substantial niche market
of commercial
and industrial customers that are favorably disposed to green electricity.Seven utilities across the country have launched "green pricing" programs for residential electric customers. At these utilities, up to 3 percent of residential customers pay rate premiums to underwrite the construction and use of renewable electric generation.
R & D for
a Competitive Power Industry
The secret lies in gaining exclusive-use rights to protect your product or process from your competitors.
The electric utility industry is inherently a high-technology business. Those who ignore this fact for long will fall behind (em not only in using the technology, but also in contending against their higher-tech competitors.
Filings Against FERC's Pro Forma Tariffs
AS ONE MIGHT EXPECT, THE VARIATIONS REFLECT THE HISTORIC TENSION BETWEEN NATIVE LOAD AND WHOLESALE TRANSACTIONS.
With little fanfare, most aspects of the U.S. energy system seem to have settled into a fairly stable, predictable pattern. To my mind, we have reached an "energy plateau" likely to persist for maybe a decade or more into the future.
Energy is not now high on the radar screen of the general public, so there is little public pressure for significant change in the U.S. energy system.
jü( )l, n: A unit of energy measurement equal to a watt-second.
Tenneco Energy and Chinese Petroleum Corp.'s new alliance plans to work on natural gas transmission facilities, power plants, and other energy ventures in Taiwan and North America. Their first project is a
600-Mw natural gas-fired power plant near Taipei, expected to go on line in June 1998. CPC is one of Asia's largest state-owned energy companies; Tenneco Energy, of Houston, transports or markets about 16 percent of the natural gas used in the United States.
Electric industry restructuring is progressing at a rapid pace. Across the country, states are moving ahead to encourage retail competition. Two states have allowed retail wheeling experiments (Michigan and New Hampshire), utilities are proposing them, and over 20 states are studying the issue. Back in Washington, Congress is examining legislation to amend the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA).
PV technology combined with storage offers a cost-effective alternative to capacity additions.By John Byrne,
Young-Doo Wang,
Ralph Nigro, and
Steven E. Letendre
Until recently, both regulators and electric utilities have considered photovoltaic (PV) technology (i.e., solar cells) an unattractive
energy-supply option because of its relatively high cost. Now, however, a number of utilities have shown interest in using PV for peak-shaving.
"Green pricing," at typical rates of customer participation, could expand demand for renewable energy beyond current levels by more than an order of magnitude, pushing down production costs for energy resources preferred by environmental advocates. And just as important, that expanded demand would occur outside of the regulatory framework (em matching capacity to customer needs and wants.In practice, the utility asks customers to pay rate premiums to fund the production or purchase of renewable resources.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded 1,349 acid rain bonus allowances to 10 utilities: City of Austin; New York State Electric and Gas; Orange and Rockland; Western Massachusetts Electric; United Illuminating; Cincinnati Gas and Electric; Massachusetts Electric; Granite State Electric; Narragansett Electric; and Long Island Lighting. The awards are based on utility energy efficiency and use of renewable energy.
Pursuant to the acid rain requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, an allowance licenses the emission of one ton of sulfur dioxide (SO2).
Following Congressional approval of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct), Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a key sponsor of the bill's electricity title, predicted that "competition should replace monopolism as the rule for much of the power industry. Consumers, renewable energy, and the environment will be much the better for it."
Since then, however, Markey's vision has fallen under a cloud.