Michael Giberson Preston McAfee and Tracy Lewis introduce Coasian bargaining in their economics textbook with the question, “Can I just bribe my neighbor to stop being annoying?” The complementary question, perhaps asked by the neighbor in question, “Can I just bribe my neighbor to stop being annoyed (or at least not to complain about me)?” …
Michael Giberson Matthew Wald at the New York Times Green blog reports on the Bonneville Power Administration’s problem of having too much water and wind power at the same time. For about 5 days in early June, storms producing wind and rainwater led to a lot of wind power and too much water in the …
Lynne Kiesling Last week the Maryland Public Service Commission rejected Baltimore Gas & Electric’s proposed project to install over 2 million digital electric or gas meters, change the retail electricity rate structure to incorporate time-of-use pricing and peak-time rebates, and recover the meter capital costs through a surcharge on residential retail bills. BG&E’s ambitious and …
What the Maryland Psc’s Rejection of Bg&e’s Smart Grid Proposal Reveals About Regulation Read More »
Michael Giberson Competitive retail power company NRG plans to offer an “all you can eat” electric vehicle recharging plan in Houston early next year, expanding the offer to the Dallas area a little later. Likely too few electric vehicles will show up in Houston in the next year or so to make much of a …
Electric Vehicle Recharging: Is the Energy Too Cheap to Meter? Read More »
Michael Giberson Georg Zachmann, writing at the EU Energy Policy Blog, asks, “How integrated are European electricity markets?” At least in the case of the German market, the answer seems to be not so much. (For comparison, here is a paper by John Bower that seeks to assess power market integration in Europe as of …
How Integrated Are European Electricity Markets? Read More »
Michael Giberson In Arizona, solar power installation company SolarCity has been told it must be regulated as a public utility if it employs a financing arrangement it has developed, a “solar services agreement,” to sell its services to non-profit entities. Usually SolarCity builds solar power systems and provides financing and ongoing monitoring services, but doesn’t …
When Should a Solar Power Installer Be Treated Like a Regulated Public Utility? Read More »
Michael Giberson Alexis Madrigal, writing for WIRED’s This Day in Tech on June 3, gives us, “Power Flows Long Distance.” 1889: The first long-distance transmission of electricity takes place, linking a powerhouse at Willamette Falls to a string of lights in Portland, Oregon, 14 miles to the west. The power lines stretching from the hydroelectric …
Long Distance Electric Power Transmission in 1889 Read More »
Michael Giberson The Isolated Plant magazine published “A letter from a New York Correspondent,” in their August 1909 edition: Mr. Editor: From the viewpoint of one of the “common people,” the recent issues of your magazine have been striking fire with every telling blow… The following incident is mentioned as a bit of local history. …
Cogeneration Vs. Monopoly Electric Utility Service, Circa 1909 Read More »
Michael Giberson At the Freakonomics blog, James McWilliams offers a review of sorts of Robert Bryce’s new book Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future. McWilliams reports that the book is “a sustained attack on our irrational infatuation with wind and solar power.” Part of Bryce’s “sustained attack” …
Per Capita Energy Consumption Has Declined in the United States Read More »
Lynne Kiesling On Friday at Environmental Economics, Tim Haab wrote about the implications of New Source Review for innovation in a regulated industry, and how to represent it in the standard Pigouvian model (do go read the whole post, it’s very useful). The basic question is this: does the stifling of innovation that results from …
Electricity Generation, New Source Review, and Waste Read More »
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