bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fuels Utilization for Cost-effective Energy Management
Authors: Sher Bruce A.
Published: April 2022

As energy costs continue to stabilize in a deregulated environ-ment, there will be additional benefits available from loadmanagement, fuel-switching and interruptible strategies to maxi-mize energy savings opportunities . Over the past few years, utilitycompanies have pr epared for full deregulation with specific plans toboth defend their own territory and advance into new regions of thecountry. One concept is to form a non-regulated subsidiary that canassist a customer with energy management projects as a strategicenergy partner . In this way, core competencies available from withinthe utility industry can be sold to the end-user through their non -regulated subsidiary .Utility subsid ies may be available in some instances for end-users to increase energy efficiency and allow an Energy ServicesCompany to finance these projects under a Performance Contract. Inany event, the energy industry has been transitioning into a competi-tive environment which has created some unique and innovativeopportunities to reduce energy costs through effective end-user fuelutilization programs
Gas Purchasing-Business, Legal, and Contracting Issues
Authors: Krathwohl Eric J.
Published: April 2022

These are the buzz words of a new era in the energy business .Wh ile th e daily newspapers and radio are full of articles and adver-ti sements concerning the impending opening up of the electricindustry to cu stomer choice of supplier, little attention is being givento choice in the natural gas markets.The fact is, however, that except for California and some scat -ter ed pilot programs , retail electric markets are not y et open andeven the imminent deadlines for retail access may prove to be illu-sory. For example, Rhode Island retail electric markets , by law, wereopen to competition July 1, 1997 but a month later less than a hand-ful of cust om ers had chosen alternative suppliers . In contra st,customers everywhere are already able to choose their own gas sup-pli er , other than the local gas utility that had supplied all customer sfor so many years .With this new freedom of choice comes not only a number ofben efits, but also risk s. Th is article seeks to provide cust omers someguidance in obtaining such benefits and avoiding the risks. Ulti-mat ely, that is accomplished through a car eful selection process , bestdon e by mean s of an RFP with expert assistance , and thr ough anegotiated gas contract. Before addressing specific contracting issuesone mu st und erstand th e legal and regulatory framework which gov-erns the transportation of the natural gas .
Cogeneration: Where Will it Fit in the Deregulated Market?
Authors: Fridman Dr . Moisey
Published: April 2022

Several states in the United States are opening their electricpower markets to competition. Among them California and Massa-chusetts on Jan . 1, 1998 (currently California experiences a problemwith the trading computer's communication, so the implementationhas been delayed beyond Jan . 1, 1998), Rhode Island on July 1, 1998,Pennsylvania on Jan . 1,1999, and Michigan will phase in competitionthrough 2002.Cogeneration due to potentially high efficiency can be very com-petitive in a deregulated market. Cogeneration can achieveextremely high levels of thermal efficiency, much higher than themost advanced and sophisticated combined cycle power plants gener-ating only electric power.And thermal efficiency is one of the key factors in determiningthe power plant economics and feasibility. High efficiency means alesser amount of fuel is used to generate the same amount of energy .In turn, burning a lesser amount of fuel means that fewer pollutantswill be emitted.
Convergence Commoditization: A Survival Guide for Corner Grocery Store Owners (And the Private Power Industry)
Authors: Feldman Roger D.
Published: April 2022

Th e Pacificorp acqui sition of The Energy Compan y, last year,which is itself a fuel and power marketing amalgam , served to empha-size to the private power indu stry an ascending ladder of realities:• The PURPA-ba sed IPP industry is history (Old News)• Linkage of pow er marketers and fuel suppliers is a logical de vel-op men t (Accep ted Wisdom)• "Con vergence" of en erg y suppl y techniques will be the foundationof the new con solidated energy industry (Rapidly Accepted Wis-dom )To clin g to this newe st rung of the ladder , private power indu str ym emb ers face a clas sic quandary : finding an appropr iate re sponse to theder egul ation genie whose escape from the regulatory bottle it has solon g p romoted . The challenges are clear enough : prevent unfair exerciseof comp etitive advantage by the new convergence mega-c ompanies ; fa-cilitate merchant project financing in the ne w world of shorter term en-ergy arr ang ements; reestablish a useful, functional role in the foreshort-ened en erg y food chain. In short: figure out what to sell from the cornergrocery once the supermarket comes to town.The trick , of course, is to do all of these things without taking po-sitions or establishing strategic business alliances which inadvertentl yha ve the effect of perpetuating the old regulatory order.
How Technology Is Transforming Utilities ... And Helping Energy Purchasers
Authors: Falkowitz Ed
Published: April 2022

