RAM

SunEdison Completes 24 MW Cascade Solar Power Plant

SunEdison completed construction of a 24 MW solar power plant located in the California Desert. The Cascade solar power plant will supply renewable electricity to San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) through a 20-year PPA that was awarded under the California Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM). The 150-acre solar power plant is comprised of more than 75,000 SunEdison Silvantis Monocrystalline Solar PV Modules mounted to SunEdison AP90 Single Axis Trackers.

Securing Tomorrow's Grid (Part I)

Protecting smart systems against cyber threats.

Smart grid technologies bring a host of cyber security considerations that need to be addressed throughout the T&D domain—and even into the customer’s home. In this exclusive report, Department of Energy authors team up with industry experts to examine how to deal with the changes and challenges of securing the smart grid.

Cali Gets it Right

Not your father’s feed-in tariff.

The industry has struggled to craft a feed-in-tariff (FiT) structure that works for solar generators and utility customers, with mixed success. But now, the California Public Utility Commission might have found an approach that other states can replicate. CPUC’s FiT mechanism recognizes the value proposition of solar energy, and uses market forces to drive economic improvements, especially for distributed solar projects.

AMI/Demand Response: For Real This Time?

Smart metering is coming of age. Is the utility world ready for it?

Some states, including Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas, have been considering smart-metering questions as part of rate cases and resource-planning discussions. Other states, such as Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, and Virginia, have initiated EPACT Section 1252 inquiries separately from other proceedings. The tenor of the discussion also varies from state to state, with high-cost power states generally more attracted to AMI than low-cost states are.

Encore for Negawatts?

Congress renews PURPA’s call for conservation and load management, but the world has changed since the 1970s.

The “N-word” in the title first appeared in this journal more than 20 years ago, courtesy of the celebrated environmentalist Amory Lovins and his widely quoted piece, “Saving Gigabucks with Negawatts” (Fortnightly, 1985). Scroll forward a few decades. With restructuring of wholesale electric markets at FERC, plus formation of regional transmission organizations and independent system operators, the game was changed.

Commission Watch

FERC mulls rival plans at the last minute, while on the West Coast, California gets into the game.

FERC, the ISO, and many other parties had seen no reason for further debate over the need for a location-specific capacity market. By limiting debate, FERC had foreclosed a raft of competing ideas. When the moment finally arrived for the oral argument at FERC, attorneys and witnesses attempted valiantly in the precious few minutes allotted each speaker to flesh out new ideas, and the commissioners struggled as well to keep up. This highly unusual situation made for a helter-skelter hearing, with new topics seeming to come out of the woodwork.

Smart Meters on The March

New federal policies portend a wave of demand-response programs, and perhaps a new era in resource planning.

When President Bush signed the energy bill on August 8, he set in motion a chain of events that might lead to major changes in the way utilities price and meter retail electric services—and ultimately in the way they value and use non-traditional energy resources.

The Politics of AMR

The industry continues to debate the costs and technology of automated meter reading, even as some regulators insist on immediate implementation.

The industry continues to debate the costs and technology of automated meter reading, even as some regulators insist on immediate implementation.

 

New York Throws a Curve

ISO's new ICAP scheme seen as subsidy for the gen sector.

For evidence that electric restructuring has lost its way, look no further than ICAP — the dubious idea that to guarantee reliability and low prices, regulators should create a market not just for trading the finished commodity, but also for buying and selling ownership rights in the future ability to produce.

Commission Watch

State regulators redouble their deregulation efforts-or abandon them altogether.

Retail Energy in 2002: A Regulatory About-face

 

 

State regulators redouble their deregulation efforts-or abandon them altogether.

The past year was a phenomenal one for state public utility regulators.

A historical confluence of events, including the catastrophic failure of the move to deregulate California electric markets and a nationwide epidemic of corporate financial scandals, led in large part by energy trading firms, helps to explain the developments.