Energy Market Participants: The Risks of Being a Jack-of-All-Trades
Those that attempt to participate in more than one area of forward energy markets will be internally conflicted in terms of performance measurement and risk profile.
Law & Lawyers
The IT Outsourcing Question
The pros and cons of outsourcing utilities' IT functions.
The pros and cons of outsourcing utilities' IT functions.
Utility companies have a lot to think about these days. Whether or not to outsource information technologies (IT) is part of the equation being calculated in the present economy. While some managers feel anxiety at turning over important company functions to outsiders, others see it as an opportunity to free up IT staff for other work. And keeping up with ever-changing technology is a daunting task.
Retail Power: Double Down or Fold?
Utility retail is at a crossroads. Energy executives must decide which path to follow.
Utility retail is at a crossroads. Energy executives must decide which path to follow.
There are only two routes to creating or maintaining shareholder value in competitive retail electricity marketing: double down to grow the business significantly or fold and divest the business from its portfolio. Utilities and their competitive retail affiliates should determine today which of these two strategic bearings they wish to follow. The tentative middle ground of hold is simply a way to postpone the inevitable and erode shareholder value.
Technology Corridor
Tidal energy technology improves, but is it enough?
Tidal energy technology improves, but is it enough?
Could ocean energy be the next big thing in renewables?
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors in early May approved a pilot project, estimated at $2 million, to test technology that produces electricity from the tides in the San Francisco Bay.
The city hopes to produce 1 MW with the project and add it to the San Francisco grid by Jan. 1, 2006.
Benchmarks
Significant obstacles stand in the way of achieving cost savings that should accrue to market-based emissions trading policies.
Commission Watch
PJM would dictate grid expansion, even if not needed for reliability, and then push the cost of the upgrades on those who use them the most.
PJM would dictate grid expansion, even if not needed for reliability, and then push the cost of the upgrades on those who use them the most.
Chairman Pat Wood and his Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may well have given up on attempts to impose a standard market design (SMD) on the electric utility industry, but that doesn't mean the nation's grid system operators won't try the same thing.
Business & Money
Will dividends become the sole focus for investor valuations of utilities?
Will dividends become the sole focus for investor valuations of utilities?
With last month's favorable Senate vote to repeal the tax on dividends from 2004-2006 and reduce it 50 percent this year, and the high-profile conference committee meetings between the House and the Senate at press time, many are asking if investors are, or should be, beginning to evaluate utility companies solely on the basis of the dividend.
Face-Off: The Nuclear Non-Starter
Persistent economic and political issues continue to prevent the expansion of nuclear power.
Off Peak
School plays teach efficiency, creativity, and self-confidence.
School plays teach efficiency, creativity, and self-confidence.
Bumbling Melvin Markham is a hero. He just doesn't know it. As the central character in an innovative school play, Melvin learns that everyone can save energy and the environment.
Face-Off: The Renaissance of Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is on the verge of an extraordinary expansion.