Making Friends with Solar DG
Better to compete from within than fight from afar.
Utilities should embrace distributed solar generation, offering O&M, aggregation, or marketing services, rather than lament a lost business model.
Law & Lawyers
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.
Digest
ComEd selects GE for 4 million smart meters; Duquesne contracts Itron for 625,000 smart meters; Consumers Energy plans 700-MW combined-cycle plant; Phoenix Solar contracts for 39-MW PV plant; NRG starts operation at two 20-MW PV plants in California; Edison files suit against Mitsubishi for SONGS defects; FirstEnergy plans 2 GW of coal-plant shutdowns; FERC approves PacifiCorp tie-in with Cal ISO; PSEG commissions EV-charging facilities; plus announcements and contracts involving Toshiba, Direct Energy, Alstom, and others.