Economic Benefits

Maximizing Customer Benefits

Performance measurement and action steps for smart grid investments.

Regulators and customers are holding utilities’ feet to the fire, when it comes to investing in advanced metering and smart grid systems—and rightly so. Making the most of investments requires a systematic approach to establishing standards and monitoring performance. But it also requires policy frameworks and cost recovery regimes that provide the right incentives.

Revisiting the Keystone State

Rate caps have squelched competition in Pennsylvania.

The prolonged period of capped rates in Pennsylvania—years longer than in any other state—has produced some benefits and some drawbacks. On the plus side, due largely to the rate caps, electricity costs in the Commonwealth have fallen from 15 percent above the national average in 1996 to below the national average in 2007. This has been a significant benefit, but a temporary one that many have taken for granted.

Guessing Mother Nature's Next Move

What can be done to improve weather prediction and load forecasts?

Improving the day-ahead weather and load forecast by just 1 degree Fahrenheit would have huge financial benefits for the industry.

Energy Technology: Winner Take All

A review of which technologies and companies stand to win and lose as a result of the 2003 blackout.

After the blackout, the electric industry once again finds itself at a crossroads, confronting it with three basic choices. The authors observe which technologies and companies will win and lose as a result.