Renewables

The End of an Age

Survival in the new market requires embracing new technologies and practices.

New technologies are opening the utility domain to innovation and competition. Traditional utilities will shrink as outsourcing providers and competitors grow. Survival in this new market requires embracing new technologies and practices.
Byline: 

Charles E. Bayless

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Toward a 21st Century Grid

Producing value with advanced distribution management systems.

Changing demands from regulators, customers, and shareholders are driving utilities toward better operational technologies to manage an increasingly complex grid. Advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) promise nearly real-time operational insight for maintaining reliability, safety, and security.
Byline: 

Nicholas Abi-Samra, et al.

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Customer First

Is the current regulatory compact in anyone’s best interests?

Serving customers’ needs should be a top priority for power companies, irrespective of the regulatory construct and business model. Transformation doesn’t change this basic fact, but how do we break the model without breaking the system?
Byline: 

Charles Dickerson, Darren Brady, and Jamie Wimberly

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Reinventing the Grid

How to find a future that works.

The traditional central-station grid is evolving toward a more distributed architecture, accommodating a variety of resources spread out across the network. An open and thoughtful planning approach will allow an orderly transition to an integrated system – while fostering innovation among a wider range of industry players.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Putting a Price on Carbon

How EPA can establish a U.S. GHG Program for the Electricity Sector.

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards expected in June 2014, many states are considering their own approaches to provide flexibility in meeting compliance requirements. Experience in North America to date provides policy guidance.
Byline: 

David P. Littell

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Dealing With the Duck

Designing markets to accommodate variable resources.

Growth in variable resources creates an increasing need for demand response and fast-ramping generation. The right market design can bring both.
Byline: 

Mike Hogan and Bentham Paulos

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Energiewende

Nuclear fear and Germany’s headlong plunge into renewable energy.

On a recent trip to Germany to study the country’s energy policy, the phrase “energy transition,” or “energiewende” as the Germans say, was on everyone’s mind.
Byline: 

Tim Echols

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How Do You Get To Green?

And what’s the goal: a share of load or a cut in carbon?

It’s time to rethink RPS laws. Instead of production quotas for renewable energy, why not reward reductions in carbon emissions and fossil-fuel use?

Byline: 

Michael R. Strong

 

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March of the Microgrids

Technology is changing the game. Is your utility ready?

Although today microgrids serve a tiny fraction of the market, that share will grow as costs fall. Utilities can benefit if they plan ahead.

Byline: 

Stephen Schneider

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CEO Forum: Facing the Future

Three CEOs, three business models, one shared outlook.

Cheap gas, regulatory uncertainties, and a technology revolution are re-making the U.S. utility industry. Top executives at three very different companies—CMS, NRG, and the Midwest ISO—share their outlook on the industry’s transformative changes.

Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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