Rise of the Machines
Who’s afraid of the transactive grid?
Smart grids and nodal markets spark the emergence of a transactional grid. In fact it’s already happened, and we’re just becoming aware.
Frontlines
Reverse Robin Hood
Declaring war on non-utility PV.
Recently I’ve been hearing some utility executives use a new catchphrase: “reverse Robin Hood.” The phrase is shorthand for policies on net metering and green incentives that support rooftop photovoltaics (PV) at the expense of low-income customers. We’re “robbing the poor” to pay for rich people’s fancy solar systems.
In the Situation Room
Presidential attention raises the priority level for cybersecurity.
Have industry leaders and regulators turned a corner on efforts to make the grid more secure?
Old School Microgrid
Resilience depends more on determination than technology.
A brutal storm ripped through southwestern Minnesota in April and snapped 2,000 power poles. Worthington Public Utilities kept the lights on with a seat-of-the-pants microgrid.
No Going Back
Free markets are not a fad.
Half-hearted deregulation hobbles the forces of supply and demand before they can get out of the gate.
'Resilience'
A new watchword for the industry and its regulators.
If the concept of resilience—including cyber and physical security—had been baked into the industry’s culture from the beginning, the energy grid might look a lot different from what it does today.
Franchise Fracas
Will Boulder be the last city to go muni? Don’t bet on it.
When the goals of a utility and its host community aren’t in sync, breakups happen.
Islands in the Storm
Microgrids begin to make economic sense.
With microgrids in place, doomsday preppers wouldn't need to worry so much about a zombie plague.
Perfect Superstorm
Could carbon taxes emerge in the election aftermath?
Since Obama won reelection, we must ask whether we’d rather have EPA cracking down on carbon emissions, or whether a legislated framework would be better for everyone.
The Old Drawing Board
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.