Among a host of arguments for and against RD is the question of upside for consumers.
Retaining adequate earnings is the driving motive for revenue decoupling (RD) among gas utilities, while conservationists view RD as necessary for the removal of resistance to energy efficiency. But the benefits of RD to consumers are less certain.
How greenhouse gases and Best Available Control Technology could shape the regulatory landscape—and the environment.
Two cases involving traditional pollutants and climate change are before the court. In addition to questions about the EPA’s regulatory power, both cases raise critical threshold “jurisdictional” questions about the courts’ role in addressing these issues.
Innovation must play a key role in each company.
An EPRI vice president cites areas of concern in each part of the electricity value chain. How can IOUs overcome the formidable difficulties ahead of them?
Regulators today must define earnings for energy retailers virtually bereft of fixed assets.
Applying the traditional rate-base concept to the new hybrid companies is where the gap between the old and the new regulatory paradigms resembles a deep schism. The current shifts in regulation should cause regulators to revisit and reconsider concepts that once reigned supreme in ratemaking.
Gas utilities and state commissions must work together to help preserve rates of return, encourage conservation, and lower customers’ bills.
Analyzing the conservation effects of demand response programs.
Does demand response increase or decrease overall electricity usage?
The states are getting into the act on greenhouse emissions, and the power industry is getting more proactive. What policy measures are appropriate?
High Gas Prices:
Conservation programs, plus an erosion in domestic manufacturing, will lead to a falloff in gas demand.
The treacherous journey toward a more efficient and transparent Northwest power market may be nearing its conclusion.
Steve Wright stands at the helm of an agency with a seemingly impossible task. As CEO and administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Wright must serve a broad spectrum of interests, from aluminum smelters to sockeye salmon. And no matter what he or anyone does, it's impossible to make them all happy at the same time.
A review of which technologies and companies stand to win and lose as a result of the 2003 blackout.
Mishap, human error, and malice regularly crash the electric system. We have lurched from the Western economic power crisis of 1999-2000 to the Eastern reliability power crisis of 2003. Neither more studies nor more blackouts have changed what's been built-an excessive quantity of large generation plants dependent on relatively few major transmission lines. On its current course, the grid's inevitable destination is disaster.