Renewable

Renewables and Carbon Markets

Allowance structures will influence project economics.

Carbon-reduction policies are being designed and implemented across the country. One common feature of these regulatory programs is a carbon cap-and-trade system—i.e., a carbon emissions market.

Seeing Green

Renewables attract utility investment dollars.

New federal policies have opened the gates to utility investments in renewable generating plants. Some states, however, still make it difficult for utilities to put such assets into the rate base. Executives at Duke, OG&E, PG&E and Xcel Energy discuss challenges and opportunities affecting their renewable investment strategies.

Federalizing the Grid

Renewable mandates will shift power to FERC but pose problems for RTOs.

A recent survey conducted by the U.S Office of Personnel Management and reported by the Washington Post on March 13 ranked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as eighth best of some 37 federal agencies in terms “talent,” and third in “leadership and knowledge.”

Five Nuclear Challenges

Building reactors requires new federal commitment.

Several key barriers prevent the construction of a new U.S. nuclear power fleet. These barriers must be overcome to prevent a power-shortfall emergency.

Wooing the Western Wind

How a move to bring power markets to the Great Plains has uncovered a crisis in grid planning.

They call the United States the “Saudi Arabia of Wind.” That’s due in large part to the huge potential of the Great Plains. But there’s a hole in the metaphor. Wind power development in some parts of the prairie is falling short of expectations.

Green Price Stability

New approaches account for the economic benefits of renewables.

Many green power customers benefit from long-term fixed prices. The most effective programs recognize the value of this price hedge—and fairly exempt customers from fuel cost adders in utility rates.

Dynamic Pricing Solutions

How to account for lack of strong price signals. A hard year puts deregulation to the test.

The greatest benefits of time-of-use pricing come from avoided costs of peaking power and T&D capacity—but only if hourly retail prices accurately model the true costs of delivered energy, including scarcity rents. Restoring the missing price signals will encourage economic investments in AMI, conservation and system capacity.

Riding on The Wind

Plug-in hybrids usher a new era for wind power.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) open a new intersection between wind power and transportation.

Ontario's Standard Offer

Financial incentives work, but beware potential pitfalls.

The province’s renewable program was vastly oversubscribed. But was it successful?

IRP Meets RPS

New green mandates force portfolio planners to re-think their models.

Quantifying the impacts of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) on utility integrated resource plans (IRP) sounds straight forward—just add more wind, solar, hydro, biomass, etc., to the plan and everything should be good to go. The reality is not quite so simple.