DSM

The Gas Executives Forum: Gas Pains

Commodity price upheavals are energizing gas utilities to evolve their business models.

Top officials at several U.S. retail gas companies reveal how they are rethinking their business models and developing new approaches to serve customers in the face of supply concerns and price volatilities.

Getting IRP Right

Quantifying uncertainty in the planning process.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, integrated resource planning (IRP) was a required practice for many utilities. Then competitive wholesale markets, merchant generation, and restructuring initiatives led many utilities to abandon IRP.

While wholesale competition generally has been successful, the regulatory process changes it brought were less so. And utilities now are getting back into long-term resource planning studies to provide decision support for their “back to basics” business strategies.

The Ultimate CEOs

The CEO Power Forum: Not all utility CEOs are created equal...

We talk with Cinergy’s James E. Rogers, DTE Energy’s Anthony F. Earley Jr., Constellation Energy’s Mayo A. Shattuck III, Xcel Energy’s Wayne H. Brunetti, FPL Group Inc.’s Lewis Hay III, and TXU’s C. John Wilder.

Regulatory Uncertainty: The Ratemaking Challenge Continues

Ratemaking Special Report

Ratemaking Special Report

Regulatory Uncertainty:

In a joint survey conducted by Navigant Consulting and , utility executives identify the biggest challenge to their business.

No matter what position you subscribe to when characterizing the degree of competition in today's energy industry, it is clear that regulation continues to serve as a major influence on the business strategies and operations of the gas and electric distribution utilities in North America.

A 75th Anniversary Retrospective

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

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

Do you recall how you felt at your last class reunion? Well, that's exactly what an editor feels when asked to reminisce in public about days gone by at the magazine to which he gave his best years.

Customers Interrupted

Utilities that are short on capacity and operate in a stable regulatory environment may be able to extract value from interruptible rates.

Utilities that are short on capacity and operate in a stable regulatory environment may be able to extract value from interruptible rates.

 

Resource Planning After the Crash

How to update yesterday's IRP model to account for tomorrow's risk profile.

How to update yesterday's IRP model to account for tomorrow's risk profile.

 

The process we know today as integrated resource planning (IRP) got its start back in the 1980s, when regulators first came to grips with nuclear plant cost overruns and urged utilities in effect to hedge that risk-to give equal weight to conservation, "negawatts," and demand-side management (DSM) as sources of new electric capacity.

Sowing the seeds for California Crisis II?

Experts say that many of the new policies by the PUC and the state legislature seem to be putting the Golden State on track for more blackouts.


Experts say that many of the new policies by the PUC and the state legislature seem to be putting the Golden State on track for more blackouts.

Although California's electricity crisis reached its worst point two years ago, utilities, consumers, and other market participants continue to fear a recurrence of the supply shortages and price spikes that added $40 billion to the cost of electricity over a horrific 13-month period.

Feel-Good Electric Waste

Like diets that make us fat, efficiency is bad for the environment.

The last 30 years in America have seen great improvements in the energy efficiency of electric motors, appliances, and other end-use equipment. Think of compact fluorescents, ground-source heat pumps, and thermal window glazing. Add variable speed drives, chilled water AC, and high-pressure sodium street lighting. You name it, we've got it.