The Geopolitical Risks of LNG
To many energy-industry analysts, 2005 is a make-or-break year for the U.S. gas market. If we don't have at least several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in construction by the end of the year, the country arguably will face serious gas-supply shortages and price spikes beginning in about 2008.1
Distributed Generation
In the first of three articles, experts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory examine the technical obstacles, deployment, and economic issues surrounding distributed generation.
The existing electric power delivery system is a critical part of this country's economic and societal infrastructure, and proposals to increase the role of distributed energy resources (DER) within this system are welcomed by few in the utility industry.
Metering Supplement
presents a special series of articles that clarifies misconceptions and reviews the progress and pitfalls regarding automated metering technology.
Time and time again, the advancement of new technologies has been misunderstood.
The Oracle of AMR
In search of the top trends in utility automation.
Howard A. Scott, Ph.D., specializes in utility operations technology for Cognyst Consulting. His technical and business experiences include automatic meter reading, telecommunications, project and business management, market research, and software development. He has published numerous articles including an extensive market study of the automatic meter reading industry titled .
Analyzing the conservation effects of demand response programs.
Does demand response increase or decrease overall electricity usage?
Chris King and Dan Delurey
Advanced Meter Reading
Advanced Meter Reading
An executive speaks out.
I think, frankly, that it's those marketing folks who conjure up all the myths about advanced meter reading. Rather than sheepishly admitting that their product is deficient in multiple areas, corporate spinmeisters spin webs of words and images into difficult-to-understand concepts, hoping upon hope they can fool us. They bank on the old adage: tell a lie enough and soon people will begin to believe it.
Mark Leach
Frontlines
Can utility executives find happiness in back-to-basics?
We've read the pitch a number of times in these very pages. Top investment bankers have told us that a "back-to-basics" strategy will never produce a high-enough return to please electric utility stockholders; that the only solution to bridge this "earnings gap" would involve a rash of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) between utilities.
People
Power Measurement
An improved definition of heating and cooling degree-days for power markets.
Anyone who owns an air conditioner and pays an electric bill knows that weather drives demand for electricity, but quantifying the relationship between weather and electricity demand isn't easy. Was last winter severely cold? Winters are always cold. If it really was cold, exactly how cold was it?
Renewable Energy in the 21st Century:
Perspective
Renewable Energy in the 21st Century:
State involvement in promoting renewable technologies has profound implications for the future of the energy industry.
Election-year posturing seems to have prevented the federal government from reaching consensus on a number of energy issues ranging from standard market design to global warming, MBTE to Kyoto, ANWR to nuclear waste disposal.
Philip J. Deutch
