Three weeks ago I traveled to Indianapolis to Speak at the Indiana Energy Conference, a meeting sponsored by the Citizens Action Coalition and a board group from the local gas and electric industries, including a fair number of state government employees. Focusing on issues largely specific to Indiana, that audience gave the meeting a novel perspective: What's a low-cost state to do?
Do you fix it if it ain't broke?
techniques may imply trade-offs in service
quality.By Scott L. Englander, John E. Flory,
Leslie K. Norford, and Richard D. TaborsAs facility manager for a large hotel, you browse your energy vendor's web site to view tomorrow's hourly prices. But it seems your computer (pc) has already done some browsing of its own. Since it's connected to your energy management system, your pc has already looked up the weather forecast and has logged on to the hotel's main computer to find out what rooms will be used.
The Internet doesn't suit companies
that are vulnerable to security or financial risk (em
like electric transmission providers.
THE RUSH IS ON TO SET OASIS IN MOTION.
Despite a recent delay, the stage
appears set for online trading
in electric transmission capacity.
THIS IS ONLY A TEST (EM FOR NOW.
But come January, if all goes well, the OASIS program will start up in real time, with customers venturing onto the Internet to place reservations for capacity on the nation's electric transmission grid.
With no system in place to collect data, retail choice brought gridlock to England and Wales in 1994.
Competition
at the Meter: Lessons
From the U.K.Metering lies at the heart of electric competition, but may work best as a "natural" monopoly controlled by the distribution utility.Metering represents one of the more complex issues in retail electric competition (em one that suffers from major misperceptions.
NIPSCO wins top prize for customer information
system deemed state-of-the-art.
Runner-up Brooklyn Union melds Internet
technology with internal systems.To borrow a phrase, only three things matter in energy competition: technology, technology, and technology.
An exaggeration, perhaps, but not too far off for the three-dozen-plus electric and gas utilities that submitted applications for the 1996 Utility Leadership Award for Information Technology (em ULTRA for short.
Sponsored by PUBLIC
Skittish Stockholders? Polling Arizona
Utilities, like the President, may face a hard fight
for this state's trust.
Should investors continue to put their faith in utilities?
The Virginia State Corporation Commission has authorized Virginia Electric and Power Co. to suspend a pilot program for its Standby Generation Control System. (For prior ruling approving the program, see Re Virginia Electric Power Co., 162 PUR4th 363 (Va.S.C.C. 1995).)
The approved pilot authorized the utility to install control equipment on a mixture of customer- and utility-owned generators. Virginia Power would then operate the control system to provide extra generation during peak.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has decided to forgo a formal price-cap plan for Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. (BHE), an electric utility, finding that traditional regulation would better maintain the proper balance of shareholder and ratepayer interests. The PUC had approved a price-cap mechanism for Central Maine Power Co., another of the state's investor-owned electric utilities (see, Re Central Maine Power Co. 159 PUR4th 209 (Me.P.U.C.