Independent microgrids are coming. Will franchised utilities fight them or foster them?
Despite offering a range of benefits, microgrids are proving to be controversial—especially when non-utility owned microgrids seek to serve multiple customers. The biggest battles are taking place in the realm of public policy. But utilities that pursue collaboration rather than confrontation are finding interesting opportunities for profitable investment.
Why transmission planners and protection engineers need to work more closely together.
Recent outages show the importance of proper transmission system design. As the grid becomes more complex, reliability requires tighter coordination.
The reliability organization struggles with reforms, as FERC hovers.
NERC’s reliability oversight is bogged down on two fronts—standard-setting and compliance oversight. Progress depends on improving unwieldy process.
Creative destruction is coming, and it can’t be stopped.
With Order 1000, FERC shows it’s willing to blow up uncompetitive structures, as with trustbusting under Teddy Roosevelt, and the more recent Bell breakup.
APPA questions the benefits attributed to organized power markets.
Order 1000, the RTOs, and the power of incumbency.
In Order 1000, FERC wanted—among other things—to open grid development to private developers. But FERC’s natural allies—the regional transmission organizations—are refusing to go along with this new vision.
Analyzing the Order 1000 comply filings from non-RTO regions.
Last fall, utilities across the country began filing tariffs with FERC to explain how they’ll comply with Order 1000. That’s quite a handful, but maybe not a stretch for the RTOs. Not so for the non-RTO regions.
The Deutsche Bank case and the meaning of ‘price manipulation.’
A few months back, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed Deutsche Bank Energy Trading LLC to show cause why it shouldn’t be assessed a civil penalty of $1.5 million and be made to return some $123,000 in allegedly unjust profits from power trading in markets run by the California ISO.
A candid commentary on current topics in electric restructuring.
A no-holds-barred interview with the electric industry’s chief architect of wholesale electric market design.
Interregional planning under FERC Order 1000
With no single entity in charge, transmission planning has plagued projects that span multiple regions. A new framework offers a solution.