PUF's Where's Energy

Commissioners and Cybersecurity

During our Day at the Delaware PSC, we asked Chair Dallas Winslow about the top regulatory concerns. Excerpted from October’s PUF, here’s what Chair Winslow said:

“The biggest issue is cybersecurity. Our primary role is to make sure that we have a reliable, safe supply of electricity. What’s going on around the world is very threatening and there have been continuous attacks on utilities and other organizations.

Transmission Omission

I just read another article — by another expert in combatting climate change — about how U.S. electric supply can get to a hundred percent renewables. I’ve lost count of how many of these articles I’ve seen.

A hundred percent can be achieved economically and rather expeditiously, it is typically asserted, remarkably without nuclear power plants. The magic bullet is usually massive quantities of battery storage. But the more thoughtful of these articles adds huge amounts of hydroelectric storage and, in particular, high-voltage transmission.

One and a Third Percent

On August 30, the U.S. Commerce Department published detail on July’s gross domestic product. Including detail on its largest component, personal consumption expenditures. In July, one and a third percent of personal consumption was for residential electric bills. 

Is that a lot or a little? One way to answer this question is to look at what other categories of personal consumption were near one and a third percent in July.

Exactly one and a third percent was also spent on higher education.