Fortnightly Magazine - April 15 2002

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.

Byline:

Jim Schretter

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Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative: What Does it Mean for Coal?

The Clear Skies Initiative proposes to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury by about 70 percent from current levels by 2018. What does the proposal mean for the coal industry? RDI Consulting believes it is a mixed bag.

Byline:

Sarah Noecker

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Moving Gas to Generate Power: An Encore for Hrehor/Sytsma

While responsive to the operational requirements of the particular systems, several new pipeline services enable generators to react more promptly to spiking electric demand.

Putting flesh on the gas-power vision, pipeline efforts to formulate services for generators, and FERC orders governing those efforts now assume a discernible shape. This is a reasonable time to take stock.

Byline:

Michel Marcoux

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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.

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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.

Byline:

Richard Stavros

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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.

Byline:

Kevin Phillips

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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.

Byline:

Dan Gabaldon and Joe Quoyeser

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