Law & Lawyers

People (December 2013)

CenterPoint and Oglethorpe name new CEOs; CMS elevates legal executives; SEPA elects new board members; John Rowe joins board of American DG Energy; plus management changes and announcements at NextEra, Seattle City Light, WAPA, SCANA, and others.

Transactions (December 2013)

NRG and Sempra acquire Edison Mission assets; Google invests in AES-Riverstone venture; TransAlta acquires NextEra wind farm; plus debt issues from TransCanada, NiSource, Duke, and Southwest Gas totaling $2.4 billion.

Turning Toward Customers

Utility transformation guided by improved customer insight.

Improved customer insight can help utilities transform their business models, to strengthen engagement with consumers and remain competitive as the energy sector evolves.

Dodd-Frank and Electric Utilities

Understanding the new mosaic of commodities trading regulations.

Compliance with Dodd-Frank might not be as complicated as feared; however, companies must be vigilant in order to maintain the relevant exemptions.

Tranche Warfare

The experts do battle over capacity market design.

A FERC conference this fall aired new major policy options for capacity markets. Amid the battle, ISOs are making tactical adjustments.

Partnership, Not Preemption

How state-sponsored planning can fit with FERC’s capacity markets.

FERC-approved capacity markets and state-sponsored resource planning serve different needs. The one shouldn’t pre-empt the other.

Category Error

The trouble with treating grid projects as market players in New York’s capacity auction.

Transmission is not generation. Yet New York ISO makes grid projects qualify as competitive, like gen plants, to get to play in its capacity market.

Mobile Mindset

Meeting customers’ service expectations in the smart phone era.

Mobile data services play a vital role for utilities to better engage customers and provide vital information during outage situations.

Beyond the Meter

Protecting your base – while keeping options open.

The coming years will bring policy wrangling over distributed resources – what’s economic and what’s not.

People (January 2014)

Idaho Power names Darrel Anderson CEO, succeeding LaMont Keen, and also promotes Steven Keen to CFO and treasurer; DTE names Dave Meador vice chairman and chief administrative officer; former FCC Chairman William Kennard joins Duke Energy board of directors; plus executive appointments at Southern Company, Dominion, and others.