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Law & Lawyers

Hedging Your Bet on Cheap Gas

Portfolio theory points to energy efficiency as invaluable in resource planning.

Overlooked in planning, and undervalued by today’s low natural gas prices, energy efficiency offers a valuable hedge against fuel price volatility.
Byline: 

Hossein Haeri, Aaron Jenniges and Paul Youchak

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Wireless Sensor Technology

Equipment health monitoring for the modern utility.

Wireless sensors open new, novel applications for utilities, replacing expensive cabling network options to sense incipient equipment failures.
Byline: 

Ramesh (“Rudy”) Shankar

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Digest (July 2014)

Austin Energy awards Recurrent Energy a contract for Texas' largest solar power plant; Indianapolis Power & Light receives approval from IURC to invest $600 million in gas turbine power station; Tucson Electric Power to purchase solar power from Avalon Solar Project; Xcel Energy and SunPower sign a PPA for a 50-MW solar plant in Colorado; American Electric Power plans to replace existing wire on transmission line running from Ohio to West Virginia; Midcontinent ISO amends its tariff to allow for short-term variations in net load requirements; FERC approves ISO New England's "Pay-for-Performance" plan.
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Reliability vs. Resiliency

Prevent problems, or wait and respond when something happens?

FERC holds conference on electric reliability, asks about standards for resiliency – not just to prevent problems, but how to respond once they occur.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Wind Power Subsidies

Today, tomorrow, forever?

NREL contradicts AWEA, finds wind power not competitive, and favors extending the production tax credit (PTC), but that won’t aid economic growth.
Byline: 

Jonathan A. Lesser

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People (July 2014)

Calpine named former CEO Jack Fusco as executive chairman and president Thad Hill as president and CEO. CenterPoint Energy appointed Carla Kneipp v.p. and treasurer. ITC Holdings promoted Daniel J. Oginsky to executive v.p. and general counsel. CMS Energy elected 11 members to its board of directors, including John G. Russell, president and CEO of CMS Energy. And others.
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Transactions (July 2014)

First Solar sold the 50-MW Macho Springs Solar Power Plant to a Southern Company subsidiary. DTE Energy purchased one of the Pheasant Run wind parks. Dominion acquired two stand-alone solar energy developments in southwest Tennessee. With asset sales by Suzlon Group, NextEra Energy Resources, and Strata Solar, and debt offerings by ITC Holdings and SunEdison.

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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.
Byline: 

Steven F. Reich, Charles F. Connolly and J. Porter Wiseman

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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.
Byline: 

Hon. John R. Norris

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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.
Byline: 

Christopher Dann

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