Regulators should presume all advocates of a technology desire to gain unfair advantage over competitors.
The regulator’s role in a world divided by distributed generation.
Time-tested cost recovery mechanisms provide stable funding for infrastructure replacement.
Uncertainties remain, but recent cases provide guidance.
Levelized rates can serve customers’ interests, while also accelerating capital investment and providing an economic stimulus to the economy.
Portfolio planning in the age of gas.
PUCs are concerned that a rapid shutdown of coal-fired plants will start a full-tilt dash to gas—similar to the one that caused bankruptcies among independent power producers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But this time around, ratepayers and not IPP investors will be stuck with the risk, if utilities rush to add all that new gas-fired capacity to rate base.
Lacking regulatory oversight, financial hedges turn into risky speculation.
Past accomplishments and future plans.
Policy makers in the E.U. and the United States are taking different approaches to facilitating smart grid development. While both regions are setting standards that the rest of the world likely will follow, they also face difficult challenges in resolving issues around cost recovery, customer engagement and workforce preparedness.
New federal policies portend a wave of demand-response programs, and perhaps a new era in resource planning.
When President Bush signed the energy bill on August 8, he set in motion a chain of events that might lead to major changes in the way utilities price and meter retail electric services—and ultimately in the way they value and use non-traditional energy resources.