No, Edison Wouldn't Recognize Today's Electric Industry
A put down of the industry’s innovation can be put aside
The last year of Edison’s life was vastly different from today. Residential electric consumption is about 140 times greater than 1930.
Fortnightly Magazine - February 2016
Response to Cicchetti/Wellinghoff Re: Net Metering
Letters to the Editor: A response to the article by Charles Cicchetti and Jon Wellinghoff in our December 2015 issue
A major mistake is the claim, under net metering, customers who generate power with rooftop solar simply “bank” or “park” their extra electricity with their utility, retaining ownership rights.
Response to Huntoon Re: Big Transmission
Letter to the Editor: A response to the article by Steve Huntoon in our September 2015 issue
Public/regulatory policy, economic viability and non-negotiable need to sustain near-100-percent system reliability could soon push building more “big transmission.”
Rate Structure Philosophy
Rate design will need to become more flexible, more duly discriminatory, more tailored to the diversity of consumers
Not many know fixed charges are there to cover utilities’ invariant costs for keeping up the grid, and can be half of all costs.
New Technologies Require Regulatory Vigilance and Balance
Regulators should presume all advocates of a technology desire to gain unfair advantage over competitors.
Regulators are especially vulnerable to rent-seeking efforts by advocates to achieve self-serving outcomes, at the expense of the general public.
Community Storage: Coming to a Home Near You
A readily available option for storage may be coordinating existing devices that have untapped storage capacity
Despite battery technology’s ability to grab clean tech media headlines, industry still lacks a clear, practical, cost-effective path.
Postcards from Hawaii: Lessons on Grid Transformation
Hawaiian utility experts describe the islands’ fast-growing solar market as a postcard from the future
The group spent four days immersed in Hawaii’s dynamic solar market, listening and learning from the experiences of utility executives, policy makers, solar and clean tech players.
Activating the Human Grid
Involvement of the crew and utility customer is a powerful untapped source of telemetry, control and general network information
The purpose fulfilling the other half of the human grid is to leverage the consumer to provide outage and restoration telemetry, and in some cases, a degree of load control, since the consumer ultimately controls the load.
Technology on the Move
Military and telecom expertise create high-tech utility solution
Imagine trying to hold a 120-foot antenna in 90 mile-per-hour winds…an antenna that if moved more than an inch, would lose its signal. That was just one of the challenges facing Xcel Energy as it strategized creating a temporary microwave connection to secure vital communications for a new substation in New Mexico in order to meet contractual requirements.
New Grid Security Measures for 2016
Two new laws that may have escaped attention by the industry have the potential to dramatically change the grid security landscape
It is unclear whether and to what extent CISA 2015 will displace or incorporate existing electric industry programs