Fortnightly Magazine - October 2006

Betting Against the Gods

In search of the Holy Grail of utility risk management.

The search is on for the Holy Grail of risk management. Utilities are managing new risks, as more sophisticated systems and services become available.

Risk Management Starts at the Top

How to sort out strategies and weather the storm.

Unless embraced as an integral part of the business strategy, risk management is nothing more than a bureaucratic exercise that lulls the management and directors into a false sense of security.

Letters to the Editor

Robert Garvin, MAJ, TC, 3RD Corps Support Command: Serving here and seeing how poor the people of Iraq are after 30 years of a dictatorship is truly life changing. You would not believe the electricity challenges they face here. In a country of over 25 million people, Iraq has only about 5,000 MW of electricity at any given time.

Daniel Simon decided to investigate how much the extra heat of incandescent light bulbs over CFLs might cost a customer in air-conditioning cooling costs, compared to an analysis in “Squeezing BTUs From Light Bulbs.”

A National Meltdown

Discordant global-warming solutions may end up burning utilities.

How will utilities in the next 10 years manage a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure buildout, higher interest rates/cost of capital, diminishing free cash flows, state renewable mandates, and political pressures to keep rates or power prices low, all while complying with carbon emissions programs that emphasize higher-cost fuels? Meeting the challenges may depend on whether a national carbon program that regulates carbon emissions is established.

People

(October 2006) Kansas City Power & Light promoted Kevin Bryant to vice president of Energy Solutions. American Electric Power announced a series of executive reassignments as part of the company’s succession planning strategy. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. elected Bill Morrow as president and COO. Bob Drennan, a 23-year Progress Energy veteran, has been named vice president of investor relations. And others...

Don't Mess With Texas

America’s energy competition laboratory prepares to build.

The ERCOT region remains a living example of how to make a successful transition to restructured wholesale and retail markets for electricity. At the same time, the market continues to witness some significant developments. Sights are turning from recovery to the next stage of the power business cycle: The Buildup.

The Most Effective Way

Market prices send investors clear signals to invest in the most efficient means for producing electricity.

Higher electricity prices have drawn sharp attention to the design of organized wholesale electricity markets—particularly to areas where residential customers’ rates will increase because multi-year rate freezes are ending. Some suggest changing the way that markets set wholesale electricity prices, or doing away with competitive markets entirely and returning to government regulation of prices. They say that the design of the markets exaggerates the effects of natural-gas price increases and unfairly rewards generators that use lower-cost fuels.

Industry Evolution: Financial Pressures Ahead

Can utilities simultaneously manage rising costs and pressing capital investment needs?

Does the utility industry have the financial strength sufficient to meet the combined challenges of: (1) sharply increasing and highly volatile fuel and purchased-power costs; (2) significant capital investment requirements; and (3) rising interest rates?

Bad Day at Black Oak

Beware even the best of attempts at apportioning grid rights and costs.

Several recent complaints involving PJM and now at FERC pose fundamental questions on how regulators and grid operators should attempt to price and allocate grid rights and costs. Is the transmission network a public asset, with costs that must be apportioned on principles of equity? Or, rather, is transmission an instrument of commerce, to be priced so as to maximize trade?

The Trouble with Risk Measures

Companies should adopt a far more robust metric.

Market risk remains one of the most significant issues for gas and power merchants. The SEC requires disclosure of market risks in a company’s annual filings. However, the allowable metrics fail to communicate the type of information an investor actually can use to gain an understanding of the market risk embedded in a company’s business.

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