, but messy issues like air quality and building codes could be showstoppers.
California Energy Commission
News Digest
News Digest
Price Spike Tsunami: How Market Power Soaked California
Last year saw no shift in fundamentals. Then why was the ISO so willing to be deceived?
Frontlines
Some thoughts on the battle to measure electricity consumption in real time.
Frontlines
Meter Men?
Some thoughts on the battle to measure electricity consumption in real time.
How can something so simple as an electric meter bring governments, editors, and the utility industry to their knees?
Boom and Bust? Understanding the Power Plant Construction Cycle
Rising energy demand could spur investment in waves, but a fixed capacity charge might flatten the curve.<b> </b>
News Digest
Mergers & Acquisitions
News Digest
News Analysis
California has a plan to track green electricity, but can it be trusted?
All electricity is the same, but the California Energy Commission wants to change that. It plans a system to authenticate the source of electricity to allow consumers to buy power from specific generators. Standard documents called "Certificates of Specific Generation" would certify financial transactions. Presumably, the plan would help document the authenticity of non-generic electricity products, such as green power.
Rethinking Asset Values in a Competitive Environment
Power plants can bid on more than one product. That's why most spark-spread studies miss the mark.
Forward energy prices can make it look easy to place a value on a power plant. Yet something is missing. Plants can sell more than one product. One price may be up while another is down. As Einstein said, a theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
That is why it is worth reexamining the methods commonly used to calculate forward price curves and estimate the expected revenues and profits of generating assets.
Frontlines
The wires business goes up for grabs as California opens its landmark case on distributed generation.
Jay Morse has studied distributed generation for the past seven years. Today, as an engineer and policy analyst on regulatory transition and market development issues for the California PUC's Office of Ratepayer Advocates, he sits in the eye of the storm. Technology is busting out all over, says Morse, who calls himself the "godfather" of DG in California's electric restructuring.
Merchant Plants, Coast to Coast
Applications filed to date in New England and California.
New England and California are hotbeds of merchant plant activity, as shown by a list of proposed projects submitted for certification with the appropriate state agencies as of early November. In New England alone, some 63 projects totaling generation of more than 31,000 megawatts (and growing) were proposed. It is generally understood, however, that of the 31,000 MW of generating capacity represented by those projects, only 7,000 to 8,000 MW will be built.
New England.