Michael Giberson I stumbled across another blog post on the New York Times article discussed here earlier in the week. Rich Sweeny, at Common Tragedies, wants to inject a little more research-based thinking into the discussion: What I really wanted to add to this debate, though, is a discussion of how elecricity costs have been …
Michael Giberson Another David Cay Johnston article in the New York Times concludes, surprise, deregulation leads to higher electricity prices. The article has led to a burst of blogging, including by Mark Thoma, Felix Salmon, and the Economist‘s Free Exchange. Johnston’s piece highlights the results of calculations by Marilyn Showalter’s group, Power in the Public …
Michael Giberson While we dream of a future of knowledge-empowered customers with continuous access to their own meter data stream integrated with a computerized home power management system, it is worthwhile to open an eye on occasion at look at actual, everyday electric metering practice. As Tom Fowler at the Houston Chronicle reports, the Texas …
Retail Electric Power Metering, the View from Houston Read More »
Lynne Kiesling A bit of shameless self-promotion … this Smart Money article on Enernoc and Comverge includes a (fairly anodyne) quote from me about how demand response can enhance electric power network reliability. This concept of a “virtual power plant” is just a fancy way of saying that both electricity retailers (utilities is the old-fashioned …
Lynne Kiesling To answer my own question: dunno. But the technology has a lot of promise. The Wikipedia entry on plug-in hybrid vehicles” is a thorough and well-cited background on the technology and its potential. In particular, of course, I am interested in the vehicle’s intersection with the electric power network: PHEVs and fully electric …
Michael Giberson Yesterday saw the release of reports from two organizations focused on the North American power transmission system. On the reliability side of the grid, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation released the 2007 edition of its annual Long-Term Reliability Assessment. (The first link is to the news release, the second to the report. …
Reliability and Markets: New Reports Out from NERC, ISO-RTO Council Read More »
Michael Giberson The Houston Chronicle‘s Tom Fowler and Janet Elliot have a pair of articles on the Texas power market restructuring experience and current talk about reforming state policy. From the lede in Sunday’s “Many Texas consumers feel competition in the state’s energy markets has been a costly failure“: When Texas lawmakers agreed to open …
Houston Chronicle Explores Texas Power Market Problems, Fixes Read More »
Michael Giberson Tracy Davis, writing at Energy Legal Blog, takes note of the Supreme Court’s decision to take on a pair of Ninth Circuit court decisions: In a pair of decisions issued last December, Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County, WA v. FERC and California Public Utilities Commission v. FERC, the Ninth Circuit …
Case Involving Unilateral Modification to Power Contracts Heading to Supreme Court Read More »
Lynne Kiesling The regulatory policies of the past century in the electricity industry have enshrined the regulatory compact: in return for being granted a monopoly franchise with legal entry barriers, the regulated utility assumed an obligation to serve all customers in their service territory who desired service. The compensation received for this bargain is an …
The Regulatory Compact and Its Consequences for Innovation Read More »
Michael Giberson It seems I may have left off a critical point in my comment on regulation and the apparent rebirth of nuclear power. Following the insightful commentary in Loren Steffy’s column in the Houston Chronicle, I highlighted that in many cases stockholders would assume the risks of cost overruns or poor performance, rather than …
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