Natural gas

2014 Utility Regulators' Forum

Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.

Interviews with public utility commissioners from key states – New York, California, Maryland, and Georgia – on coal carbon, climate, and the revolution in retail. What they’re thinking. What they’re planning.

Risk Holds Sway

Interest rates not always controlling for return on equity. 

(November 2014) Our annual survey of rates of return on common equity authorized by state public utility commissions in recent rate cases for electric and gas retail distribution utilities.

Germany's Energiewende

Lessons learned for U.S. utilities – drawn from first-person fact-finding.

Policy experts travel to the continent to get a first-hand view on the lessons the U.S. utilities should take away from Germany’s rush to renewables.

AES to Sell 100% of its Interest in Assets in Turkey for $125 Million

The AES Corporation entered into an agreement to sell its 49.62% equity interest in AES Entek Elektrik Üretimi A.Ş. (AES Entek), a joint venture with KOÇ HOLDİNG A.Ş. and AYGAZ A.Ş., in Turkey, to its partners. The sale represents 100% of AES' interest in assets in Turkey, consisting of 364 MW of operating natural gas and hydroelectric facilities and its interest in a coal-fired development project, for $125 million in equity proceeds to AES. Subject to customary regulatory approvals, this transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2015.

From Coal to Gas

Regulatory and environmental challenges for power plant conversions under the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

Converting a power plant from coal to natural gas triggers a host of environmental challenges and regulatory issues. Operators could be trading one set of regulatory obligations, liabilities, and costs for another, equally problematic, set of liabilities and costs.

Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas Select Dominion to Build Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas selected Dominion to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 550-mile interstate natural gas pipeline from West Virginia, through Virginia and into eastern North Carolina to meet the region’s rapidly growing demand for natural gas.

Exelon Buys 21 MW of Fuel Cells from Bloom Energy

Exelon agreed to buy fuel-cell power plants with 21 MW of capacity that Bloom Energy plans to install at 75 corporate sites in four states. Commercial customers including AT&T will purchase the electricity for each plant’s ability to provide power locally with less pollution and more reliability than the grid. Fuel cell generators produce electricity where it’s consumed from natural gas through a chemical reaction that produces fewer carbon emissions than plants that burn fuel.

Florida Power & Light Proposes Plan to Invest in Natural Gas

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) plans to invest in long-term natural gas supplies, which the company believes will save customers money and keep fuel costs lower. FPL is partnering with PetroQuest Energy, to develop up to 38 natural gas production wells in the Woodford Shale region in southeastern Oklahoma. PetroQuest will oversee and operate those wells. FPL will receive a portion of the natural gas produced from each well for its use.

Hedging Your Bet on Cheap Gas

Portfolio theory points to energy efficiency as invaluable in resource planning.

Overlooked in planning, and undervalued by today’s low natural gas prices, energy efficiency offers a valuable hedge against fuel price volatility.

Reliability vs. Resiliency

Prevent problems, or wait and respond when something happens?

FERC holds conference on electric reliability, asks about standards for resiliency – not just to prevent problems, but how to respond once they occur.