Perspective
Seven recommendations to improve TMI's nuclear plant security that have gone unheeded.
Commission
Collateral Damage
Credit ratings agencies put the squeeze on merchant power.
Have they gone too far? Have ratings agencies become overzealous in their efforts to rein in energy merchants? Many in the industry are coming to that belief after Aquila, one of the industry's most respected companies and leaders, announced it would exit the merchant energy trading sector in late July. It said it could no longer meet the credit requirements imposed by ratings agencies to maintain that business.
The Barriers to Real-Time Pricing: Separating Fact From Fiction
Real-time pricing has been hindered by the misperception that a shift to RTP will create new types of risks, without creating benefits for utilities or customers.
POLRized in Texas: A Duty Unresolved
The Texas method for assigning provider of last resort draws criticism from market players and consumer advocates.
Retail Choice Rides Again: A Mixed Market in The Lone Star State
Texas wins raves from the big players for its rules and systems, but the small consumer, as in other states, sees little reason to switch.
Texas wins raves from the big players for its rules and systems, but the small consumer, as in other states, sees little reason to switch.
Six months into the opening of the restructured Texas electric market, industry players are generally pleased with the results, but the jury is still out, as the state's vaunted system design has shown some cracks, and consumers still see little reason to switch their energy supplier.
A Dynamic Mission: Protecting Utility Assets
State public service commissions are insisting that utilities adopt risk management programs, and are allowing less pass-through for those that don't.
Many electric utilities have been on high alert since Sept. 11 to protect the assets within their systems from cyber and physical attack. For instance, 21 U.S. nuclear reactors are located within five miles of an airport, but 96 percent of all U.S. reactors were designed without regard for the potential for impact from even a small aircraft.
Gas Turbinemania: The Merchant Power Plant Shake Out
Why it happened? Who lost in the bust? Who will survive to build another turbine?
Some merchant generation developers never saw the generation glut coming. Presenting the winners and losers of the latest cycle of boom, bubble, and collapse in the merchant generation industry.
Vote Yes on Yucca Mountain
Congress needs to uphold the president's designation for a nuclear waste disposal site.
In the interest of security, economics, and common sense, it is important that Congress votes to uphold Yucca Mountain as the nation's central nuclear waste disposal facility.
Distributed Generation: Hype vs. Hope
Separating myth from reality in identifying DG applications.
Technological breakthroughs in distributed generation have not materialized as quickly as expected. Furthermore, manufacturers have continued to improve traditional generation technologies. So what role can DG play?
The Top 10
The Ten Most Intriguing Business Decisions in the Post-Enron World.
10. Exelon throws in the towel on pebble bed; 9. Exelon, Entergy, Dominion ready to do the rounds on traditional nuclear; 8. AES wants out of Cilcorp marriage; 7. New-look Aquila goes hunting ...