Perspective
Grid reliability is one giant step in mainstreaming the technology.
Wind power is coming of age in the United States. During the past five years, installations have grown by an average 28 percent yearly. Gleaming, high-tech wind turbines now are interconnected to the bulk power grid in some 30 states.
Three ways to value nuclear power plants for buyers and sellers.
A new FERC decision veers away from congressional intent not to burden intrastate pipelines with interstate policies.
A spate of proposed U.S. tax rule changes soon may open a window of opportunity for certain utilities.
Greater reliance on gas-fired power implies serious economic, technological, and national security risks.
Greater reliance on gas-fired power implies serious economic, technological, and national security risks.
Over the past two decades, the United States has, by default, come to rely on an "In Gas We Trust" energy policy. Natural gas increasingly has been seen as the preferred fuel for all applications, nowhere more than in the electric generation sector. However, the greatly increased use of natural gas forecast for the electricity sector may not be economically or technically feasible, and it does not represent optimal or desired energy policy.
Despite development challenges, LNG capacity is destined to play a bigger role in the U.S. energy mix.
A face-to-face interview with FERC Chairman Pat Wood III.
EU nations are taking slow steps toward an integrated energy market, but they are many paces ahead of U.S. efforts.
Despite recent setbacks in establishing an acceptable balance of voting power among member nations, a new constitution for the European Union (EU) is expected to bring together dozens of separate nations into a single economic and political superpower and lead to an interconnected energy market throughout the European continent-one that will eventually stretch from Portugal to the Baltic Sea and from Ireland to Greece and perhaps beyond.
Utilities search for ways to combat viruses and spam.
If you had to pick a couple of technologies that modern utilities can't function without, e-mail would have to top the list. Yet it usually doesn't grab the attention of executives these days nearly so much as outage management or SCADA systems.
The coming year may change that, as problems from spam and viruses reach near-epidemic proportions.
E-mail, and viruses, and spam-oh my!
Business & Money
FERC's ruling on cash management programs will introduce new transparency into how utilities manage their cash.
On Oct. 22, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled that FERC-regulated entities must file their cash management agreements with the commission and notify the commission within 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter when their proprietary capital ratio drops below 30 percent, and when it subsequently returns to or exceeds 30 percent.