Soon after Energy Secretary Rick Perry requested DOE staff to prepare a report on how public policies affected the electric power grid, lobbyists for the wind energy and solar energy industries struck back. In an op-ed appearing in The Hill, Megan Hansen and I identify why we think the renewable power industries are so sensitive …
Lobbyists for Wind and Solar Energy Ready to Fight Doe Grid Policy Study Read More »
[Series header: On the Morning of October 15 the Institute for Energy Research in Washington DC released a report I’d written about the federal government’s wind power cost estimates. (Links available here.) Later that day Michael Goggin of the American Wind Energy Association, the lobbying organization in Washington DC that represents the wind energy industry, …
Michael Giberson Peter Behr, at ClimateWire, describes the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to rework its electric transmission study processes, created in the 2005 Energy Policy Act but stalled by adverse court decisions and political missteps. I’m not so sure that the new approaches will be any better received than the old, but I noticed …
Regional Transmission Efforts Good for Re-routing Information Flows to Regulators Read More »
Michael Giberson The Montana-Alberta Tie Line, a transmission project linking Alberta and Western U.S. power markets, has stalled over the resistance of one landowner, who has claimed the proposed line would cross wetlands and native American heritage sites on her land. MATL tried exercising eminent domain last July to take the easement it wants, but …
Michael Giberson Last week the Texas PUC approved routes for the northwesternmost link in the CREZ transmission expansion, choosing one of the longest of several possible transmission routes in order to avoid crossing parts of Palo Duro canyon. The canyon is the nation’s second longest and includes a state park. None of the routes would …
Texas Transmission Route to Avoid Crossing Scenic Canyon Read More »
Michael Giberson Jonathan Fahey observes that there seems to be little trouble finding Montana property owners willing to have wind turbines built on their property, but property owners usually fight against construction of power lines. Puzzling, right?, since wind turbines are large, moving and obtrusive, while transmission lines are not-as-big and immobile and generally somewhat …
Property Owners Seek Wind Turbines but Fight Transmission Lines Read More »
Michael Giberson Current and anticipated changes in the patterns of electric power production and consumption drive the demand for new transmission lines to help get lower-cost power from generators to consumers. The biggest changes in power production have come from growth in renewable power supplies, so the expansion of transmission is seen as critical to …
Is Texas Crez a Model for Getting Transmission Lines Built Elsewhere in the Country? Read More »
Michael Giberson Suppose you are a merchant transmission line operator with a DC power line linking point A to point B. Some potential customers prefer to buy transmission capability the day before the power flow, while others would like to buy monthly, annual, or even multi-year contracts. While some customers want 24-hour delivery, others seek …
Auctioning Power Transmission Capacity Contracts of Varying Duration 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 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 »
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