Frontlines & Op-Ed

Consumers Want What?

Rather than accept the rhetoric, let’s find out.

What’s missing is asking consumers to consider realistic tradeoffs between two characteristics of electricity rather than the desirability of a single characteristic in isolation.

Response to Brown Re: Net Metering

A response to the letter to the editor by Ashley Brown in our February 2016 issue.

Is rooftop solar more like an independent power producer, subject to societal regulation and policy, such as wholesale-level regulation or retail-level resource planning? Or is the electricity that is produced a private consumer good, immune from regulation, policy, and planning?

We Made Light Free

As inexpensive as lighting was, twenty years ago, we’ve since made it close to free. Too cheap to meter?

Will lighting drop to a tenth of residential consumption, then below? Every use of a machine, appliance, device shrunk in its significance to the household budget.

Reply to Ahmad Faruqui Re: Time-Varying Rates

A response to Dr. Faruqui’s insights regarding time-varying rates and his commentary on the Fortnightly article, “Action by Choice.”

Our goal is not to maximize participation in time-varying rates, but to maximize the combination of load shifting and customer satisfaction for all.

Electricity's Capacity Factor, a Problem?

Electric infrastructure is used half the time on average. Is this a problem requiring rapid radical reform?

Some of you take the subway to work. What’s the capacity factor of the subway system? Our electric grid provides enormous value to its customers, with a combination of infrastructure and workforces with varying capacity factors.

Response to Huntoon Re: Big Transmission

Letter to the Editor: A response to the article by Steve Huntoon in our September 2015 issue

Public/regulatory policy, economic viability and non-negotiable need to sustain near-100-percent system reliability could soon push building more “big transmission.”