Smart by Default
Time-varying rates from the get-go – not just by opt-in.
Default enrollment for time-varying rates, with an opt-out, will reduce peak demand and far more than a default flat rate with a TVR opt-in.
Law & Lawyers
Utility System Hardening
Taking Resiliency One Step Further
An independent system operator for the distribution network could allow utilities to invest in rooftop solar behind the meter and within territory.
Reliable But Costly
Recent trends in distribution line undergrounding.
Utility distribution lines increasingly are going underground, but costs are still prohibitive for replacing existing overhead lines.
Threat Level Red
Integrating weather and GIS data for more accurate threat assessments.
Weather and GIS are being combined in new ways to provide better storm threat assessments - helping utilities create increasingly effective battle plans to defend against approaching storms.
Coal After MATS
A strategy for completely removing mercury from environmental emissions.
Coal-fired power plants subject to EPA’s MATS rule can try a biological treatment option to remove mercury emissions from the environment.
Digest (August 2014)
Florida Power & Light Company partners with PetroQuest Energy to develop natural gas production wells in southeastern Oklahoma; First Solar receives financing approval to build a 141-MW solar power plant in Chile; DTE Energy will deploy Tollgrade’s LightHouse MV smart grid sensors and predictive grid analytics platform within its distribution network in Detroit; US DOE chooses Abengoa, together with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Colorado School of Mines, to develop a new solar storage technology for thermoelectric plants.
Her Next Hurdle
ITC’s Linda Blair on where to build tomorrow’s grid.
Linda Blair, executive v.p. and chief business officer for grid giant ITC, discusses how ITC plans to navigate the new transmission landscape and where ITC might turn for its next major transmission project.
People (September 2014)
Duke Energy made changes to the company’s senior leadership team; PSEG made several promotions and executive moves; Public Service Electric and Gas promoted three executives; and others ...
Start the Conversation
The regulator’s role in a world divided by distributed generation.
A state utility commissioner urges her colleagues to begin planning now for distributed generation – before it’s too late.
Transactions (September 2014)
Duke Energy Progress agreed to purchase $1.2 billion of certain generating assets from North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency; Acquisitions by PSEG Solar Source and SunEdison; Exelon will provide equity financing for 21 MW of Bloom Energy fuel cell projects; Debt issues from Calpine and NRG Yield Operating.