Catching Fire
Climate policy heats up after the Great Recession.
GHG rules are coming soon. What happens next will depend on how states react.
Fortnightly Magazine - February 2014
People (February 2014)
Nick Akins becomes chairman of AEP board; Dominion names Diane Leopold president of Dominion Energy, and Robert Blue president of Virginia Power; Leila Vespoli becomes chief legal officer at FirstEnergy; PG&E promotes Gregg Lemler to v.p. of electric transmission; plus personnel changes at Consumers Energy, Xcel, Southern Nuclear, ITC, CenterPoint, and others.
Modernizing with Trackers
Time-tested cost recovery mechanisms provide stable funding for infrastructure replacement.
Automatic tracker surcharges provide timely cost recovery for multi-year utility system improvement programs.
Transactions (February 2014)
Fortis acquires UNS Energy for $4.3 billion; EdF sells half of Texas wind project to UBS; SunEdison sells $1.2 billion in bonds and redeems $750 million in debt; plus equity and debt transactions totaling nearly $7 billion.
The Innovator's Dilemma
Assessing the risks and rewards of distributed energy strategies.
To embrace change or fight it? The choice to either act or wait and see is fraught with complexity.
Putting a Price on Carbon
How EPA can establish a U.S. GHG Program for the Electricity Sector.
With the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards expected in June 2014, many states are considering their own approaches to provide flexibility in meeting compliance requirements. Experience in North America to date provides policy guidance.
Complying with 111(d)
Exploring the cap-and-invest option.
EPA is expected to provide states with latitude in meeting Clean Air Act GHG standards. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) demonstrates an effective and economical approach: “cap and invest.”
Energy Efficiency Unmasked
Regulatory formulas for rewarding efficiency investments.
Effective conservation incentives would send appropriate price signals to consumers. The more common approach, unfortunately, involves arbitrary standards that introduce market inefficiencies and ultimately harm consumers.
Correlation Processing
Big data at work – from plant performance to customer interaction.
Analytics technology isn’t just for customer service and distribution systems. Pattern recognition techniques are allowing utilities to wade through large reams of data and identify incipient equipment problems at power plants, avoiding costly failures and safety compromises.
Digest
ABB commissions microgrid on Portuguese island; Panda orders Siemens generating units for 829-MW plant; Burlington Electric Department enters 54-MW PPA with First Wind; Tantalus and Itron contract for smart metering and smart grid system in Washington; EdF orders 220 MW of wind turbines from Vestas; MidAmerican orders 1,050 MW of wind turbines from Siemens; plus contracts and announcements from GE, PSEG, Arizona Public Service, Dominion, Entergy, Xcel, PSE&G, and others.