Fortnightly Magazine - April 15 2002

Catch A Wave!

The solution to California's crisis may have been lapping at the beach.

The California Energy Commission recently awarded a $120,000 grant to study the feasibility of using ocean swells as a potential source of renewable energy.

Utility Valuation: Shedding Light on the Black Box

Experts debate how energy companies should be valued in the wake of electric restructuring and Enron.

Credit downgrades, bankruptcy, and investor backlash against energy companies has exposed how inadequate the valuation of energy companies is. Experts debate just how to value the industry.

The Fear Factor

Understanding power company volatility in the context of valuation theory.

A top CSFB investment banker analyzes how recent power sector volatility can be understood in the context of valuation theory.

Vertical Integration: Necessity or Distraction?

An analysis of the latest wave of unbundling, re-bundling, and convergence plays in the gas-power industries.

In any industry, companies must choose a portfolio of assets and businesses to own along a value chain. In doing so, they make an implicit trade-off between the benefits of focus and vertical integration.

Three-Legged Stool

The smart money now treats transmission as a player. Just like generation. Just like load.

Over at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, new chairman Pat Wood has let it be known if he had been in charge, he would have postponed Order 2000.

People (April 15, 2002)

Stephen P. Reynolds succeeds William S. Weaver as president and CEO for Puget Energy. NERC elected Bruce A. Scherr to its independent board of trustees. Jim Wise, chairman and CEO of Neostar Group Inc., has joined the volunteer leadership team of the Resource Alliance Group of Houston. And others ...

A Winning Proposition?

A response to Bruce Radford’s “100-to-1 Odds, Why merchant transmission still looks iffy,” in the March 1, 2002 issue.

Competitive transmission is already a proven and sound business model. With the right regulatory rules, competitive transmission can make major efficiency improvements to the existing transmission system.
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