The timing cannot be a coincidence … in the wake of two different sets of audio tapes and transcripts from Enron that illustrate quite explicitly how venal their traders were, California’s Attorney General Bill Lockyer has chosen this week to express public outrage at a FERC order issued on May 12, over a month ago. …
The California Refund Process Will Not Go Gracefully Into That Good Night Read More »
Entergy has energized the high-voltage transmission line they’ve been laying under the Mississippi River. They built a flexible duct conduit system and installed it using horizontal drilling techniques adapted from offshore oil drilling. What a great example of adaptive technology transfer!
Thanks to Ian Cook at Truck & Barter for his kind words about KP, and for linking to this San Jose Mercury News story (registration required) about Governor Schwarzenegger’s first policy statement regarding electricity regulation in California. His letter comes in the context of debating bills currently before the Assembly and/or Senate in California, which …
Eamonn Butler has a post at the Adam Smith Institute blog on research into the economics of wind power.
Last week the California Assembly passed new piece of electricity legislation, AB2006. The bill is meant to break the regulatory limbo in which the California electricity industry has been for the past three years. It contains the usual compromises to make it politically palatable, but also happens to contain some substance that would introduce a …
So I was in Mexico last week, conveniently enough while Mike was posting our blackout report commentaries, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Mexican Congress on electricity industry reform. Mexico’s industry is state-owned, and is a substantial drag on the coffers of the Treaasury, which has amassed a large debt with the electric company’s …
The most obvious lesson learned from the blackout report is that the electric power industry and its regulatory organizations are better at diagnosing system failure ex post than at divining ways to foster growth of a self-correcting, self-reinforcing, and dynamically reliable system. The blackout report does an excellent job of diagnosing the recent failure, and …
If we want a robust and reliable grid, then we have to think about how to manage and operate transmission. This question has been a core component of restructuring debates over the past four years, and disagreement over the organization of transmission operations continues to be extreme. But transmission is crucial to the development of …
More commentary on the Blackout Stressed? Over-worked? Need to get a way from it all? When the going gets tough on the transmission grid, sometimes a quick trip to the islands is just what is needed. One way of making the grid work better is to figure out how it can fall apart more gracefully. …
A blackout is a supply failure, so naturally people look for supply-side solutions: more transmission lines, high-tech system monitoring devices, building power plants closer to population centers, better grid planning and testing procedures. Few people consider how effectively demand response and active retail markets can help reduce strains on the grid and forestall future grid …
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