Learning from Sandy
Improving storm damage assessments at electric utilities.
Utilizing new technologies, utilities can realize dramatic improvements to damage assessment and storm restoration processes.
Sandy
Securing the Smart Grid
Questions and answers on consumer privacy and threats to the grid – both physical and cyber.
The economic argument for investments in the smart grid is clear: the payback from those technologies in the U.S. is likely three to six times greater than the money invested, and grows with each sequence of grid improvement.
Energy Storage: The Utility's Best Friend
Perhaps the best way to think of energy storage is as an injection of much-needed intelligence for the grid. Energy storage will fine-tune the relationship between a bewilderingly complex asset base and a sprawling, diverse and demanding spectrum of customers in real time. Energy storage systems will act like energy grid computers and control systems, not just bulk repositories for electrons.
2014 Utility Regulators' Forum
Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.
Interviews with public utility commissioners from key states – New York, California, Maryland, and Georgia – on coal carbon, climate, and the revolution in retail. What they’re thinking. What they’re planning.
What Price, Resiliency?
Evaluating the cost effectiveness of grid-hardening investments.
As with any investment, resiliency upgrades can reach a point of diminishing returns. Analyzing the costs and benefits can help guide upgrade strategies.
Accentuate the Positive
A practical guide to explaining the value of the smart grid.
Despite challenges, grid modernization is paying off for customers. Smart grid progress depends on clarifying the vision and communicating value.
Sandy and the Smart Grid
Disaster shows the need for grid modernization. Is technology up to the challenge?
With a road map for planning, utilities can realign organizations, integrate systems, and satisfy stakeholders. The destination: a more resilient grid
Turning Energy Inside Out
Amory Lovins on negawatts, renewables, and neoclassical markets.
Fortnightly speaks with Amory Lovins about the evolving role of conservation, competition, and distributed resources in the energy industry.
'Resilience'
A new watchword for the industry and its regulators.
If the concept of resilience—including cyber and physical security—had been baked into the industry’s culture from the beginning, the energy grid might look a lot different from what it does today.