Retail competition

The Ultimate CEOs: Anthony F. Earley Jr., DTE Energy

The CEO Power Forum: Not all utility CEOs are created equal...

"To enhance that natural utility growth of around 2 percent per year, we want to surround the utilities with a portfolio of non-utility businesses that have higher growth prospects."

Islands in the Storm

Microgrids begin to make economic sense.

With microgrids in place, doomsday preppers wouldn't need to worry so much about a zombie plague.

Learning from Retailers

Success in retail energy markets requires providing customers with the best choices and the best service. Utilities can learn valuable lessons from the experiences of competitive electricity retailers.
Success in retail energy markets requires providing customers with the best choices and the best service. Utilities can learn valuable lessons from the experiences of competitive electricity retailers.

The Ultimate CEOs

The CEO Power Forum: Not all utility CEOs are created equal...

We talk with Cinergy’s James E. Rogers, DTE Energy’s Anthony F. Earley Jr., Constellation Energy’s Mayo A. Shattuck III, Xcel Energy’s Wayne H. Brunetti, FPL Group Inc.’s Lewis Hay III, and TXU’s C. John Wilder.

Europe Rewired: A Giant Awakens

EU nations are taking slow steps toward an integrated energy market, but they are many paces ahead of U.S. efforts.

EU nations are taking slow steps toward an integrated energy market, but they are many paces ahead of U.S. efforts.

Despite recent setbacks in establishing an acceptable balance of voting power among member nations, a new constitution for the European Union (EU) is expected to bring together dozens of separate nations into a single economic and political superpower and lead to an interconnected energy market throughout the European continent-one that will eventually stretch from Portugal to the Baltic Sea and from Ireland to Greece and perhaps beyond.

Regulators' Forum: A Fight Over Market Design

FERC's attempt to standardize markets have some state regulators up in arms.

FERC's attempt to standardize markets have some state regulators up in arms.

The fight over standard market design (SMD) looms large as regulators face the coming year. Passions are heightened on the subject-and everyone has an opinion.

In these pages, takes SMD and other questions right to the top policymakers in six states-Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Texas-for a snapshot of what the thinking is on hot topics. And of course we included the man of the hour, FERC's chairman Pat Wood.

We Got Green?

<p>Not hardly. And now the FTC would leave consumers in the dark on some environmental claims.</p>

The green power mind-set is locked in the wholesale world, clueless about what it takes to perfect real consumer products.

FERC's Plan for Electric Competition

WHY IS ELECTRICITY COMPETITION NOT WORKING? The principal reason is the failure of Order 888 to accommodate the economic and technological constraints of wholesale power markets.

Soon after Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992, to give authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to compel electric utilities under its jurisdiction to wheel power for others, the FERC correctly recognized that piecemeal wheeling orders wouldn't work well without a tariff. A tariff would make the service quickly available to the user without the need for time-consuming negotiation.