Have Mandatory Standards Improved Reliability?
Evidence, findings and raison d’etre.
The benefits don’t nearly justify the costs, and may even provoke unintended adverse consequences.
NERC
Reliable But Costly
Recent trends in distribution line undergrounding.
Utility distribution lines increasingly are going underground, but costs are still prohibitive for replacing existing overhead lines.
Reliability vs. Resiliency
Prevent problems, or wait and respond when something happens?
FERC holds conference on electric reliability, asks about standards for resiliency – not just to prevent problems, but how to respond once they occur.
In the Crosshairs
Protecting substations and transformers after the PG&E Metcalf attack.
The latest fallout from the April 2013 Metcalf incident: the unprecedented assault with high-powered rifles on PG&E’s Metcalf substation, in Silicon Valley, which disabled 17 of 20 large transformers.
Big Wind in the Big Oil State
ERCOT readies for renewable market integration.
ERCOT readies to integrate a large future influx of wind generation and finds need for new, more flexible resources to provide ancillary services – preferably a zero-to-five-minute ramping resource which, unfortunately, does not correspond to any currently existing technology or market product.
Cybersecurity and the PUC
Regulators and utilities should collaborate more to address cyber threats.
Public utility commissions face a growing need to understand cybersecurity issues, so they can address utility investments and processes. A collaborative approach will allow an effective response.
Results-Based Regulation
A more dynamic approach to grid modernization.
The utility’s role is changing, and regulation must change along with it – to spur innovation and respond to evolving customer needs. Modernizing the industry will require a dynamic approach.
The Ultimate CEOs: C. John Wilder, TXU Corp.
The CEO Power Forum: Not all utility CEOs are created equal...
"This is a real industrial company with a real consumer business. It's not a kind of governmental confected business like many of these quasi-restructured market companies compete in."
Power Breakfast
Fortnightly’s Executive Roundtable considers industry options and risks.
Fortnightly recently convened a group of senior operations executives from a variety of companies to discuss current trends in the U.S. power industry. Their comments reflect a mixed outlook on the industry’s transitionary changes.
Walking the Ports and Services Gauntlet
An approach to complying with NERC’s new cybersecurity standard, CIP-007 (R2).
NERC’s new standards require utilities to lock down network ports and services. Compliance calls for a systematic approach to cataloging and tracking.