Competition had ne ver been an issue for utilities which, as in-stitutions, were prototypical of the solid, slow moving bureaucraciesthat allowed few internal changes or outside ideas. The competitioncaused b y impending deregulation and new technologies forced utili-ties to wake up and take note. Unlike the Microsoft monopoly whichis on the cutting edge of progress, the utilit y monopolies wanted andneeded "bus iness as usual." It took courage for the few utilities w h ichchose to take on the challenge of transforming themsel ves and the irserv ices to accommodate the progress of the industry.As a rule, ut ilities had been bu sinesses where un ion co ntra cts weregenerously negotiated, emp loymen t life-time, raises steady, the admin is-trative staffs bloa ted, an d rate increases pr edictable. Yet, PG&E, a utilityin the San Francisco area, began ins talling 100,000 CellNet electric andgas meters , and ha d p lan s to au toma te all 8 mill ion meters in its terri-tory. In an ar ticle en tit led " Req u iem for Me te r Read ers?" Jon ath anMarsha ll rep ort s in The Sail Fra ncisco Chro nicle that the 850 doo r to do ormeter readers w ill even tua lly lose their jobs. PG&E's Project Ma nage rfor au toma ted meter read in gs, Mark Hu ghes, said that the ut ility hasagreed to r etr ain the wo rkers and give them firs t crack a t new jobs.
Spike: A New Delinquent on the Electrical Scene. Who Sired Him?
Authors: Feldman Roger D.
Published: April 2022

Reddy Kilowatt has a new, juvenile delinquent, possibly illegiti-mate brother, "Spike." Like a leading character on the TV cartooncom"Sou th Park," his parentage is both uncertain and a matter of greatspeculation. Who bred Spike in '98? Will there be a proliferation? SinceLinda Tripp could not get through to FERC Chairman Hoecker, there isno star witness, but merely a series of finger pointing accusations. Nu-merous deregulation-based commercial initiatives could be impacted: amatter of great significance to a variety of project privateer sponsors .Whether the demise this year of the Schaefer deregulation bill onthe Hill was the result of a certain nefarious non-gavel wielding Michi-gan Democrat (as the Republicans charged) or not, its Lazarus-potentialquotient surely will be a function of the Spike Sire issue.The deregulation legislation's godparents ELCON and the greatindustrial power users "know" who spawned Spike: it was large utilitiesthat ignored their tight supply situation, and the absence of workableMidwest wholesale markets or any reta il markets. The fix for this prob-lem , then (drum roll please): accelerated deregulation of utility -ownedgeneration , more independent system operators, and a wholesome (fa-talistic?) tolerance of the fact that price spikes are a known risk ofcompetitive markets. (Presumably, the industrials know whereof theyspeak, at least as it relates to them: for the first time since 1990, the retailrate for industrial consumers was considerably lower than the priceIOUs paid for firm power.)
Emerging Markets for Distributed Resources
Authors: Moore Taylor , Rastler Dan , Herman Doug
Published: April 2022

P roducing electricity economically, efficiently, and reliabl y insmall, geo graphically dispersed units, new technologies like fuel cellsand m icro-turbines promi sed to transform the landscape of power gen-eration in a deregulat ed , competitive future energ y serv ices market.Distributed generators are no w being coupled with ad vanced energ ystorage devices. The new conc ept is called Di str ibuted Resources (DR).Some energ y compani es are already laying strategic plans to u sedi strib uted res our ces to crea te cu stom ized ser vice offerings that canmeet a vari ety of user needs, including premium po wer, p eak po wer ,an d coge neration requ irement s.Thi s art icle de scribes the new opportunit ies posed by the advent ofp int- size po wer plant s and othe r d istributed resources.
Lessons Learned from Requests for Competitive Power Prices
Authors: Warwick W. Michael
Published: April 2022

