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Happy Sam Insull's Birthday!

Excerpted from “Sam Insull, Bill Nye, and the Urge to Innovate,” in the November 2019 special issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly on innovation:

“Today, the eleventh of November, is Samuel Insull’s Birthday. We’re in Insull’s debt for his many breakthroughs for the utilities industry, in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. Not the least of which is, literally, the innovation of utility regulation.

From Insull’s memoirs:

Typhoons and Resilience in Japan

Challenges to the Grid Here

A large percentage of utility poles in Japan are either made of concrete or are underground, not only to withstand typhoons, but of course earthquakes.
Byline: 

Leana Mitnick

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Net Neutrality is Back Once Again

Questions Remain

The result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’s decision is a whole lot of uncertainty. If you are an electric utility, you don’t know for sure who will be allowed to attach their lines (or antennas) to your poles. If you are a state legislator or regulator, you don’t know if any laws or regulations you adopt will be upheld.
Byline: 

Steve Goodman

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Following the Innovators

Extended Market Presence

Utilities need to find unconventional ways to take advantage of market innovation without over-taxing or under-utilizing internal resources and capabilities.
Byline: 

Tom Flaherty

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How FERC's Peers Estimate Equity Costs

A Deep Dive

While FERC is wise to consider how its sister federal agencies estimate the cost of equity, a review of those agencies’ estimation methods spotlights fatal flaws in FERC’s proposed new approach.
Byline: 

David Pomper

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Utility M&A Deals in Third Quarter

2019 Deals

In some instances, you’re seeing folks looking at freeing up capital through portfolio rationalization to deploy into more focused areas that they consider strategic to their core business.
Byline: 

Jeremy Fago

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