Automation's Forgotten Midwife
Assuring operational readiness for your ADMS implementation.
New software is vital as electric distribution utilities are building a modern "grid of the future."
Strategy & Planning
The Rise and Fall of Big Transmission
The alternatives may make more sense.
After 10 years of dramatic announcements and proposals, the reality today is that Big Transmission has fallen and it won't be getting up - not even for the Clean Power Plan. And the fall of Big Transmission is not a public policy failure. Rather, it never did make sense.
The Fortnightly 40 Best Energy Companies
A reshuffling of the rankings. Is nuclear the cause?
Of the top ten movers in this year’s Fortnightly 40, seven utilities rose in the rankings and three went down. But the utilities moving the most from 2013 to 2014 went down hard.
Business Model Mashup
Three ‘power plays’ for utilities seeking growth.
Threats to the utility business model mean that it’s time to make choices about future growth to protect cash flows while investing in new ventures.
Time for 'Megawatts Without Borders'
Why can’t we fly in a portable power supply to aid a poor country in distress? Here may lie opportunity.
Zambia, the landlocked and poor country in Southern Africa, is suffering a crippling power shortage. Musing about this, I find it extraordinary that there are no reliable, affordable, and portable power supply units that could be brought in to help Zambia.
Searching for Equilibrium
How to achieve it in the era of distributed energy
In the emerging era of distributed energy resources, we will find the distribution utility increasingly in the role of an integrator and enabler – more than their longstanding role as energy provider. Accordingly, the regulatory approach must go through its own structural shift to keep pace and restore the system to regulatory equilibrium.
Understanding New York's 'Vision'
A roadmap to ‘REV’ and its plan for restructuring.
New York's far-reaching reform plan, called the Renewable Energy Vision, or “REV,” seeks to decentralize power supply by encouraging distributed resources, and a new regulatory entity will be created called a “Distributed System Platform,” or DSP.
Is Nuclear Energy Still Viable?
Cheap natural gas is not just hurting coal. It’s doing the same to nuclear.
As the nation strives for cleaner air and less carbon emissions, nuclear – the most promising carbon-free power source – faces stiff competition from natural gas, which is cheap, abundant, and a lot easier to get permitted and built than a conventional reactor.
Piggybacking on the Grid
Why net energy metering is unfair and inefficient.
While customers may have reached a “net zero” threshold on energy, they are a large net negative on very expensive grid services.
A Tale of Two Technologies
Uncle Sam didn’t frack this one up.
Technological progress can be function of productive public-private partnerships that help shoulder risks and raise capital.