The market for electricity is gradually opening for competition. Thisprocess is slow and currently proceeding on a state-by-state basis. Somestates are allowing retail access to competitive power supplies for all cus-tomers . Others are limiting participation to selected consumers in socalled pilot programs or in phases as direct access is introduced over aperiod of several years.At present, competition is restricted to power as a commodit y. Afew states allow customers and/ or their suppliers to provide meteringand billing services at competitive rates. No states allow customer s directaccess to wholesale power markets. This contrasts with deregulation ofnatural gas , where large, so called non-core or transportation cu stomerscan purchase directly from wholesale markets.Experience by large, retail customers with natural gas purcha singhas lead many to believe that lessons learned in that market are directlytransferable to the retail electricity market. That is not necessarily thecase , especially for government agencies who typically ha ve retail ac-counts that vary widely in size, location, and service requir ement s. Thi sarticle extracts earl y lessons learned by government agencies from theirefforts to procure p ower in competitive markets, and can be in struct ive topurchaser s in the pri vate sector. It is hoped that these lessons will nothave to be relearned by each agency in each state as deregulation pro-ce eds .
What the U.S. Can Learn from the Latin American Power Development Model The World Turned Upside Down
Authors: Feldman Roger D.
Published: April 2022

At the academy, the view has been for several years that the UKexperience will set the model for the U.S. deregulation. And in regula-tory theory, in the U.S., this may ultimately be the case, outside of thestrongest traditional integrated utility bastions.Glancing up over the scholarly journals, however, practical observ-ers of indu stry realpolitik see a different model: oligopoly. FERC hasmainly focused on the use of market power by home team suppliers tolim it local competition. The reality (as Leonard Hyman recently ob-serv ed ) is more likely to be one of coalescence at the local market levelof thr ee of four energy providers-major pipeline and power companiesreaching into service territories and vying with the local gas and electricdistributors which will be bulking up . The larger issue , H yman sug-gests, is whether, as in the department store and banking fields , theenergy market will go at least regional and possibly national. He sug-gests that these are the probable growth patterns for emerging growthcompanie s.Not vedd y "British economist," that. But very like the outlines ofthe stra tegies emerging South of the Border , where a mi xture ofprivatizat ion and demand growth is giving the opportunity for bold andsuggestive pla y to the strategies which the larger utilities and the for-ward vertically integrating oil companies are undertaking. In fact, to seethe future profile of their would-be hegemony, Ll.S, regulators would bewiser to look South than East
Change and Innovation: The Evolving Energy Industry
Authors: Lay Kenneth L.
Published: April 2022

Conventional resource limitations and social and economic andenvironmental requirements will probably necessitate the utilizationof new energy resources not now in widespread use, as well as inno-vative methods of delivery and utilization of those energ y resources.In the last third of the 20th cen tu ry, and p robably longer than thatin our count ry and in many othe r coun tries arou nd the wo rld, some ofthe most costly energy pol icy decisions made were based upon an un-der-estimation of the size and cost of ou r remaining conventional energ yres our ces. This led, in our country, to the establishment of the syn th eticfuels corpo ration in 1980, at that time the cornerstone of this countr y' sener gy policy. That resulted in costing our government and our taxpa y-ers approxima tely $90 billion, and of course, pri vate energy companiesbillion s of addi tional do llars and produced virtually no increm ental en-ergy.The same un der-estimation of conventional energy resources andtheir cos ts in our cou ntry and many other countries led to the prohibi-tion of the use of natural gas for power generation -b ased upon theconclus ion we were run ning ou t of n atur al gas an d it needed to behu sbanded and ra tioned. Instead, we now kno w we have ab u ndant sup -plie s of na tural gas in this coun try and around the wo rld
Organizational Strategies For Global ESCOs
Authors: Bobker Michael
Published: April 2022

