America’s Energy Future: So Who Are the Good Guys?
Not just ‘all of the above,’ but ‘how much of each?’
For proponents of a clean energy economy, identifying the “good guys” is no easy task.
Law & Lawyers
A Trip to RIIO in Your Future?
Great Britain’s latest innovation in grid regulation.
Great Britain’s electric regulator takes performance-based regulation to a new, more complex level, weighing policy choices against attendant costs.
Taming Distributed Energy
How advanced distribution management systems are key to integrating distributed resources.
Fast growing distributed resources create technical challenges for utilities. Advanced DMS technology promises to help keep local grids balanced.
Digest
ABB energizes 500 MW HVDC line; MISO installs synchrophasors; Xcel plans transmission upgrades in Texas Panhandle; Panda orders power blocks from Siemens for Pennsylvania project; EdF starts operations at 110 MW solar project in Mojave Desert; plus contracts and announcements from Sensus, DTE, Calpine, PSNM, First Solar, NRG, and others.
Transactions (October 2013)
Constellation and EdF transfer nuclear licenses to Exelon for $400 million; NRG closes $244 million acquisition of Gregory cogen plant in Texas; Vivint Solar secures $200 million for rooftop solar leases; Virginia Power floats $585 million in bonds; Southern Company issues $700 million; plus equity deals totaling $844 million and debt issues totaling $3.635 billion.
Sound and Fury
How NIPSCO feels leaned on.
Northern Indiana Public Service, the MISO member sandwiched between PJM’s Ohio territory and its noncontiguous Chicago outpost, feels particularly aggrieved by the failure of the MISO-PJM Joint Operating Agreement, approved by FERC in 2004, to facilitate cross-border grid projects to relieve constraints along the ragged and interlaced seam that separates the two regions.
Bridging the IT/OT gap: the risks and benefits
The goal for any utility that invests in smart grid technology is to attain higher efficiency and reliable performance. A smart grid platform implies the convergence of Operations Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT). Schneider Electric’s integrated energy solutions can help your utility become smarter.
Predictive Analytic Solutions: Beyond the Hype
Don’t confuse hype with your organization’s capability to implement innovative solutions and realize a positive rate of return on your investment.
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER: The ability to achieve higher grid performance and greater customer engagement while at the same time protecting the immense amount of data generated from today’s monitoring, control, and transactional energy operations requires new ways of doing business and revamped analytical solutions. Plenty of people will tell you what those solutions are. But don’t confuse the hype—and there is a lot of it—with your organization’s capability to implement innovative solutions and realize a positive rate of return on your investment (ROI). If you do, you will end up floundering or, at best, making piecemeal progress.
Productivity Plateau
A mature industry faces a worrying round of hype.
Are we languishing, or working off a 20th-century legacy? Gartner’s hype cycle suggests the latter, as new technologies start producing value.
Are Competitive Solicitations Actually Competitive?
Bidding, transparency, and foregone conclusions in Big Sky Country.
PURPA wars are heating up again, and self-dealing conflicts are re-emerging. A Montana commissioner identifies weaknesses in supply procurement processes.