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Technology

The New Money Pipelines

Business & Money: Merchant plants now draw investors from three different worlds — each with its own agenda.

It's tempting to chalk up the recent bubble in merchant generation to just another industry cycle, but there's more to consider. Investors have not made a wholesale exit from power finance. It is true that many have taken significant losses. It is also true that some remain wary. Despite all this, investors continue to enter the market and address the needs of the industry today.
Byline: 

Ren Plastina

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Technology Corridor

Cyber and Physical Security:

Technology Corridor

Cyber and Physical Security:

Although NERC and other agencies are helping out, utilities still face internal obstacles.

Byline: 
Christian Hamaker
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What is an Advanced Meter?

The technology behind demand-side response.

If energy legislation requires all utilities to offer demand-response programs, will your company be ready? A review of advanced metering is in order.
Byline: 

Sharon Allan

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Energy Storage Systems: A Case Study

How to reduce the cycling costs of conventional generation.

Energy Storage Systems (ESS) can provide significant benefits associated with reduced damage to fossil-fuel power plants if the ESS is used in such as way that it reduces start-ups or load-following/cycling. Though those benefits may not be well known, understood, or documented, they are real and ascertainable.
Byline: 

G. Paul Grimsrud, Steven A. Lefton, and Philip M. Besuner

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Building a Digital Utility: A Question of Survival

EPRI challenges the industry to modernize the grid.

Modernization of the U.S. power system is one of the most important policy steps that this nation can, and must, take. It may not be the most dramatic step, but it is the most important step toward ensuring the future welfare and livelihood of this nation.
Byline: 

Kurt Yeager

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Natural Gas Storage: Now More Than Ever

Fundamentals in the energy markets are converging to increase the need for incremental gas storage.

The natural gas market is approaching a dramatic turning point. The fundamentals in the energy markets are converging to increase the need for incremental gas storage and the way that storage is used and valued by the customer community.
Byline: 

Jamie Craddock and Bill Hogue

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Envision the Utility of Tomorrow

How will the industry change in the future?

Scale, synergies, and automation will transform tomorrow’s utilities, as will deregulation. But new management strategies and new technology also will play a part.
Byline: 

Keith Mueller

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The New CEOs

Whether utility leaders come from law, engineering, or finance, one thing can be said: Many of the new CEOs have had diverse experiences.

Our annual CEO survey looks at six new utility leaders: Mike Morris of AEP, Robert McGehee of Progress Energy, Michael Chesser of Great Plains Energy, Gary Rainwater of Ameren Corp., Dennis Wraase of PEPCO, and Paul Anderson of Duke Energy.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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