Deregulation of the utility industry is changing companies oncelimited to protected local service into global competitors. Independent"ESCOs" (energy service companies), which provide energy efficiencyprograms and performance contracting, are being integrated to offer"customer value" and "business solutions" in the new battles for marketshare. But these battles do not change the fact that energy markets aremature in the US and other developed countries. Growth in energy de-mand is to be found primarily in developing countries. Competition willtherefore be inexorably drawn to global markets.Power pla yers ha ve been entering developing markets primarilyby participation in generating assets , either as a state-o wned sector ispri vatized or as new plant is contracted. As these markets mature intoincreasing competition, energy ser vices will again emerge as part ofcustomer strategy: seeking direct relationships with de sirable customersand creatin g ne w, on-site sources of re venue . Need for new capitalequipment will drive interest in programs which pro vide plant im-pro vements, especially if capital costs can be reduced by innovativefinancing. With the availability of incentives for climate change abate-ment, the joint implementation of energy efficiency can be a leadingedge of capital investment intended to establish long-term customer re-lations.
History of Cogeneration
Authors: Kolanowski Mr. Bernard F.
Published: April 2022

The practical use of cogeneration is as old as the generation ofelectricity itself. When electrification of broad areas was devised to re-place gas and kerosene lighting in residences and commercial facilitiesthe concept of central station power generation plants was born . Districtheating systems were popular during the late 1800's and why not. Dis-trict heating dates ba ck to Roman times when warm water wascirculated in open trenches to heat buildings and communal baths. Dis-trict electrification dates back to Thomas Edison's plants in New Yorkand it didn 't take long to combine the two . The prime mo vers that droveelectric generators thro w off waste heat that is normally blo wn to atmo-sphere. By capturing that heat and making low pressure steam thatsteam could be piped throughout the district for heating home s andbu sinesses. Thus, cogeneration on a fairly large scale was b orn .
The Potential ESCO Market: Over $320 Billion
Authors: Barrett Larry B.
Published: April 2022

Even though energy service companies (ESCOs) have around forwell over a decade in the Ll .S; substantial investment opportunity re-mains . This article presents one approach to estimating this potential.Energy service companies have traditionally been defined as " ... acompany engaged in developing, installing and financing comprehen-sive, performance-based projects, typically 7-15 years in duration,centered around improving the energy efficiency of facilities owned oroperated by customers." (Richard D. Cudahy and Thomas K. Dressen , AReview of the ESCQ Industry in the United States, prepared for the WorldBank, undated draft, p 12.)This rather specific definition has been corrupted by man y to in-clude other activities such as energy marketing and brokering orop erations and maintenance of customer facilities for power generation,cogeneration, and electric distribution. "Energy services providers"should be the preferred terminology for those engaged in energy mar-keting and brokering at the retail level. Energy producers anddistributors are more proper terms for companies providing tho se func -tions.
State Laws Based on Obsolete Technologies Restrict Cogeneration
Authors: Casten Thomas R. , Hall Mark
Published: April 2022

Power entrepreneurs are often prevented from installing energyefficient technology because of state laws that are based on obsoletetechnology or other unrelated factors . These rules may have been passedoriginally to ensure public safety or may have been proposed by laborunions to preserve existing jobs. Many of these rules have been madeobsolete by new technologies and need to be repealed or severely modi-fied. Here are some examples drawn from a much longer list.
Uncommon Commentaries Does Technology Matter?
Authors: Kirby Brendan
Published: April 2022

In the old days, when utilities passed on costs or benefits, utilityinvestors and managers could look upon technology as a side issue thatrarel y affected profits. No longer. Not keeping up or adopting thewrong technology punishes shareholders, and getting it right pays off.But keep in mind that the average electric company still lays out only0.3% of revenue on R&D, so, perhaps, they still don't get it."Leonard S. Hyman, Senior Illdllstry Advisor,Salomon Smith Barney; 212.816.8508
Retail Energy Contracts: Choices for Customers
Authors: Krathwohl Eric J.
Published: April 2022

