A New Solid South
Where Entergy leads, will Wal-Mart follow?
Everyone is talking about Entergy's move to form a single-company RTO-lite across its service territory in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Law & Lawyers
People
FERC Chairman Pat Wood III said he would leave the commission at the conclusion of his term of office June 30. Wood is the longest-serving appointee of George W. Bush, who as governor of Texas in 1995 appointed him to the Texas PUC. And others...
A Day in the Life of Transmission Congestion
A forecast for California on Aug. 16, 2006
Transmission congestion affects both the cost and the efficiency of the power grid. Global Energy's Market Analytics LMP along with PowerWorld Corp.'s OPF Simulator and Energy Visual's graphical interface solution provides a richly textured visual representation of Global Energy's forecast of transmission congestion in California for Aug. 16, 2006.
The Man Who Would Be King
Exelon Chairman, President, and CEO John W. Rowe, on the proposed merger that would create the largest utility in the United States.
Exelon CEO John W. Rowe would head the largest utility in the industry, if a proposed merger with PSEG goes through. By creating a $40 billion market-capitalization utility, the newly formed company would be 60 percent larger than its nearest market-cap peer, and would have total assets of approximately $79 billion, with almost $25 billion in annual revenues and $3.2 billion in annual net income.
Exelon's Epic End Game
Electric M&A: The merger with PSE&G may herald a new industry structure, squarely at odds with regional markets.
The marriage between Exelon and PSEG would create the largest electric utility in the United States. The policy implications could loom even larger, however. Standing at risk is nothing less than FERC’s entire regulatory regime for approval of mergers and market-based rates.
Capacity Markets: A Bridge to Recovery?
A review of the ongoing evolution of market design.
While it appears that capacity markets are here to stay, there is little consensus regarding the best design. Markets in the United States are in a state of flux, with debate raging over many different capacity market pricing schemes. While the winning recipe has yet to be selected, it is likely that participants in certain markets will witness significant changes.
The Bigger CIS Picture
Data Mining and Warehousing: Many utilities have no ability to turn raw customer information into significant insights about their business.
The customer-information system (CIS) is the system of record for both customer and meter data, and in combination with asset databases, these information repositories comprise the lifeblood of every utility. They usually are not tuned for analysis or for easy reporting, so a single view of the customer and the business processes surrounding the customer does not exist in most of the systems in use today. Many utilities, as a result, are data rich but information poor. Enter the Data Warehouse.
Mastering the Mastering Agreement
Special Series Part 5: How to find "commercially reasonable" valuation in power contract terminations.
Contract termination should be easy. Consult the applicable master agreement, calculate the close-out amount, and send or receive a check. If only it were so. In this discussion, we investigate the guidance offered in the key electricity master agreements regarding the calculation of settlement amounts following an event of default and subsequent termination. We also illustrate what we perceive to be a "commercially reasonable" or "good faith" approach to determining settlement amounts.
BGS Auctions: What Price Is Right?
How to price new load-servicing contracts while incorporating market-risk analysis into such deals.
Why have basic generation service auctions historically been overly competitive given the prevailing market prices at the time? Here are four steps to determine correctly what should the bid price should be.
The Ultimate CEOs: Anthony F. Earley Jr., DTE Energy
The CEO Power Forum: Not all utility CEOs are created equal...
"To enhance that natural utility growth of around 2 percent per year, we want to surround the utilities with a portfolio of non-utility businesses that have higher growth prospects."