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Environmental

Energy People: Jim Rogers

We talked with Jim Rogers, former CEO of Duke Energy.

Duke is now made up of five companies that existed in 1992. There are three difficult tasks in doing a successful combination. One is to negotiate it. The second, maybe the most difficult task, is actually getting the approval at both the state and federal levels. And lastly, the really hard work of combining the companies. It’s getting the cost savings as well as the revenue enhancements associated with the transaction. It is keeping the most talented people.
Byline: 

Jim Rogers, with Steve Mitnick

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Here Comes the Sun

Growing Impacts of Residential Solar on Utility Customer Service

What does PV mean for utilities’ residential customer service operations? From helping customers with supplier selection, through installation and maintenance issues? And with billing? To begin to address this question, we conducted two sets of surveys of residential electricity customers in the second quarter of 2016.
Byline: 

Daniel Gabaldon, Matt Guarini and Jamie Wimberly

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Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Ensuring State Emission Reduction in Clean Power Plan

Strong public policy favors giving states credit for the carbon reductions they make while the Plan’s legality is pending.
Byline: 

Joshua Epel, James Tarpey, Nicholas Eaton and Jacob Rey

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Commercial DG: Case for Financeable Contracts

DG lenders and developers should consider standardizing a model form of energy service agreement.

Let's review factors influencing the development of distributed generation, with an emphasis on the need for financeable and deployable contracts on which DG can be financed, constructed and operated.
Byline: 

Nicholas Giannasca

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Nuclear Life Extension

Deciding whether to go forward with a second license renewal.

A majority of nuclear power plant operators already have received operating license renewals – to operate their plants for 20 years beyond the 40 years outlined in their initial operating licenses. As utilities decide whether or not to invest in license renewal, they must consider three key questions.
Byline: 

Lee Williams

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Regional Economic Benefits

Why are they ignored in transmission planning?

Why is there is there so much controversy about investments in transmission and distribution? We suggest it’s because the benefits are poorly understood – or even ignored.
Byline: 

Sam Flaim and Loren Toole

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Becoming Customer-Centric

Two utilities embrace technology and innovation.

Today the rise of customer-centric technology and innovation has created a whole new set of challenges. Advances have occurred in energy efficiency, demand response, distributed solar, energy storage, and electric vehicles, as well as smart grid infrastructure and analytics. Electric utilities have two basic choices: react to the agendas of the special interests or chart a path forward to create the most value for stakeholders and customers.
Byline: 

Matt Mooren, David Cherney, and David Groarke

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