Spotlight Shines Again on 'Cool Losers'

Noting that "American Idol" may have "met its match," the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) recently revealed the winner of its "Coolest Loser" contest. The award is given to the most energy-inefficient refrigerator, based on appearance and condition.

Asset optimization is a favored utility strategy in an economic downturn.

Generation plant construction has gone down with the economy. "Our project finance pipeline is as dry as I have seen it," says energy analyst Jerry Pfeffer of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, speaking at a recent energy conference in New Orleans. He predicts it will take at least a year or two until new construction starts up again in any significant manner.

The real, painful reform has only just begun.

It has been almost a year since Enron imploded into bankruptcy, but rather than solve problems, the event has only brought uncertainty-credit rating downgrades, a drop in investor confidence, and heightened scrutiny from the Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

By Lori A. Burkhart

Gas-fired power is king today, but fuel diversity needs and new technologies may open the door for nuclear and coal.

The nation's demand for electricity is expected to grow by over 40 percent in the next 20 years, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Meeting that need will require a great number of new generating plants. The burning question is, what will fuel these new plants?

(December, 2001) The results of our annual survey of authorized rates of return on common equity for state-regulated energy utilities show a continued reliance on traditional cost-of-service ratemaking in many states. At the same time the results also show that rate case filings do not dominate the field of economic regulation the way they might have in times of higher rates of inflation and prior to the advent of price cap regulation and market restructuring programs.

Demand Response: An Overview of Enabling Technologies