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Fortnightly Magazine - June 2005

People

Exelon appointed Tom Ridge and Dr. William C. Richardson to its board of directors. NiSource Inc. has restructured its leadership team. Hydro-Québec appointed André Caillé chairman of its board of directors and Thierry Vandal as president and CEO of the company. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chairman Wendell F. Holland recently was named president of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners. And others...

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Mercury: Much Ado About Nothing?

How the Clean Air Mercury Rule will affect coal prices.

The Clean Air Mercury Rule impacts new and existing coal-fired electric generating plants through a market-based cap-and-trade program similar to the EPA’s highly successful Acid Rain Program. The first phase of the program in 2010 reduces mercury emissions to 38 tons. The second phase goes into action in 2018 with a final mercury emissions cap of 15 tons. The key question is: what extent will the new rule reduce coal’s dominance in the electric generation market?
Byline: 

Hans Daniels

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Building a Better Utility

Many of the obstacles and strategic issues that utilities face today are all too familiar. This time they must be solved with a different business model.

We overbuild, run short, then overbuild again. You'd think we'd learn, because when the forecasts aren't accurate, when overcapacity plagues the industry, companies fail. Can we get the forecasts right? Probably not. But we can plan for forecasts that will be wrong. They always are. And they will be until the system is redesigned to let prices clear the market.
Byline: 

Judith Warrick

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Reliability Wars

Power System Planning: Who gets paid (and how much) for backing up the system?

“Confining transmission projects to FTR payments is like confining generators to energy-only payments,” says Ed Krapels, the electric industry consultant from Boston who helped dream up the initial idea of the Neptune project. These words speak volumes on what’s happening in today’s power industry, and on what the ISOs and RTOs are trying to achieve, not only for merchant-grid projects but for merchant generation and system reliability.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Going to the Bank

Financial buyers are snapping up power plants faster than at any time in history. The asset shift represents an interim step in a wholesale-market transformation.

A dam broke last year, releasing a wave that even now is spreading through the U.S. power industry. Deals that had been languishing on the auction block for months suddenly surged forward in 2004, and assets began changing ownership at a torrential pace. Understanding what this means for the power industry requires a long-term perspective on wholesale-market trends.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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The Ultimate CEOs: Constellation Energy’s Mayo A. Shattuck III

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

"Goldman Sachs built the platform. They came from a world of conventional procedures and compliance, and an understanding of rule sets. Almost every other wholesale platform built in Houston and run by cowboys got out of control."
Byline: 

Interview by Richard Stavros

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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."
Byline: 

Interview by Richard Stavros

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The Ultimate CEOs: C. John Wilder, TXU Corp.

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

"This is a real industrial company with a real consumer business. It's not a kind of governmental confected business like many of these quasi-restructured market companies compete in."
Byline: 

Interview by Richard Stavros

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The Ultimate CEOs: Wayne H. Brunetti, Xcel Energy

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

“People have approached us to outsource our call centers to India. I’m just not going to do that. To me the face of our company is our call centers. That’s our principle contact with our customers.”
Byline: 

Interview by Richard Stavros

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