Security

Technology Corridor

The nation's critical electric infrastructure is still too vulnerable to outages.

The Sept. 12, 2005, electricity blackout of most of the city of Los Angeles demonstrates the continuing vulnerability of the nation's electric infrastructure. Although the cause of the Los Angeles outage was accidental, it exposed a glaring weakness: cable line breaks are an attractive, easy target for terrorists, because the U.S. electric network has thousands of miles of unguarded transmission and distribution lines.

Deadline Looms for New Cyber-Security Standard

NERC's proposal has the industry scrambling.

As the balloting process for new cyber-security standards from the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) drew to a close, the industry group was gearing up for the difficult tasks ahead: ensuring rapid implementation of the new standards among NERC's members.

PUHCA Debate - Again

The SEC denies approval of the AEP/CSW merger. What will that mean for industry consolidation?

What's wrong the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA)? The 1935 act clearly did not contemplate a competitive marketplace for electricity. Legislation should be updated to reflect the prevailing energy economic climate.

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.

The Hazards of ElectroMagnetic Terrorism

And why North American power plants should take note.

Electromagnetic terrorism has huge implications for the international power industry. The North American electric power network is vulnerable to electronic intrusions launched from anywhere in the world, according to studies by the White House, FBI, IEEE, North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), and National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). Is there a solution for this situation?

Reliability Wars

Power System Planning: Who gets paid (and how much) for backing up the system?

“Confining transmission projects to FTR payments is like confining generators to energy-only payments,” says Ed Krapels, the electric industry consultant from Boston who helped dream up the initial idea of the Neptune project. These words speak volumes on what’s happening in today’s power industry, and on what the ISOs and RTOs are trying to achieve, not only for merchant-grid projects but for merchant generation and system reliability.

People

Exelon appointed Tom Ridge and Dr. William C. Richardson to its board of directors. NiSource Inc. has restructured its leadership team. Hydro-Québec appointed André Caillé chairman of its board of directors and Thierry Vandal as president and CEO of the company. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chairman Wendell F. Holland recently was named president of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners. And others...

The Widening Technological Divide

Increased business and regulatory challenges have utilities lagging in investments to meet energy demand a decade from now.

The electricity enterprise has tended through restructuring to become a victim of its historic success in maintaining universal service reliability at ever-lower cost. The essential foundation for restoring enterprise vitality in the coming decade is rebuilding this fundamental public/private partnership, based on technology innovations that can increase the value of electricity service, including providing higher levels of reliability and security.

The Global LNG Gamble

The Geopolitical Risks of LNG

The Geopolitical Risks of LNG

To many energy-industry analysts, 2005 is a make-or-break year for the U.S. gas market. If we don't have at least several liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in construction by the end of the year, the country arguably will face serious gas-supply shortages and price spikes beginning in about 2008.1

IT Roundtable: The Digitized Grid

Data gathering and controllability offer the quickest path to reliability.

Technology leaders at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative present their visions of energy IT in the 21st century.