Fortnightly Magazine - August 2006

Facing the Climate Challenge

Climate risks are entering the calculus for utility investment strategies.

Utilities are eager to invest in new power capacity—in part to build rate base and in part because they recognize the danger of relying too much on a single fuel source. Environmental issues, however, are adding greater complexity to company strategies for achieving fuel diversity.

Squeezing BTUs From Light Bulbs

Incandescent light bulbs create a cogeneration benefit by warming the indoor spaces they illuminate.

Genuine price signals about the underlying cost of consumer energy usage are an important part of energy efficiency. With those signals, consumers can adapt to save high-cost energy, while making better use of available low-cost sources and supplies.

Mirror, Mirror

A rash of rate hikes around the country could have utilities facing a public-relations disaster.

Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck has complained that he and the utility have unfairly been demonized in the public and in the press. In one interview with a Maryland paper, Shattuck showed distress over the verbal abuse his executives had received from angry ratepayers. And who can blame him?

V