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Close to Load, Far From Consensus

Feds seek plug-and-play for distributed generation, but utilities want the power to stay local.

Pity the poor Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With its market crusade out of favor, and transmission reform suddenly suspect after the Aug. 14 blackout, it could use a new agenda. Indeed, FERC this past July had proposed a new set of standards for the connection of small- and micro-sized power plants units to regional transmission networks, or even to radial or local distribution lines operating at low voltages.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Customers Interrupted

Utilities that are short on capacity and operate in a stable regulatory environment may be able to extract value from interruptible rates.

The low prices in today’s wholesale electric markets have resulted in a reduction in the value of the retail market-based rates for both the utility and the customer, but utilities that are short on capacity and operate in a stable regulatory environment may be able to extract some value from interruptible rates.
Byline: 

Mike Whitmore

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Blackouts? never Again! (But...)

We ask merchant grid developers if anything can ever be done.

How will technicians prevent another major blackout? Fortnightly weaves the opinions of industry insiders on the keys to electric reliability with a cautionary tale from Connecticut to present solutions for what’s ailing the grid.
Byline: 

Lori A. Burkhart

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Edison Shrugged

The crisis of confidence in today's power industry is, at its heart, a crisis of ideas.

A market-based system requires that regulators establish a level playing field but not interfere unduly with the game itself.
Byline: 

John B. Howe

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The Economics of Wind: Looking at MidAmerican Energy

How the wind farm capacity factor and a tax subsidy can beef up a utility's bottom line.

These analyses illustrate the economics of wind farming, the importance of the wind farm capacity factor, and that a tax subsidy can generate much cash to the bottom line of a utility in a specific and properly chosen wind-farm site.
Byline: 

Gary C. Young

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The Carbon Conundrum

Technology exists to sequester carbon-but will utilities ever buy in?

Is carbon sequestration part of the vision of inexpensive, secure power? The current economics of capturing carbon don’t lend themselves to an affirmative answer, but projects backed by federal dollars could provide crucial information.
Byline: 

Jennifer Alvey

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Off Peak

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation

Utility deregulation is the biggest consumer rip-off since the S&L debacle, activist Harvey Wasserman argues. He says electric competition has wider and more deadly implications: costs running to trillions of dollars, environmental threats, and the further delay of renewables like wind and solar energy.

Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power

Byline: 
Source: Amazon.com
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Off Peak

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.

The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation

Utility deregulation is the biggest consumer rip-off since the S&L debacle, activist Harvey Wasserman argues. He says electric competition has wider and more deadly implications: costs running to trillions of dollars, environmental threats, and the further delay of renewables like wind and solar energy.

Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power

Byline: 
Source: Amazon.com
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Technology Corridor

Tidal energy technology improves, but is it enough?


Tidal energy technology improves, but is it enough?

Could ocean energy be the next big thing in renewables?

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors in early May approved a pilot project, estimated at $2 million, to test technology that produces electricity from the tides in the San Francisco Bay.

The city hopes to produce 1 MW with the project and add it to the San Francisco grid by Jan. 1, 2006.

Byline: 
Jennifer Alvey
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Commission Watch

PJM would dictate grid expansion, even if not needed for reliability, and then push the cost of the upgrades on those who use them the most.


PJM would dictate grid expansion, even if not needed for reliability, and then push the cost of the upgrades on those who use them the most.

Chairman Pat Wood and his Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may well have given up on attempts to impose a standard market design (SMD) on the electric utility industry, but that doesn't mean the nation's grid system operators won't try the same thing.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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