Strategy

Do Utility Mergers Deliver?

Not in all cases, or for all stakeholders. Here’s why.

The industry perceives substantial benefits from consolidating. But what is the track record? Does the regulatory and strategic landscape suggest these mergers are beneficial?

Getting IRP Right

Quantifying uncertainty in the planning process.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, integrated resource planning (IRP) was a required practice for many utilities. Then competitive wholesale markets, merchant generation, and restructuring initiatives led many utilities to abandon IRP.

While wholesale competition generally has been successful, the regulatory process changes it brought were less so. And utilities now are getting back into long-term resource planning studies to provide decision support for their “back to basics” business strategies.

Preparing for the Next Nuke

Using scenario analysis to help utilities map out their strategies.

If you were a utility executive today would you consider building a new nuclear power plant? What if the United States decided to implement the emission reductions called for in the Kyoto Protocol without adopting it? How might your business be affected by another 9/11-scale terrorist attack on a U.S. target? What would be the impact of growing reliability problems in key U.S. power markets? Some utility executives are asking themselves just such questions.

Winning the Merger Game

A new wave of consolidation is coming. To succeed, a company must understand where its strengths are.

Companies that relied heavily on mergers and acquisitions generated more than half of the value in the power industry during the past 10 years. Furthermore, more than half that value was generated by a handful of companies. How did they do it?

Clearing the Air On Emissions

How utilities can take a portfolio-management approach to environmental compliance.

In March 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the final Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) and Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). Assessing the impact that these and other environmental policies have on the whole organization reveals implications for the corporate process at all levels.

Utilities on Steroids

What's behind today's oddball mergers?

Look at the gargantuan, gerrymandered service territories you would get with the latest pending merger deals: Exelon-PSEG, Duke-Cinergy, and Warren Buffet's bid to combine PacifiCorp with his MidAmerican Energy. Now ask yourself if they make any sense.

A National Gasification Strategy

Presenting a program to stimulate robust coal-gasification technology deployment at low federal cost.

Federal loan guarantees and other incentives can clear the hurdles to near-term deployment of gasification technologies.

Business & Money

Sticking to the Knitting:

Business & Money

Sticking to the Knitting:

A review of three years of post-Enron stock performance by electric utilities.

Immediately following the Enron collapse, investors dumped the stock of any electric power company that appeared to be pursuing non-traditional growth strategies. Any company that emphasized unregulated businesses-investments in overseas assets, merchant power plant development, and energy marketing and trading-was suspect.

Risk Appetites: How Hungry Are Utility Investors?

An effective risk-management strategy depends on knowing your shareholder’s idea of value.

How do shareholder relations link to risk-management policy? The answer: Utilities have to communicate to shareholders a particular set of operating strategies that will attain certain financial results. Risky activities both enhance and threaten those financial results. Therefore, policies must define how risky strategies are formulated, approved, controlled, and measured.