Become a PUF Member Organization

Strategy & Planning

Energy People: John Hargrove

We talked with John Hargrove, CEO of the Association of Energy Services Professionals.

John Hargrove has led the Association of Energy Professionals since March 2015. Previously, Hargrove was director of renewable programs at NV Energy in Nevada for 11 years.
Byline: 

John Hargrove, with Steve Mitnick

Read Entire Article

POPS Is Here to Stay

Reports of Plain Old Power Service’s death greatly exaggerated

The vast majority of electric consumers want reliable, clean, reasonably priced electricity, and little else.
Byline: 

Steve Huntoon

Read Entire Article

Marginal Utility

The Carbon Paradigm Shift

The telephone companies dumped land lines for cellular, and prospered, thanks to their size, ability to raise funds, and name recognition. They migrated to a new paradigm. Can’t electricity providers?
Byline: 

Leonard S. Hyman and William I. Tilles

Read Entire Article

A Robotic Concrete Crawler

Play Station Controls Guide Robot on Concrete Inspection Trips

EPRI has designed a robot for inspecting hard-to-reach concrete surfaces. A robotic inspection system would eliminate the need to use scaffolding or rappelling for routine structural evaluations, eliminating the associated setup challenges, time requirements, costs, and safety hazards.
Byline: 

Maria Guimaraes

Read Entire Article

Here Comes the Sun

Growing Impacts of Residential Solar on Utility Customer Service

What does PV mean for utilities’ residential customer service operations? From helping customers with supplier selection, through installation and maintenance issues? And with billing? To begin to address this question, we conducted two sets of surveys of residential electricity customers in the second quarter of 2016.
Byline: 

Daniel Gabaldon, Matt Guarini and Jamie Wimberly

Read Entire Article

Ratemaking and the Campaign Against Rooftop Solar

Rate design should balance consumer and investor interests.

Regulators should ensure that changes to rate design seek to balance consumer and utility interests. Rates that are intended to insulate utilities from economic and technological change while providing no benefits to consumers ought to be considered unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory.
Byline: 

Ari Peskoe

Read Entire Article

The Consumer-Centric Utility

Empowering Consumers while Managing Risk and Optimizing Assets

Electric utilities do not simply sell a commodity. They sell safe, affordable, reliable and clean electric service. The “Consumer-Centric Utility” business model provides a viable framework for utilities while enabling new products and services that meet growing consumer expectations.
Byline: 

Jan Ahlen

Read Entire Article

Beware of Vertical Arrangements for Gas Procurement

Owning gas reserves benefits consumers?

Regulators should start with the premise that long-term contracting with an independent gas producer or middleman is preferable (e.g., with a marketer). Vertical arrangements pose a number of tough questions for state public utility regulators.
Byline: 

Kenneth Costello

Read Entire Article

FERC Chasing the Uncatchable

Trying to fix mandatory capacity markets like trying to win at Whack-A-Mole, Part II

The proposals do not mandate participation in mandatory auction markets, much less try to set artificial floors on seller bids.
Byline: 

Delia Patterson and Harvey Reiter

Read Entire Article

Remarkable Energy Careers: Jim Fama

We talked with Jim Fama, retiring and on his last day at EEI, about his remarkable career.

Jim Fama was the Edison Electric Institute’s vice president for energy delivery since 2002.
Byline: 

Jim Fama, with Steve Mitnick

Read Entire Article