Michael Giberson According to Accenture, 46 percent of consumers surveyed said they didn’t want smart grid-based energy management systems if it leads to higher electricity bills. My guess is that the other 54 percent of consumers didn’t understand the question. The summary distributed by Accenture contains several other bits of should-be-obvious information – consumers are …
Michael Giberson In the WSJ, Numbers Guy columnist Carl Bialik explains, “What We Don’t Know About the Economy,” a column about the making of economics statistics and the limits of the process. Of this column John Whitehead commented, “This is required reading for all those who think that economists should have a crystal ball that …
Michael Giberson Obviously the electric utility industry is very much in the experiment and learning phase (also known as “trial and error”) of the smart grid. Two examples are provided by PG&E in California and Xcel in Colorado. It is tempting to rush to judgment on the impossibility of an efficient, well-run, customer-centric smart grid …
Two Stories About Integrated Utility Smart Grid Programs Read More »
Michael Giberson Bloomberg reports on fraud via Spain’s subsidized feed in tariff rate for solar power: Preliminary evidence shows some solar stations may have run diesel-burning generators and sold the output as solar power, which earns several times more than electricity from fossil fuels, El Mundo said, citing unidentified people from the energy industry. The …
Making the Most of Spain’s Feed-in Tariff for Solar Power Read More »
Michael Giberson As just noted, the CFTC has approved Media Derivatives request to establish Trend Exchange, a box office futures exchange. At Midas Oracle, Chris Masse reacts to the news by drawing attention to remarks by CFTC commissioners suggesting that it may be difficult for Trend Exchange to gain the subsequent CFTC approvals needed for …
Michael Giberson Today the CFTC approved Media Derivatives Inc.’s request to create a futures exchange based on box office receipts. The exchange “is primarily focused on the development of a variety of products to benefit the entertainment industry with one if its initially proposed products being designed to help mitigate risk and enhance the successful …
Michael Giberson Yesterday’s announcement by General Compression, Inc. and ConocoPhillips that the companies would cooperate in developing compressed air energy storage systems (CAES) in Texas is yet another indication that grid-connected energy storage is beginning to take-off. For more background on CAES see the recent article by Alexis Madrigal in WIRED, “Bottled wind could be …
Michael Giberson Tyler Cowen links to a story in the New York Times detailing the opposition of the Motion Picture Association of America to two proposed markets for forecasting movie ticket sales. Of the objections noted in the article, Cowen thinks the key issue for Hollywood is the possibility of a poor market showing making …
Michael Giberson Oncor has been testing smart meters in part by monitoring several several homes with side-by-side smart meter/standard meter pairs. (See week four results from Killeen, Texas; week four results from Temple, Texas; week four results from the DFW area will be posted tomorrow, April 7, assuming Oncor sticks with their schedule.) So far …
Michael Giberson International accounting firm Grant Thornton has surveyed 2,500 hotel and other properties in South Africa and concluded that about half of the properties will not be charging a premium rate during the upcoming World Cup. In some cities, however, a majority of properties were raising rates, sometimes significantly. (Another summary: “Fifty three percent …
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