Retail energy choice is slowly, but certainly becoming an option forbusinesses seeking another means of controlling their costs . Although anumber of consumers have gone through several cycles of choosing andnegotiating a purchase contract with an energy supplier, this process isstill new to most.In rare case s the customer will have the expertise to perform thi stask itself , but more often it is advi sable to obtain specialized assi stancefor both the supplier selection process and the actual contract negotia-tion and documentation process. It is possible that, over time, the needsand de sires of customers expressed throughout the marketplace willforce a uniformity of supplier proposals and contracts. With such ~ uni-formity, the selection process can become much easier and uni versallyunderstood like an y other not commodity or production input.
Load Control Under Curtailable Rates Both Customers and Power Companies Benefit
Authors: Rosenof Ho ward P.
Published: April 2022

Und er deregulation, power companies ar e looking at a variety ofnew product option s, some of which involve curta ilabl e rat es. (Thewo rd " u tility" is not used in this articl e because incr easingly, po wer issold by a variety of c ompanie s, not all of them traditional ut ilities.)U nde r a curtailable rate, the power compan y offers a di sc ount on thepr ice of electricity, in return for the right to order a customer to r edu ceits consump tion of power on sho rt not ice.Such a rat e allows the power compan y to redu ce load und er sup-pl y e mer gencies (less frequentl y, und er d istribution c onstraint s) orw he n th e mar ginal cost of pow er exceeds the re venu e that w ill beea rn ed by continuing to supply all of the customers' demand s.In add ition, deregulated power companies can use curtailable ratesto a ttrac t and keep cus tome rs by offering tar iffs closely matched to theirneed s, and to react to spot market opportunities to buy and sell po wer.Load s under a curtailable rate are effectively und er a d ispatcher 's con-trol, so that the term "dis patchable" can also be used to describe theseload s.
CADER "California Alliance for Distributed Energy Resources"-An Industry- Government Partnership
Authors: Wong Eric
Published: April 2022

The technical adoantages and benefits of Distributed Ell ergy Resources(DERs) make them suitable co mplements to the existing backbone of cent ra lstation potoe rplanis and the T&D grid. Their potential f or challenging even)face t of the provision of elec trica l services ill competitive ellergy markets isconsidered reoclutionarv. Enabling competitive markets to value DER requi resa change ill the regulatory para digm. The drive to electricity res tructuringfocused on transmission and genera ti o n. Tran smission remains a regulated[u nction, one in which the elec tron highway is IIO W non-discriminatory to allusers. Generation, now deregulated, is where competition occ urs. The lastbattleground for co mpetition, at the distribution level, is now occ urring withmall Y open u] procl aiming that "DER is the wave of the f uture. "The roles of reg ulated distribution utilities in this eoo loing market will bepivotal to the s uccess of DER. Long res ponsible for system, transmission anddistribution planning, they are the repository of the data and knotoledge of thepower system, and therefore are ill a position of market power and potentialmarket abuse. Achieving their participation and co opera tive beha oior are criti-cal to the development of the DER market and the infra structure for a reliablegrid
Transmission Companies: A Summary of the Issues
Authors: Hyman Leonard S,
Published: April 2022

You may not realize it, from the d iscussions, but peo ple in ot hercountries use electricity. They, too, have t ran sm ission systems . Theyhave set up diffe rent means of ow ning, regu lating or ope ra ting thesenetworks . Yet the ligh t bulbs con tin ue to shine . Americans, however, tend to suffer from the NIH (not inventedhere) syndrome, so they often struggle through the process of reinvent-ing the wheel. When the government enters the picture, and all thestakeholders get into the act to make sure that nobody gores their oxen,the reform effort turns convoluted, and the resulting product does notfollow the dictates of the medieval philosopher William of Occam,which was keep it simple, stupid", but rather Rube Goldberg , the designerof convoluted contraptions, such as the ISO, 50, let's try to simplify theissues,
Banking on Energy: A Reflection on Patterns of Deregulation
Authors: Feldman Roger D.
Published: April 2022

