Commission Watch
The AGs' Global Warming Suits:
Commission Watch
The AGs' Global Warming Suits:
A recent lawsuit filed by eight state attorneys general will take the industry to the place where bad policy meets with bad economics.
Law & Lawyers
Winners and Losers: Utility Strategy and Shareholder Return
Diversified companies lead (and the globals lag) over the past five years.
Business & Money
Winners and Losers:
Diversified companies lead (and the globals lag) over the past five years.
The unbundling of services and companies in the electricity and natural gas industries have created unprecedented opportunities to reinvent the traditional integrated utility model, with a broader array of attendant risks and rewards. But this past year was clearly one of retrenchment and strategic soul searching, allowing an opportunity to re-examine the sector for winning business formulas.
Technology Corridor
Cyber and Physical Security:
Technology Corridor
Cyber and Physical Security:
Although NERC and other agencies are helping out, utilities still face internal obstacles.
High Gas Prices: The Edge Comes Off
Conservation programs, plus an erosion in domestic manufacturing, will lead to a falloff in gas demand.
Despite some expected problems this upcoming heating season, current high prices and new conservation programs will contribute to a decline in expected natural-gas demand over the next several years.
Transmission Upgrades: Who Pays?
How to allocate the costs.
An author examines the impact of hypothetical congestion-reduction projects on generators and loads that are part of a vertically integrated utility, and generators independently owned in a deregulated environment.
Return on Equity: A Survey of Recent Rate Cases From State PUCs
Ratemaking Special Report
Our annual overview of ROE cases once again centers on interest rates, plus changes in the overall pattern of industry risk.
Regulatory Uncertainty: The Ratemaking Challenge Continues
In a joint survey conducted by Navigant Consulting and Public Utilities Fortnightly, utility executives identify the biggest challenge to their business.
A joint survey of utility executives by Navigant Consulting and Public Utilities Fortnightly identifies the biggest challenge regulators face.
Playing Russian Roulette
Moscow's ratification of the Kyoto protocol could pose problems for the United States.
It could mark the biggest bungle of the last two administrations: the decision to walk away from the Kyoto Protocol rather than stay and negotiate to U.S. advantage. No one thought Russia would sign and put the treaty in force. But now that Russia's ratification appears imminent, policy wonks in America are scrambling to assess the impact.
People: November 2004
People
Jack Hawks took on the added role of EPSA's acting vice president of policy; David Barnes joined Commerce Energy as vice president, Finance & Investor Relations; Terry Winter assumed the newly created position of executive vice president, Advanced Grid Solutions at American Superconductor Corp.; and more.
Comments on 'Solving the Crisis in Unscheduled Power'
Letters to the Editor
Robert Blohm's article, "Solving the Crisis in Unscheduled Power," ignores a significant part of the power-scheduling paradigm — that is, it ignores transmission. Every power schedule not only includes load and generation but also a path to move the electricity between those points.