No-Regrets Approach to Enhancing Grid Resiliency
Grid Assurance, innovative industry-driven response
Subscribers can reduce their costs by 30 to 70 percent compared with maintaining their own stockpile.
Reliability
Energy People: Tony Clark
We talked with FERC Commissioner Tony Clark, who has said he will not seek a second term.
Commissioner Clark is serving his first term at FERC and formerly served as a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission. He was interviewed by Pat McMurray, who has a long background in the energy business.
Action Needed Now To Prevent More Nuclear Plant Closures
Threat to nearly one-fifth of our nation’s ninety-nine reactors is real
Individually, these closures are understandable financial decisions. But the cumulative impact endangers any chance of meeting U.S. climate change goals.
Geomagnetic Disturbances and the Grid
Harmonics Studies Needed to Assess Vulnerabilities
NERC recently issued reliability standards in response to the potential for geomagnetic disturbances to disrupt operations and possibly damage assets. The power industry appears to have placed undue emphasis on GMD’s threat to transformers. Our studies and those by others have underscored the value to transmission organizations in assessing their vulnerability to harmonics.
Illinois Approach to Regulating Distribution Utility of the Future
Annual formula rate is working to stabilize distribution ratemaking.
A lot has been said of alternative ratemaking approaches. The clearest, most direct path is what has been happening in Illinois, a success by any reasonable measure for a distribution utility.
Consumers Want What?
Rather than accept the rhetoric, let’s find out.
What’s missing is asking consumers to consider realistic tradeoffs between two characteristics of electricity rather than the desirability of a single characteristic in isolation.
Technological Innovation and Public Policy-Making
The new grid will be driven by opportunities for electric utilities and customers to monetize their economic opportunities.
Policy-maker’s perspective: It's important to permit utilities to become more efficient and develop alternative revenue streams.
Electricity's Capacity Factor, a Problem?
Electric infrastructure is used half the time on average. Is this a problem requiring rapid radical reform?
Some of you take the subway to work. What’s the capacity factor of the subway system? Our electric grid provides enormous value to its customers, with a combination of infrastructure and workforces with varying capacity factors.
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.
A Holistic Cyber Strategy
Security must be organizational – simply complying will leave you vulnerable.
Workforce Management: Because standards are aimed only at critical assets, cyber security must be holistic – with all employees involved.