How demand response programs contribute to energy efficiency and environmental quality.
Demand response reduces overall energy usage, but the magnitude of the reduction depends on whether the technologies are developed and deployed with efficiency in mind.
Using demand response to mitigate rate shocks.
In the minds of many policy-makers, DR has become associated with rate shocks, rate volatility, unpredictability, and loss of control over energy costs—the very things DR was designed to overcome. What can be done to change this?
Among a host of arguments for and against RD is the question of upside for consumers.
Retaining adequate earnings is the driving motive for revenue decoupling (RD) among gas utilities, while conservationists view RD as necessary for the removal of resistance to energy efficiency. But the benefits of RD to consumers are less certain.
A new set of skills and expertise will be necessary to deal with the risks created by new government mandates, new market developments, and new energy technologies.
Experts say a new set of skills and expertise will be necessary to manage the risk created by new government mandates, new market developments, and new energy technologies.
An interpretation of FERC’s first application of EPACT.
At its open meeting on Jan. 18, 2007, FERC unanimously approved settlements with five electric utilities for a total of $22.5 million and other considerations. This action answers some important questions that energy market participants have been asking. In particular, it helps market participants connect some important dots regarding the regulatory landscape in which they must operate, but it also raises important questions that market participants would like answered.
How important is the risk function at your company?
Wither the chief risk officer (CRO)? Some utilities have moved risk staff under the CFO or controller, while other utilities have pushed CROs down the management hierarchy. But risk remains, and a rudimentary risk function will not do.
Promises of emissions-free power get the ball rolling, but unknowns remain.
After years of feasibility studies, lack of development funds, and escalating fuel costs across the energy spectrum, ocean energy is suddenly a very hot topic.
If private equity makes a killing, Congress should require full disclosure.
There’s just no stopping it. The capital amassed by private takeover firms is simply overwhelming. Any reasonable person could conclude that public utilities face wholesale changes in terms of corporate ownership. Investor-owed? You bet. But the “public” part may well give way to “private.”
(April 2007) FPL Group Inc. announced that Toni Jennings was elected to the company’s board of directors. Sierra Pacific Resources announced that Michael W. Yackira was elected president and COO and a member of the company’s board of directors, and Brian J. Kennedy was elected to the company’s board of directors. The board of directors of PG&E Corp. elected Thomas B. King as the corporation’s president. Energy East Corp. announced that its board of directors promoted Richard R. Benson, Robert D. Kump and F. Michael McClain. And others...
EEI’s David K. Owens seeks incremental improvements to competitive markets.
For a front-line perspective on FERC’s policy direction, we asked one of the industry’s most prominent policy representatives, David K. Owens at the Edison Electric Institute, to provide his take on FERC’s competition conference and Order 890.