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Order 745: A Time Bomb for Electricity Consumers

One of the worst orders FERC has ever produced

Order 745 overcompensates demand response, unduly discriminates against wholesale suppliers, sanctions and institutionally enforces the exercise of monopsony market power, and will ultimately raise electricity prices.
Byline: 

Robert Borlick

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Order 745: Challenge to Plain Old Power Markets

The Order will extend application of load-reducing technologies and marketing to a new class of services.

The marginal external benefits provided by demand response prove more than sufficient to overcome concerns that paying LMP was too expensive.
Byline: 

Charles Cicchetti

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From Grid to Cloud

A network of networks – in search of an orchestrator.

The Energy Cloud will change the way we generate, store, and consume energy by changing from a one-way power flow to a dynamic network of networks supporting two-way energy and information flows.
Byline: 

Jan Vrins, Hector Artze, Richard Shandross, and Mackinnon Lawrence

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PJM's Three-Way Proposal

A re-defined capacity product, revised parameters for generator performance, and a new role for demand response.

The proposal creates a new capacity product called the “Capacity Performance Resource.”
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Playing Safe with Capacity Markets

PJM would minimize risk, but so did regulation.

Changes envisioned by PJM call for ever more structured markets, further reducing the scope of the competitive landscape from which RTOs arose. They may produce a system that is actually more costly and less innovative than regulation.
Byline: 

David K. Bellman

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$9 Billion at Risk

If PJM markets should lose demand response as a capacity resource.

The AEMA sees the self-help DR revolution as a key to America’s recent industrial renaissance: “If demand response is removed from wholesale markets,” the group says, then “the electric grid is back to the rotary phone.”
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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From ISO to DSO

Imagining a new construct – an independent system operator for the distribution network.

A new utility industry construct – the Distribution System Operator (DSO) – could help maximize the benefits of distributed energy resources.
Byline: 

Farrokh Rahimi and Sasan Mokhtari

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Negawhat?

EPSA v. FERC: How the court went wrong on demand response.

The court’s ruling in EPSA v. FERC assigns a retail/wholesale dichotomy to demand response, but is that distinction even meaningful?

Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Reinventing the Grid

How to find a future that works.

The traditional central-station grid is evolving toward a more distributed architecture, accommodating a variety of resources spread out across the network. An open and thoughtful planning approach will allow an orderly transition to an integrated system – while fostering innovation among a wider range of industry players.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Storage Steps Up

Submitted by mburr on Tue, 2014-02-25 18:16
Could batteries affect the way power producers evaluate and operate their generating assets – in particular fossil fired generating assets they currently use to supply ancillary services? Duke Energy's Jeff Gates talks about the Notrees project and the future of battery storage.
Could batteries affect the way power producers evaluate and operate their generating assets – in particular fossil fired generating assets they currently use to supply ancillary services? Duke Energy's Jeff Gates talks about the Notrees project and the future of battery storage.