Utilities are absorbing distressed IPPs, and raising alarm bells in the process.
Can economies of scale make the industry more stable?
People
New Opportunities:
Duke Energy made several changes to its executive leadership. Dick Blackburn said he would retire as the company's executive vice president, general counsel, and chief administrative officer. He had been with the company since 1997. Duke also named Bill Easter chairman, president, and CEO of Duke Energy Field Services, replacing Jim Mogg, who moves up to group vice president and chief development officer for Duke Energy.
Financial players and load-serving utilities are looking for power asset deals.
Despite talk of wide bid-ask spreads in the past two tumultuous years, some 60 sales of generation assets have been announced. These sales cover more than 22 GW of capacity, valued on a cash-and-debt basis at approximately $11 billion. A wide variety of buyers and sellers have participated in the sales activity, with a pronounced entry by financial players (investment banks and private equity firms) and load-serving entities (LSEs) looking for capacity to serve their load.
Perspective
New realities demand new direction from utilities.
Business & Money
Is the industry on the verge of a new consolidation wave? Should it be?
Benchmarks
The 50 hertz market is poised for growth as the 60 hertz market levels off.
The savvy traveler considers three things when taking electronic equipment abroad: the voltage of the outlet, the type of plug needed, and the power frequency of the destination country. Builders of power plants and their suppliers, however, need concern themselves only with the latter of the three.
Letters to the Editor
To the Editor:
Frontlines
Bankruptcy may not be better for ratepayers.
The ISO graples with the politics of scarity.
In regions that have embraced electric industry restructuring, such as New York, New England, and the mid-Atlantic states, where independent system operators (ISOs) have taken over and the standard market design (SMD) has grabbed a foothold over bulk power transactions, one fascinating question still dogs theorists and policymakers alike:
Is a power supply shortage really all that bad?