Transactions (June 2014)
Energen signs stock purchase to sell Alagasco to The Laclede Group; Calpine agrees to sell six power plants to LS Power; Exelon agrees to buy Pepco Holdings Inc.; GE offers to acquire power and grid businesses from Alstom.
Law & Lawyers
Making Peace With Solar
Electric executives open up on what they’re planning next.
Electric power executives open up about their solar investments. What motivates them? What are they planning next?
The Powhatan Matter
Market manipulation versus the right to make a profit.
Harvard professor Bill Hogan claims FERC is wrong to find market manipulation where traders simply make profits on market defects known to all.
Taking Digital to Scale
Eight key ‘plays’ to alter how work is managed and performed.
Adopting digital capabilities to transform operations and processes holds immense promise for utilities. Indeed, it’s the best path to growth.
Waiting for the Next Polar Vortex
How recent events could prove a harbinger of winters to come.
The winter of 2013-14 offered up a perfect storm of natural gas price spikes and threats to electric reliability. Expect more of the same.
From ISO to DSO
Imagining a new construct – an independent system operator for the distribution network.
A new utility industry construct – the Distribution System Operator (DSO) – could help maximize the benefits of distributed energy resources.
Digest (June 2014)
Algonquin Power & Utilities enters partnership with Siemens Canada for 10 wind turbines expected to start operation early next year; Strata Solar installs nine utility-scale solar projects in North Carolina; Ontario Power Generation establishes agreement with Westinghouse to consider nuclear plant refurbishment, decommissioning and remediation; JinkoSolar successfully connects solar power plant in Jiangsu Province; El Paso Pipeline acquires 50 percent interest in Ruby Pipeline from Kinder Morgan
Enforcement Times Two
FERC and CFTC begin sharing information to target market manipulation in the energy industry.
Closer coordination between FERC and CFTC (and perhaps also with DOJ) will increase enforcement risk for energy industry traders.
Nuclear At a Crossroads
Wind, nuclear, and gas resources must work together – not at cross-purposes.
Why the U.S. must maintain current levels of nuclear energy production to achieve carbon reduction goals.
Peril at Home
We could see 11-22GW of nuclear facing early retirement in the next 10 years.
The existing U.S. nuclear fleet, representing 100GW or 20% of our electric generation, is in economic peril and in danger of declining even more rapidly than expected.