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.
Law & Lawyers
People (August 2013)
Dominion appoints Hunter Applewhite to lead Dominion Foundation; Lisa Johnson leaves Old Dominion to become CEO at Seminole Electric Cooperative; President Obama nominates former Colorado commissioner Ron Binz to chair FERC; Edison Electric Institute names its new officers; plus appointments and executive changes at AES, PG&E, Sempra, Ameren, Duke, and others.
Transactions (September 2013)
TECO acquires New Mexico Gas; Direct Energy acquires Bounce Energy; Duke floats $500 million in two tranches; plus debt deals from PPL Electric and Southern Power.
Reliability by the Barrel
New England turns to fuel oil for the coming winter.
Burning oil when gas supplies are tight increases costs for customers. Is it also discriminatory?
The Fortnightly 40 Best Energy Companies
The dash to gas brings volatility in shareholder performance.
Fortnightly’s 2013 ranking of shareholder value performance shows substantial changes, with gas prices weighing on some utilities and elevating others.
Walking the Fuzzy Bright Line
The legality of state ROFR laws under FERC Order 1000.
States have passed laws to bypass FERC Order 1000 and its reforms favoring private grid developers. Could those laws themselves fall under attack?
Low Tech Resilience
Portable small-scale generators could keep vital services on line during a major power outage.
High-voltage generation reserves cost more than would portable, small-scale units to keep critical services on line during a major power outage.
Valuing Distributed Storage
A complex business case calls for sophisticated modeling.
Flexible energy storage systems are costly, but a unique set of benefits makes them attractive. Realistic valuation supports a storage business case.
Walking the Ports and Services Gauntlet
An approach to complying with NERC’s new cybersecurity standard, CIP-007 (R2).
NERC’s new standards require utilities to lock down network ports and services. Compliance calls for a systematic approach to cataloging and tracking.
Where Did My People Go?
Today’s talent deficiency is tomorrow’s imperative.
The utility talent gap is widening. New technologies and evolving markets call for a more proactive approach to building the future workforce.