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The Modern Utility: Still a Black Box?

Wall Street bankers say utilities are not effectively telling their story.

How do you value an investor-owned utility? Ever since the Enron debacle, the credit crisis and the economic downturn, many in the investment community say that there exists a need for utilities to better communicate their business vision and corporate model — particularly now that the economy is headed into an economic upswing and utilities will have to compete with higher-yielding financial instruments such as U.S. treasuries, or competing equities with higher-paying dividends.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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MISO-PJM Super Region: FERC Makes Companies Pay for RTO Choices

Irregular seams affect ratemaking policies.

In a case that marks the first time FERC eliminated inter-RTO rate pancaking, the commission in late July issued an order terminating regional through-and-out rates (RTORs) charged by two regional transmission owners. The decision removes an estimated $250 million in yearly fees collected by those two entities. But the lost revenue has parties to the proceeding squabbling over many aspects of the case.
Byline: 

Lori A. Burkhart

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Of Blackouts and Belief

Hopes and dreams sag and fail, like an overheated power line.

New policies never come without risk. But energy policy always seems at risk of becoming entranced with the prospects of a single controlling idea.
Byline: 

Richard D. Cudahy

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Combined-Cycle Profitability as a Market Barometer

A hypothetical look at moneymakers across regions.

Given the high degree of ongoing electric market uncertainty, it can be challenging to get a reading on the current and future health of power markets. One way to gauge the health of the generation segment of the electric sector is to simulate the financial performance of a new gas-fired, combined-cycle unit. To perform this analysis, we start with the cost and performance characteristics of a new combined-cycle unit.
Byline: 

Brandon Owens

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People

People for November 1, 2003

New opportunities at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Analysis Group, Southwest Gas Corp., and others.
Byline: 

PUF

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Letters to the Editor

Two letters, one correction

Jonathan Jacobs, Managing Consultant at PA Consulting Group, responds to a letter to the editor in the Oct. 1, 2003 issue from Lewis Evans and Kevin Counsell. And former FERC commissioner Matthew Holden Jr. disagrees with John Sillin's commentary in "The Blackout of 2003: Why We Fell Into the Heart of Darkness" in the Sept. 15, 2003 issue.
Byline: 

PUF

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AEP's Gutsy Gambit

It would join an RTO but dictate the terms — a dangerous game that has the industry talking.

When I talked a few months ago with AEP President and CEO Linn Draper Jr., he discussed how his company would have joined the PJM RTO in March were it not for the backlash he was getting from certain state regulators.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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The Smart Grid

Has the Aug. 14 blackout finally made it more than a pipe dream?

While debate continues about the causes of the Northeast blackout, there’s no arguing that the majority of transmission and distribution in this country is controlled via mechanical technology largely developed in the 1950s.
Byline: 

Jennifer Alvey

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Energy Technology: Winner Take All

A review of which technologies and companies stand to win and lose as a result of the 2003 blackout.

After the blackout, the electric industry once again finds itself at a crossroads, confronting it with three basic choices. The authors observe which technologies and companies will win and lose as a result.
Byline: 

E. Kyle Datta and Dan Gabaldon

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The Dividend Bust?

A close look at the effect of the dividend tax cut reveals a disappointing investor reaction.

Utilities have been thought of as income stocks, providing among the highest levels of dividend payout in the U.S. economy. Therefore, in theory, utility investors would have much to gain from a substantial dividend tax reduction. But utility investors have not responded as one might have expected.
Byline: 

Robert G. Rosenberg

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