O&M

Growth Through Productivity

Enterprise Management: Taking a wider view of asset management.

Utility executives today see few choices if they wish to achieve growth. Better scheduling can improve overall productivity by 10-15 percent, offering the potential for growth. Yet it is not sufficient simply to focus narrowly on work execution in the field.

Finding Common Ground on Energy Efficiency

Policy recommendations for utilities and regulators.

It’s the downright cheapest way of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Yet it’s mired from state to state in battles over definitions, principles, and parameters. Herein a collection of recommended policy positions to break the impasse over energy efficiency.

Behind the Meter: What's In Store

Key steps for companies considering on-site energy storage.

The energy storage market is gaining momentum. Drivers: Growing penetration of renewable energy in the resource mix; Increasing focus on climate change and resource scarcity; Growing prevalence of demand charges for commercial and industrial energy users; and various other regulatory changes.

Locus Energy Chosen as Exclusive Solar Monitoring Provider for Swinerton Renewable Energy

Swinerton Renewable Energy will standardize its entire solar fleet on Locus Energy's SolarNOC monitoring platform and PVIQ analytics suite as part of its SOLV enterprise solution for optimizing and managing plant Swinerton Renewable Energys. By leveraging Locus Energy's web-based SolarNOC software, Swinerton's fleet operators will be able to more efficiently organize and assess performance data over a set of solar PV assets spread across a geographical area, as well as streamline O&M workflows.

Correlation Processing

Big data at work – from plant performance to customer interaction.

Analytics technology isn’t just for customer service and distribution systems. Pattern recognition techniques are allowing utilities to wade through large reams of data and identify incipient equipment problems at power plants, avoiding costly failures and safety compromises.

Making Friends with Solar DG

Better to compete from within than fight from afar.

Utilities should embrace distributed solar generation, offering O&M, aggregation, or marketing services, rather than lament a lost business model.

Profit and the New Normal

Delivering value in a zero-growth market.

Disruptive technologies and resource shifts are changing the utility business model. Market factors are driving companies toward four possible paths.

Build to Order

Engineers and constructors adapt to serve an industry in transition.

From gas pipelines to PV arrays, the nation’s contractors are seeing growth in utility infrastructure. Fortnightly talks with executives at engineering and construction firms to learn what kinds of projects are moving forward, where they’re located, and what lies over the horizon.

The Race to Consolidate

Positioning to win in the contest for scale.

The industry’s slow-and-steady pace of mergers seems to be picking up speed, as larger and well-positioned players overtake smaller and weaker targets. Realizing the greatest value from consolidation requires companies to assess their strengths and weaknesses and focus on performance improvement—both before and after a deal gets done.

CEO Forum: Facing the Future

Three CEOs, three business models, one shared outlook.

Cheap gas, regulatory uncertainties, and a technology revolution are re-making the U.S. utility industry. Top executives at three very different companies—CMS, NRG, and the Midwest ISO—share their outlook on the industry’s transformative changes.