[BETA] Fortnightly

(November 2011) Hitachi Power Systems America wins contract from Westar Energy; City of Fort Collins selects Elster, Siemens Energy, eMeter and Tropos GridCom to provide systems for its AMI project; Energate to supply smart thermostats for Oklahoma Gas & Electric; Jackson Municipal Electric Department selects Survalent Technology for a new SCADA system; Eastern Nebraska Public Power District Consortium selects ABB to implement an advanced smart grid-based SCADA; plus announcements and contracts involving EnerSys, S&C Electric, Siemens and others.

(September 2011) Walgreens to install eVgo charging stations at 800 sites; Siemens and eMeter team up in Maryland; Glasgow muni installs Elster meters; ABB completes Mincom acquisition; JDSU acquires Quanta-Sol PV technology; Survalent installs SCADA system at tidal power project; PECO selects Telvent; plus announcements and contracts involving Trilliant, Sensus, S&C Electric, Navigant, Ernst & Young, PSE&G, Portland General Electric and others.

(September 2011) Gaz Métro buys Central Vermont Public Service; Tortoise Capital Resources acquires interest in Public Service of New Mexico; South Carolina Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper sell capacity, and more.

Competitive electric provider Electric Lite has drawn the attention of the South Carolina Public Service Commission with its promises of guaranteed rate reductions of 20 percent.

Electric Lite intends to compete against South Carolina investor-owned utilities for customers when the Legislature opens the market to competition.

The proposed "Competitive Power Act," if approved by the Legislature, would open the state's electric markets to competition in January 1998.

A new study takes a look at using the benefits of electric utility deregulation to increase trade and investment between the U.S. and Mexico. Published by the Salt River Project, or SRP, and the Comision Federal de Electricidad, the study aims to help companies understand the legal and regulatory regimes of the two countries and the potential opportunities to buy and sell power across the border via high-voltage interconnections. Others involved with the study included the

U.S. Agency for International Development, Price Waterhouse and Bechtel.

The prospect of deregulation has induced a wave of mergers among electric utilities. Most of these mergers would fail an antitrust review because, by combining generation assets of interconnected utilities, they have substantially reduced potential competition in generation.

Thirteen of the nation's largest public utilities signed agreements with the Department of Energy (DOE), committing themselves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a combined total of 2.5 million metric tons by 2000. Last year, over 800 utilities pledged to cooperate with the Clinton Administration's goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000 in all industrial sectors.