Become a PUF Member Organization

Congress

A Financial Postmortem: Ten Years of Electricity Restructuring

A decade of restructuring has not affected the financial integrity of the average regulated utility.

Ideological bias, economic principles, success of previous deregulation, inordinate greed, and political expediency fueled the movement for electricity deregulation. The authorities, however, never deregulated. They chose to restructure.
Byline: 

Leonard S. Hyman

Read Entire Article

People

People for November 1, 2003

New opportunities at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Analysis Group, Southwest Gas Corp., and others.
Byline: 

PUF

Read Entire Article

AEP's Gutsy Gambit

It would join an RTO but dictate the terms — a dangerous game that has the industry talking.

When I talked a few months ago with AEP President and CEO Linn Draper Jr., he discussed how his company would have joined the PJM RTO in March were it not for the backlash he was getting from certain state regulators.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

Read Entire Article

The Smart Grid

Has the Aug. 14 blackout finally made it more than a pipe dream?

While debate continues about the causes of the Northeast blackout, there’s no arguing that the majority of transmission and distribution in this country is controlled via mechanical technology largely developed in the 1950s.
Byline: 

Jennifer Alvey

Read Entire Article

The Dividend Bust?

A close look at the effect of the dividend tax cut reveals a disappointing investor reaction.

Utilities have been thought of as income stocks, providing among the highest levels of dividend payout in the U.S. economy. Therefore, in theory, utility investors would have much to gain from a substantial dividend tax reduction. But utility investors have not responded as one might have expected.
Byline: 

Robert G. Rosenberg

Read Entire Article

Painted Into a Corner

Wall Street wants utilities to return to basics, but the CEOs worry it won't be enough.

One can certainly understand why so many utility chiefs steered their companies back to basics over the past two years. But a key problem remains. As the economy improves, utilities recognize they must soon return to the front lines and face the music. How do they generate enough growth to keep investors from being lured away by higher-yielding financial instruments — all while remaining to appear as stable, low-risk investments?
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

Read Entire Article

Restructure or Bust?

Why FERC must yield to bankruptcy law.

How will regulators react if the current trickle of bankruptcies within the debt-laden merchant power sector should suddenly become a torrent? Will they encourage the necessary restrcturing of debt, or will they stand in the way?
Byline: 

Kenneth Irvin and Robert Loeffler

Read Entire Article

 Mistake by the Lake

The blackout could doom deregulation, but why treat reliability and reform as either-or?

The Great Blackout of August 2003 may well spell the doom of deregulation as we know it for the electric industry. Yet I believe that reliability and a move to markets need not be mutually exclusive. Rather, they must march forward together, in step, for either to succeed.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

Read Entire Article

Technology Corridor

How effective are federal energy efficiency regulations?

Technology Corridor

How effective are federal energy efficiency regulations?

 

New buildings must meet federal energy efficiency guidelines, which have historically used site-energy measurements as the metric for building energy consumption. Using site-energy measurements, though, ends up favoring the use of electricity from the grid, rather than using electricity produced on site.

Byline: 
Edward Reid and Lynne Kiesling
Read Entire Article

Business & Money

Is the industry on the verge of a new consolidation wave? Should it be?

Business & Money

Is the industry on the verge of a new consolidation wave? Should it be?

 

Byline: 
George Bilicic
Read Entire Article