Law & Lawyers

Managing Assets is Not Asset Management

The real thing demands a culture shift toward long-range thinking.

Rather, it involves a culture shift: towards a broader view to encompass such business processes as life-cycle planning, performance analysis, and the entire value chain.

Integrated Energy

Distributed energy + distributed controls = distributed benefits.

Utility business models are at risk in a world of distributed energy resources and local intelligent controls, such as microgrids. But the real revolution may lie in customer expectations, where third parties threaten to take ownership.

Behind the Meter: What's In Store

Key steps for companies considering on-site energy storage.

The energy storage market is gaining momentum. Drivers: Growing penetration of renewable energy in the resource mix; Increasing focus on climate change and resource scarcity; Growing prevalence of demand charges for commercial and industrial energy users; and various other regulatory changes.

The Death of the Grid?

As Mark Twain would say, the reports are exaggerated.

Contrary to rumor, the grid won’t die, but in fact must grow exponentially, in function, complexity, and usefulness.

Planning vs. Partiality

A case study from PJM on competitive procurement of regional transmission under FERC Order 1000.

What happens to FERC Order 1000, and its vaunted quest for fairness and transparency, when regional grid planners ask for competitive bids to solve a pressing transmission need, but then modify some of the project proposals, unilaterally, in an honest effort to improve them?

Finding Common Ground on Energy Efficiency

Policy recommendations for utilities and regulators.

It’s the downright cheapest way of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Yet it’s mired from state to state in battles over definitions, principles, and parameters. Herein a collection of recommended policy positions to break the impasse over energy efficiency.

Digest (December 2014)

NRG Energy and MGM Resorts International completed installation of the world's largest rooftop solar array on a convention center;

Southern California Edison on November 5 announced the largest purchase of grid-connected energy storage in U.S. history. NRG Energy acquired Pure Energies Group; Duke Energy Progress filed with FERC for approval to purchase $1.2 billion in generating assets;

The U.S. Department of Energy authorized Bechtel to resume engineering work at a facility that will treat some of the nation's liquid radioactive waste; Burns & McDonnell plans to develop a grid stability awareness system;

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the launch of New York's first energy management network operations center. And others...

Public Power Road Show

Sue Kelly’s ‘world tour’ brings APPA home.

There’s no one in the energy industry – and I mean absolutely no one – who is more on-message than Sue Kelly, now winding up her first year as CEO of the American Public Power Association.

People (January 2015)

NRG Energy appointed Steve McBee as the first president and CEO of NRG Home; Atlantic Power appointed Teresa M. Ressel to its board of directors; Marvin McDaniel becomes senior v.p., revenue group, and president and CEO of Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota at Xcel Energy; plus management changes at Southern Co., Duke Energy, Entergy Nuclear, and AES; appointments at the U.S. Department of Commerce, NARUC, Nexant, and the OpenADR Alliance; and others.

Transactions (January 2015)

SunEdison and TerraForm Power agreed to acquire First Wind for $2.4 billion; Emera will sell its 49% interest in Northeast Wind Partners II to First Wind for $223.3 million; Calpine completed its acquisition of Fore River Energy Center from Exelon for $530 million; NorthWestern Energy closed its $900 million purchase of 11 hydroelectric facilities and one storage reservoir from PPL Montana; juwi solar sold ownership interests in a 50-MW solar facility to Dominion; Dominion acquired a 20-MW solar facility from Canadian Solar.