Preparing for a Nuclear Exchange
Three ways to value nuclear power plants for buyers and sellers.
Appraisers don’t make the market — they reflect it — using three approaches to help buyers and sellers of nuclear assets determine plant value.
Law & Lawyers
Letter to the Editor
Letters for May 2004.
The Chair of the NERC Load Forecasting Working Group disagrees with some conjectures in "NERC's Cloudy Crystal Ball" in the March 2004 issue.
FERC's GulfTerra Orders: Changes in the Pipeline
A new FERC decision veers away from congressional intent not to burden intrastate pipelines with interstate policies.
Two recent orders in a GulfTerra Texas Pipeline LP rate case make new precedent for Natural Gas Policy Act intrastate pipelines providing interstate transportation.
Managing Service Quality: The Customer Is Always Right
Service-quality improvements need to be thought through in advance and managed.
Service-quality improvements need to be thought through in advance and managed.
Customer information systems (CIS) are almost never justified and implemented to realize dramatic gains in quality of service. Revenue improvements? Yes. Rates management flexibility? You bet. Delinquency and write-off improvements? Sure. Statutory pressure, including introduction of deregulation? Maybe not as often these days, but still true. Technology consistency, supportability, and application integration? Absolutely.
Frontlines
The U.S. faces a near doubling of population this century. Will there be enough power for the people?
Frontlines
The U.S. faces a near doubling of population this century. Will there be enough power for the people?
On this the 75th anniversary of its publication, -a journal that has sought out the truth through its investigation and understanding, been a place for knowledge and scholarship, and been a medium for intellectual discourse within the energy industry-looks out to the future.
In 2004, the quintessential question remains what it was 75 years ago: How will the energy industry meet the demands of tomorrow?
People
People for June 2004.
Positions filled at Southern Co., Mirant, MISO, and others.
Power Measurement
A look at issues that could keep energy executives up at night.
Power Measurement
A look at issues that could keep energy executives up at night.
The most common strategic issue depriving utility executives of sleep is the looming clash of investor expectations for steady growth in earnings compared with what utilities can deliver given slow growth in customers and demand. While many dream of assured regulated rates of return, the reality for most utilities is that the 1.5 percent retail growth experienced between 2002 and 2003 will prove unsatisfactory for earnings.
Envision the Utility of Tomorrow
How will the industry change in the future?
How will the industry change in the future?
The utility industry of the future can be best characterized by three words: scale, synergies, and automation. Company leaders and the broader workforce will be touched by these three forces for change. We can already see glimpses of the future around us today. In response to the sweep of deregulation, many power companies no longer generate power. They have divested themselves of their generating plants, ceding that ground to independent producers to concentrate on distribution.
Business & Money
Investors are asking utilities questions about environmental and social risks. Answers can be a challenge.
Business & Money
Investors are asking utilities questions about environmental and social risks. Answers can be a challenge.
When the tech-stock bubble burst in 2001, investors were outraged to learn that many stock analysts were being paid to over-hype stocks. The following year, Enron's ugly public death revealed the presence of a virulent infection in governance of many large and respected companies.
Perspective
Grid reliability is one giant step in mainstreaming the technology.
Perspective
Grid reliability is one giant step in mainstreaming the technology.
Wind power is coming of age in the United States. During the past five years, installations have grown by an average 28 percent yearly. Gleaming, high-tech wind turbines now are interconnected to the bulk power grid in some 30 states.