June 2007

Blackouts, Smart Grids, and Interoperability

On Wednesday afternoon around 3:45 the power went out in areas of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City. Although the outage lasted less then one hour, it was sufficient to cause traffic congestion and inconvenience to almost 400,000 customers on a hot, humid summer afternoon. This experience illustrates the challenges facing the electric …

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Reykjavik

Lynne Kiesling Yes, we finally arrived in Iceland Thursday morning … not in Chicago fuming (fume? moi?). Strolled around Reykjavik, had a coffee, had lunch at Cafe Victor (which is in an old building in which the King of Denmark used to keep his falcons), which is a place I’d certainly hang out if I …

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Following Up: Perfecting Retail Markets, Pjm, Iceland

Michael Giberson Re: “The Electric Power Retail Access Hard Core” Last week I quoted from an EnergyBiz Insider column, “Perfecting Retail Markets.” Today, EnergyBiz Insider printed a letter-to-the-editor in response from Tom Casten, Chair of Recycled Energy Development LLC, a cogeneration outfit. Casten leads off with an important question: How do entrepreneurs and markets work …

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Still More on Secondary Ticket Markets: “Scalping Goes Upscale”

Michael Giberson If my post of last week didn’t sate your interest in economic commentary on secondary ticket markets, here is a much longer piece put out by the Arizona State University business school: “Scalping goes upscale: The secondary ticket market’s online revolution.” A sample: Software upgrades have taken much of the back-alley risk out …

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Electricity Retail Choice: Pay-As-You-Go Service

Lynne Kiesling Today’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent article from Rebecca Smith on pay-as-you-go electric service (subscription required). Mr. Price, a retired computer programmer, drops by the office of his local utility, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, every six to eight weeks and pays enough to cover a month or two of service. The …

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A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Male-female Toilet Seat Behavior

Lynne Kiesling A game-theoretic analysis of one of the most enduring conflicts between men and women: toilet seat up or down? This paper in the Science Creative Quarterly provides a game-theoretic analysis that incorporates the cost of the domestic dissent, specifically, the cost to the male of the yelling that will ensue when the female …

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