Travis Kavulla

Otto Blathy, Bern Dibner, Rene Thury, Philip Torchio, Travis Kavulla

August Birthdays

On August 11, 1860, Otto Blathy was born in Tata, Hungary. He was the co-inventor of the transformer at age twenty-five.

Indeed, Otto literally came up with the name transformer. Not only did the term transformer stick in our industry...

Transformers ultimately became the name of Hasbro's robots in disguise, Bumblebee and his team of heroic autobots, on the hunt for the evil Decepticons loose on earth. Their motto, "Rev up and roll out."

Tale of Two Grids

What a review of PUC cases tells us about the future of consumer technology and grid modernization.

There may be a more fundamental schism that raises fundamental questions about the role of the distribution utility and footprint of the natural monopoly.

People (January 2015)

NRG Energy appointed Steve McBee as the first president and CEO of NRG Home; Atlantic Power appointed Teresa M. Ressel to its board of directors; Marvin McDaniel becomes senior v.p., revenue group, and president and CEO of Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota at Xcel Energy; plus management changes at Southern Co., Duke Energy, Entergy Nuclear, and AES; appointments at the U.S. Department of Commerce, NARUC, Nexant, and the OpenADR Alliance; and others.