FERC vs. Idaho
PURPA and the future of avoided cost rates.
A tussle between Idaho and the feds exemplifies the flood of petitions that QFs have filed during the past several years, asking FERC to enforce or confirm their PURPA-guaranteed rights.
Law & Lawyers
Accentuate the Positive
A practical guide to explaining the value of the smart grid.
Despite challenges, grid modernization is paying off for customers. Smart grid progress depends on clarifying the vision and communicating value.
Smart Grid Dilemma
Concerned stakeholders seek an equitable cost-benefit ratio for all ratepayers.
Fairness in paying for grid modernization is an essential element for successful smart grid projects.
AMI Logjam
Market forces and fickle policies have delayed the smart meter revolution.
Low energy prices have weakened the business case for advanced metering. Regaining momentum might depend on innovation to strengthen the benefits.
Toward a Self-healing Smart Grid
Advanced distribution management technology promises to revolutionize operations.
Building blocks of the self-healing grid are taking shape. End-to-end integration will enable the grid to achieve 21st-century resilience.
Bargain or Bonanza
Is discounted cash flow (DCF) still a reliable tool for determining equity cost?
The time-honored discounted cash flow method for determining appropriate utility returns falls short when interest rates are low. Inadequate ROEs ultimately increase cost of capital and wipe away any temporary savings.
Big Data, Big Change
Analytics chart a path for industry transformation.
“Without integrating operational data with traditional IT data, I don’t think the industry would be any further along than it was five or 10 years ago.”
~Steve Ehrlich, Space Time Insight
Digest
Williams completes Transco pipeline expansion and plans a new one; Hudson Transmission electrifies underwater line between New Jersey and Manhattan; Northern Power wind turbines installed at Hawaii microgrid project; GE boosts efficiency of diesels powering remote Alaskan cooperative; Siemens installs supercapacitor on Oregon rail line; plus contracts and announcements from Bonneville Power Administration, Primus Power, Ameren, ComEd, Silver Spring Networks, Toshiba, Babcock & Wilcox, and others.
Rise of the Machines
Who’s afraid of the transactive grid?
Smart grids and nodal markets spark the emergence of a transactional grid. In fact it’s already happened, and we’re just becoming aware.
SGIP, New and Improved
Making the case for collaboration on interoperability standards
The mission of harmonizing industry standards moves forward in the work of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel 2.0, Inc.