Fighting the Cyber Threat
How To Prepare
Growing up as an Air Force brat, I had certain values drilled into me: Be aware, take responsibility, work as a team, and be prepared. These same values can help combat security threats facing our industry.
Law & Lawyers
The New Energy Math
NY Operations Center Saves Millions
New York’s Energy Manager Network Operations Center is an example of how the development and robust use of smart electric technology is moving the industry in a new, unprecedented and necessary direction.
Energy Highways
Politics and Infrastructure Development
Technology adoption is an incomplete strategy. What is needed is a more comprehensive and long-term approach to infrastructure development.
The Sun Shines for All
Solar Options Abound
As utilities get better at distribution planning, it is likely they will incentivize putting solar in older neighborhoods where the grid needs to be strengthened. A portfolio of rooftop solar, community solar and utility-scale solar is the only way to make solar accessible to all.
Seven Conditions Justify Smart Grid Investments
Utilities and Partners Can Benefit
Seven essential conditions justify smart grid investment: If customers engage, if DER defers capital assets, if DER is grid integrated, if DER lowers overall costs, if desired reliability is assured, if greater innovation results, and if greater utility profits result.
Imagine Better Things
Leveraging Technology to Create Value
Technology enables. Examples from others abound. The real drivers of transformational change are these entrepreneurial thinkers and doers who strike a chord with consumers. It's up to you to imagine better things.
The IoT and EE
What Does It Spell?
As the Internet of Things enters our homes, utilities have an opportunity to aggregate the devices into a system that consumers can easily manage. Consumers will find they are becoming more energy efficient, even if that was not the initial motivation.
In Only the Second Period of Low Real Rates and Bills
How Should We Manage and Regulate Now?
Electric bills this March were just a tick off the pace of the all-time low. In this unique period, how should we regulate utilities? Should we correct course? Should we allow greater growth of non-fuel costs to – let’s say – buy some more reliability?
New Jersey Eyes Microgrids to Augment Reliability
Excerpt from the December 9, 2016 issue of PUR's Utility Regulatory News
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities determined that microgrids, whether based on CHP, fuel cell, solar, or some other technology, offer the promise of increased system resiliency. Especially with CHP-based microgrids, energy efficiency is advanced as well.
Energy People: Ben Fowke
We talked with Ben Fowke, who leads Xcel Energy
Ben Fowke and Steve Mitnick discuss Xcel’s rapidly growing wind resources. They made up 17 percent of the energy provided to Xcel’s customers in 2015, generating more power than nuclear and nearly as much as natural gas. By 2020, Xcel projects that 24 percent of its energy will come from wind.