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Integrating Coal and Wind

Strange bedfellows may provide a new supply option.

Joint coal-wind development is not a good greenhouse gas reduction strategy. If carbon limits are imposed on the U.S. electric sector at some future date, nuclear power may be the only viable option for satisfying the country's growing appetite for electricity.
Byline: 

Brandon Owens

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Rethinking Restructuring

Two Cato analysts suggest a return to the past-vertical integration, but now with no state regulators.

The defeat of the energy bill in the Senate last year has thrown electricity restructuring back on its heels. There clearly is no consensus among politicians or academics regarding how this industry ought to be organized or how it might best be regulated. Finding our way out of this morass requires a reconsideration of how we got to this dismal point in our regulatory journey. Doing so suggests a surprising series of conclusions about what has gone wrong and where to go from here.
Byline: 

Peter Van Doren and Jerry Taylor

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New Nuclear Construction: Still on Hold

A number of factors point to expanded nuclear generation. But when?

Skeptics believe investors will continue to shy away from nuclear in the coming decades, but conditions are changing, with several factors pointing to expanded nuclear generation.
Byline: 

Neil J. Numark and Micheal O. Terry

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Utility Ratemaking & ROE: Rethinking the Tools of the Trade

The industry requires new analytical tools to incorporate the realities of today's higher risk operating and investment environment into the equity allowance process.

With a “return to basics” mantra now common in the industry, coupled with the recognition of under-investment and heightened reliability concerns, most companies are now facing significant capital expenditure programs. Many utilities are considering or have filed for rate relief.
Byline: 

Mark Ciolek, Wallace Jones, and Dr. William Wilson

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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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Electric Gridlock: A National Solution

FERC should consider a two-part tariff to boost transmission investment.

The existing transmission system was built to connect a utility’s power plants to its customers. It was never designed for getting power from any generator to any customer in a competitive generation market.
Byline: 

Jay Apt and Lester B. Lave

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Technology Corridor

How effective are federal energy efficiency regulations?

Technology Corridor

How effective are federal energy efficiency regulations?

 

New buildings must meet federal energy efficiency guidelines, which have historically used site-energy measurements as the metric for building energy consumption. Using site-energy measurements, though, ends up favoring the use of electricity from the grid, rather than using electricity produced on site.

Byline: 
Edward Reid and Lynne Kiesling
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Combined Heat & Power, Revisited

Outdated "wisdom" wastes the nation's electricity infrastructure. Distributed CH&P is the answer.

One of the system’s greatest flaws has been its inefficient — even wasteful — use of fuel resources in the face of opportunities to implement combined heat and power.
Byline: 

Gary Nakarado and Holly Thomas

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Gas Crisis Forum: Is It Real, or Is It Hype?

Chicken Little has cornered the market on gas price doom and gloom, but the data is inconsistent on whether high gas prices are here to stay.

“Crisis” makes for good business to an interesting assortment of players in the energy industry, but such talk could lead to unnecessary and untimely legislative and regulatory intercession. Investment, not government intervention, could be the answer.
Byline: 

Robert S. Linden

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Gas Crisis Forum: Prices Pointing Skyward!

Gas prices are likely to remain high in the near term.

The prospects aren’t good for a dip in natural gas prices. An overview of Canadian imports, Mexican exports, LNG, the Rockies, and the overall demand for gas points to higher prices for gas in the near term.
Byline: 

John H. Herbert

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