Duke

Digest (May 2014)

GE Energy Consulting and the New York Power Authority agree to a license arrangement allowing NYPA to use GE’s MAPS software to perform high-fidelity nodal analysis; NRG acquires Roof Diagnostics Solar, a residential solar company; GE unveils 2.75-120 wind turbine; AEP awards Babcock & Wilcox a contract to provide steam generator services.

Digest

Solar Reserve commissions 110-MW solar thermal plant with molten-salt heat storage; Minnesota Power orders 64 3-MW wind turbines from Siemens; Alstom wins contract to supply 6-MW offshore wind turbines; Itron announces subscription-based service offering; plus announcements and contracts involving SunEdison, Lockheed Martin, Washington Gas Energy Systems, and others.

Life in the Transco Age

The competitive transmission genie is out of the bottle.

FERC Orders 890 and 1000 have opened the doors to independent transcos, heralding an era of innovation to solve reliability and capacity problems.

People (March 2014)

Dominion promotes seven to v.p.; DTE Energy Foundation names Faye Alexander Nelson president; Michael Picker becomes CPUC commissioner; plus executive appointments and announcements from PPL, Ameren, Duke, GridWise Alliance, and others.

Energy Efficiency Unmasked

Regulatory formulas for rewarding efficiency investments.

Effective conservation incentives would send appropriate price signals to consumers. The more common approach, unfortunately, involves arbitrary standards that introduce market inefficiencies and ultimately harm consumers.

Digest

Danish utility orders 582 MW of Siemens offshore wind turbines; Maui Electric contracts Greenlots and ABB for electric vehicle fast-charging system; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts Eaton for alternative energy and conservation projects at army facilities; Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy acquire SunEdison project in California; FERC approves Columbia Gas and Williams Partners pipeline expansion projects; plus contracts and announcements from Entergy, ITC Holdings, California ISO, PG&E, MidAmerican Transmission, Citizens Energy, CPS Energy, and others.

Digest

Siemens and Accenture joint venture on smart grid management systems; CenterPoint picks Itron for RF meter rollout; Memphis picks Elster electric, gas, and water AMI system; TransAlta acquires Wyoming wind farm from NextEra; NRG acquires Edison Mission Energy assets; Google to invest in Imperial Valley solar project; Sempra acquires Nebraska wind project; plus contracts and announcements from Babcock & Wilcox, Echelon, PJM, California ISO, and others.

Turning Toward Customers

Utility transformation guided by improved customer insight.

Improved customer insight can help utilities transform their business models, to strengthen engagement with consumers and remain competitive as the energy sector evolves.

Transactions (December 2013)

NRG and Sempra acquire Edison Mission assets; Google invests in AES-Riverstone venture; TransAlta acquires NextEra wind farm; plus debt issues from TransCanada, NiSource, Duke, and Southwest Gas totaling $2.4 billion.

Digest

Duke Energy Renewables begins construction on 5-MW solar project in North Carolina; Duke and Integrys partner with Canadian Solar and Community Energy Solar on 3-MW PV project; First Wind contracts for 333 MW in Massachusetts; EDF Renewable Energy buys into 20-MW anaerobic digester plant; AEP to retire Tanners Creek 4 coal plant; Opelika Power Services selects Tantalus for fiber-based triple-play system; ABB wins substation contract in Brazil and commissions offshore wind transmission link in Europe; Arista Power to develop microgrid system for U.S. Army facility; plus announcements and contracts from Standard Solar, ComEd, British Gas, Tenaska, and others.