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After FERC’s Market Power Ruling: New Money Into Gen Sector

Will financiers dominate the market?

The recent approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) of its "interim" market power screen and policies on investor-owned utilities (IOU) affiliate transactions is changing the market dynamics for buying and selling generation assets. Yet, while the market test has drawn plenty of comments and complaints, the long-term effects are still uncertain.
Byline: 

Mike Beck and Craig Hart

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Irreconcilable Differences?

Imported natural gas contains more Btus and fewer impurities than the domestic variety, raising questions for LNG development.

While the gas industry is not yet ready to admit it, there may be a high price to pay to deal with the differences that come from an increase in imports of natural gas from overseas. But the alternative of not paying to avert a natural gas crisis would be irreconcilable.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Profit Without Costs

An analysis of participant funding in natural gas and electricity markets.

A former FERC chairman asks: Should the cost of transmission infrastructure improvements be rolled-in with the costs shouldered by utility companies and their native customers, even if those customers receive no benefit from the expenditure?
Byline: 

Curt Hébert Jr.

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Transmission Investment: All Talk and Little Action

Except for local reinforcements and new generation interconnections, few transmission construction proposals are moving forward.

Just how much money should be spent on transmission infrastructure in the coming years? The answer depends on which study you read, but despite discrepancies, several threads among the current studies can be ascertained.
Byline: 

Eric Hirst

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Acceding to Succeed

How joining the EU may transform the Central and Eastern European electricity sectors

An assessment of how EU accession countries are doing in meeting the union’s energy directives, liberalizing their markets, and overcoming obstacles for private investors.
Byline: 

Bridgett Neely and A.J. Goulding

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Business & Money: The Back-to-Basics Valuation Squeeze

An analysis of the strategic implications of the re-basing of power and utility industry valuations.

Many utilities are again focusing on perhaps the most viable, broad-based and credible growth strategy: mergers and acquisitions. Combined with supportive regulatory policies, the derived consolidation values of scale, cost-savings and synergies can be leveraged to benefit the public interest as well. Considerations of shareholder value and public policy require it.
Byline: 

Ian Connor

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ROE: The Gorilla Is Still at the Door

Incentive regulation is not a cure-all for the continuing controversy over return on equity.

Incentive regulation can provide benefits both to utility shareholders and customers by encouraging greater efficiency. But even if incentive regulation supplants traditional COS regulation, regulators and utilities still will need to confront the same basic ROE questions that have vexed both for many years. Because the base ROE under incentive regulation will be an integral part of the incentive structure itself, it ought not to be done as an afterthought. The approach described here is one way to address this important issue.
Byline: 

Jonathan A. Lesser

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A Rough-Cut Diamond: Fortnightly Turns 75

Let's look back over the past few years — what we got right and where we went wrong.

So we come to the 75th anniversary of the publication of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Few magazines ever live that long. Nor should they. Yet here we stand. Launched in 1929. Still kicking in 2004. We can learn from the experience of the past 10 years — a time of turmoil like no other in the utility industry. So let’s lean back and have a little fun. What can we learn from Public Utilities Fortnightly over the past decade?
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Triggering Nuclear Development

What construction cost might prompt orders for new nuclear power plants in Texas?

Evaluating the risk associated with new capacity investments is essential in today’s uncertain energy market, but a new business model could jumpstart nuclear plant investment.
Byline: 

Geoffrey Rothwell

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