DRIVEN BY ECONOMIC GROWTH, INDUSTRIALIZATION and privatization, worldwide demand for primary energy could double by 2020 (em requiring one 500-megawatt power plant to be built every 3.5 days to meet that need. Much of this growth will occur in Asian countries, most notably China, Thailand, India, South Korea, and Indonesia. China alone is expected to increase electric generating capacity by 15,000 MW per year at a cost of about $15 billion annually.
KCPL first with meters, automation; APS second for T&D management.
IF THE 1997 ULTRA COMPETITION CAN SERVE AS A GUIDE, then perhaps the forgotten "wires" business offers the next great opportunity for new applications in information technology.
That's the lesson of this year's contest, which saw Kansas City Power & Light Co., and Arizona Public Service Co. win the top two prizes. Each company gained recognition for IT applications designed in large part to modernize electric utility distribution systems.
A MASSIVE, WORLD WAR I-era building in downtown Baltimore houses Constellation Power Source, an unregulated, wholly owned power-marketing subsidiary of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Upon introducing the new company in February, BG&E announced that Goldman Sachs would serve as "exclusive advisor" for the start-up.
Later, when asked to clarify the relationship between the two companies, Charles W.
THERE IS MUCH TALK ABOUT CONVERGENCE.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asks, "What needs to be done to enable the gas and electric markets to work together to become more integrated?" The real question is more direct: "How can the gas industry transform what is presently, at best, a daily market, with daily procedures, to an hourly or quarter-hourly electric generation business and gain benefits at the same time?"
Will the answer come from hourly gas trading and pricing?
IN THE DRIVE TO MATCH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS WITH THE
demands of "deregulatory" standards, utilities are investing billions in information technology (em some launching new business lines from their experience.
Worldwide, utilities are investing $20 billion; electric utilities pony up the most: $12 billion each year, according to Newton-Evans Research Co. An average U.S. electric utility will invest $43 million this year; a gas utility will invest $9 million.
WHEN THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION approved a price-cap plan for Southern California Edison's distribution operations, it lamented the lack of a "distribution-only" study on productivity. So we prepared one.
Unlike electricity generation, electricity distribution will remain a regulated business. But the form of regulation likely will change to price caps, mirroring events in telecommunications regulation here and energy regulation abroad.
With price caps, rates are reviewed formally only at set intervals.
IS TEMPERATURE THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN how gas storage is used? Or are other variables involved? Can we answer these questions - and verify the results?
Since FERC Order 636, natural gas storage has grown into a high-profile asset in the industry. As a result, the industry has responded by changing the way it uses this storage. The exact nature of this adjustment is not apparent at a glance; one must first analyze industry data.
WITH DIRECT ACCESS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN ON Jan. 1, 1998, California regulators are moving quickly to set up their long-considered policies on electric restructuring. The restructuring actions touch nearly every aspect of electric regulation in the state from financing decisions and rate design to the sale of generating assets and monitoring new capital additions.
In addition, restructuring has affected ongoing regulatory activities such as the development of performance-based rate making plans and pricing and rate designs for large incumbent utilities.
WHOLESALE POWER PRICES DURING THE SUMMER OF 1997 REACHED LEVELS MUCH higher than in 1996 - higher than the variable fuel costs of even the costliest units (see Figures 1 and 2). This situation has confounded many observers. Many thought, in spite of forecasts to the contrary, that markets would continue to exhibit excess capacity for years to come. They thought need for new capacity was distant and that hourly markets would not see premiums in excess of fuel costs for marginal units - the so-called "pure" capacity premium - for years to come.
The evidence is in.
BY WHAT AUTHORITY CAN STATES FAVOR RENEWABLE
energy in a restructured electricity market?
Renewable resource funding marks a major point of contention in utility deregulation. Environmental groups fear that without some form of compulsion or subsidy, or both, renewable resources will not survive in an energy economy based on least direct consumer cost. However, utilities do not want to be saddled alone with the chore of carrying all renewables to market.