Breaking the Gridlock
A proposal to remove the bottlenecks on grid investment.
The lack of transmission investment transcends the usual culprits, pointing to a serious flaw in market structure.
Transmission
Transcos Reborn
Recent attrition raises the question: Consolidation or death spiral?
Despite some setbacks, the transco business might be ready to turn the corner toward a new phase of growth. Will the remaining barriers roll away and allow the industry to grow beyond three companies?
BGS Auctions: What Price Is Right?
How to price new load-servicing contracts while incorporating market-risk analysis into such deals.
Why have basic generation service auctions historically been overly competitive given the prevailing market prices at the time? Here are four steps to determine correctly what should the bid price should be.
Building a Better Utility
Many of the obstacles and strategic issues that utilities face today are all too familiar. This time they must be solved with a different business model.
We overbuild, run short, then overbuild again. You'd think we'd learn, because when the forecasts aren't accurate, when overcapacity plagues the industry, companies fail. Can we get the forecasts right? Probably not. But we can plan for forecasts that will be wrong. They always are. And they will be until the system is redesigned to let prices clear the market.
People
Exelon appointed Tom Ridge and Dr. William C. Richardson to its board of directors. NiSource Inc. has restructured its leadership team. Hydro-Québec appointed André Caillé chairman of its board of directors and Thierry Vandal as president and CEO of the company. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chairman Wendell F. Holland recently was named president of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners. And others...
Windpower: Beyond Boom and Bust
Windpower is caught in a vicious cycle of Washington politics. Escaping the cycle will require visionary leadership in Congress and the utility industry.
With the Production Tax Credit subject to the whims of a fickle Congress, U.S. windpower remains in an ongoing state of uncertainty. Will the United States embrace the technology?
Exelon's Epic End Game
Electric M&A: The merger with PSE&G may herald a new industry structure, squarely at odds with regional markets.
The marriage between Exelon and PSEG would create the largest electric utility in the United States. The policy implications could loom even larger, however. Standing at risk is nothing less than FERC’s entire regulatory regime for approval of mergers and market-based rates.
A Day in the Life of Transmission Congestion
A forecast for California on Aug. 16, 2006
Transmission congestion affects both the cost and the efficiency of the power grid. Global Energy's Market Analytics LMP along with PowerWorld Corp.'s OPF Simulator and Energy Visual's graphical interface solution provides a richly textured visual representation of Global Energy's forecast of transmission congestion in California for Aug. 16, 2006.
Gas Transport Rates: A Puzzling Prospect
Why does FERC want to limit pipeline discounts?
It's certainly puzzling, if not downright peculiar. That's the feeling one gets after studying the notice of inquiry (NOI) that FERC launched late last year, after nearly 10 years of dragging its feet, to re-examine the wisdom of encouraging the practice of rate discounting by interstate natural gas pipelines.
Business & Money
Sticking to the Knitting:
Business & Money
Sticking to the Knitting:
A review of three years of post-Enron stock performance by electric utilities.
Immediately following the Enron collapse, investors dumped the stock of any electric power company that appeared to be pursuing non-traditional growth strategies. Any company that emphasized unregulated businesses-investments in overseas assets, merchant power plant development, and energy marketing and trading-was suspect.