Perspective
Regulators will have to decide who pays to upgrade the transmission system.
ByRegulators will have to decide who pays to upgrade the transmission system.
Cost
Nuclear and Coal: Rebirth on the Horizon?
An analysis of the business opportunities behind coal and nuclear plant expansion.
An analysis of the business opportunities behind coal and nuclear plant expansion.
Electric power industry trade publications and the popular media have noted a growing interest in the rebirth of both nuclear power and coal-fired generation. These technologies would be a supplement to, or an alternative to, the natural gas fired generation that appears to be the predominant fuel and technology for new power generation facilities in the coming decade.
Cooperative IPOs: Distinguishing Fact from Fantasy
The fundamental principles of cooperative operation are inherently in conflict with the traditional concept of an IPO.
1. Subordination of capital. Neither interest nor dividends may be paid on invested capital. Cooperatives provide for a return of capital-not a return on capital. Furthermore, neither the amount of patronage nor the amount of investment of a patron can determine such patron's degree of ownership or control of the organization, i.e., there must be patronage-based ownership.
Gas Price Prudence: From Hedge-and-Hope to Best Practice
Utilities and regulators should follow the same ideas that govern risk management at the largest of commodity trading houses.
Gas Price Prudence: From Hedge-and-Hope to Best Practice
Utilities and regulators should follow the same ideas that govern risk management at the largest of commodity trading houses.
The July 5, 2001 issue of offered an update on what utilities and regulators are doing in the area of commodity price hedging for natural gas.
The headline read, "Dominion East Ohio Sales Customers Will Pay 29% Less in Gas Costs under PUCO-Led Encouragement of Hedging Plan...."
Stringing Transmission Lines, Untangling Red Tape
Centralized federal oversight sounds good, but what about squabbles between separate federal agencies?
Larceny Debunked
Reliant comes clean on profits, says California picked its own pocket.
While the media made hay chiding power producers for gouging consumers for electricity generated from gas-fired turbines, California' s system of a single market-clearing price for electricity was "delivering immense windfalls" to utilities who had no need to buy gas at all to run the power plants they still owned (or controlled through affiliates).
Wind Power, Poised for Take Off?
A survey of projects and economics.
An industry advocate touts the recent rise of projects in the pipeline and forsees remarkable growth in wind farms over the next twenty years — more, perhaps, than others would concede.
News Digest (July 15, 2001)
Compiled June 21, 2001 by Bruce W. Radford, editor-in-chief, from contributions as noted from Carl J. Levesque, associate editor, and Phillip S. Cross and Lori A. Burkhart, contributing legal editors.
Taken to the Cleaners
Frontlines
FERC's California plan needs pressing, to fix blatant gaffes on NOx, demand bids, and megawatt laundering.
News Digest
News Digest