They had [ragniented service area s, reflecting regulatory polic y; frag-menied service lilies, again a product of regulation; and stability, based onthat territorial division.While regulation stood still, it turned out funds could be raised,transferred and paid for by non-bank competitors. Electronic commerceturbo charged the process. ("Independent liquidity produc ers ," as itwere , arrived on the scene .)Goliath Trust stirred, however, breathed the fire of der egulation,and broke the chains of regulation, both sectorial and regional. The re-sult is the elephant mating dance we now see; the prospect is for a fewtyrannosaurs roaming the financial jungle.Energy superficially took a different route from banking . Deregu -lation began as a Dav id & Goliath upstart revolution; it proceeded inCongress as a mega con sumers revolt. Consolidation thus appeared tobe the last gasp of the old order.But what does California teach us? The stranded cost recoverygambit ha s proved a powerful delaying barrier to change. The retailcustomer market has pro ved dauntingly unfluid, pax Enron. Mean-while, the asset purchasers have turned out to be mostly the biggestutility "boys-next -door ." The di vested behemoths have b ecome th eacquirers across the continent. Convergence has been fully rationalized
Investment Grade Energy Audits
Authors: Hansen Shirley
Published: April 2022

Having helped give birth to the energy audit borne in the late 70's,I'm proud of what we accomplished back then; and for the most part, ithas serve d us well. Unfortunately, it is no longer good enough. The tra-ditional energ y audit ha s been a "s nap shot" approach that typicallya ssume s all current conditions will remain static for the projected pa y-back time of the measures. But buildings seldom, if ever, are static. Theyare typically dynamic places with changing functions . What's more,the y are populated by people who simply will not behave in predictable,con sistent wa ys.We ha ve historically skirted the implications of the human elementin energ y auditing . As early as 1983, an evaluation of the first eightcycle s of the U.S. Department of En ergy's Institutional ConservationProgram revealed that up to 80 percent of the savin gs in an effectiveenergy management program could be attributed to the energy efficientpractices of the O&M personnel.In other words, as little as 20 percent of the savings will be attrib-uted to the actual hardware, but we have continued to make calculationslike a piece of hardware was going to always operate in the same fash-ion under vastly differing conditions.We are a little better about assessing the impact existing energyrelated equipment will have on newly installed equipment; but, for themo st part , it's still in the back-of-an-envelope stage. More hunch thanscience.
Conspiracy Theory? Command and Control?
Authors: Hyman Leonard S.
Published: April 2022

According to one cons ultan t, the EPA is ab out to poun ce on elec-tric utilities, again, with a rule that will limit the size of particles emi ttedby pow er stations, and that ruling w ill lead to the shu td own of a signifi-cant p er centag e of c oal-fired p ow er plant s. N o w , th e Cl int onAdmini str at ion , in its ene rgy bill, ha s prop osed to com ma nd that theren ewable share of gene ration reach 7.5%. I'm sure that the DO E andEPA ha ven 't talked, but if the y did , think of the d ialog
Investment Grade Energy Audits ... Fact? Or Fiction?
Authors: Waltz James P.
Published: April 2022

Performance contracting is all the rage for facility managers inthe late 1990's. Everybody talks about "energy audits" and "invest-ment grade audits," but what's the difference, and what is an audit,really? This article provides a down-to-earth discussion of the needfor and benefits to be derived from doing investment grade audits. Italso provides a detailed description of what an investment grade auditshould be-as based on the author's two decades of experience in theperformance contracting field and from his nationwide seminar onperformance contracting.
Electricit y Savings- Where's the Beef?
Authors: Hyman Leonard S.
Published: April 2022

Wh y a re w e doi n g thi s? Wh y are w eu pendi n g ,1 5250 b illio n a yea r b usin essth at p rov id ed a reli ab le e lect ric s u p p lyfor o ve r a ce n tu ry? IvVhy d o we wis h toco n fus e 122 mill ion cus to m ers w ho s tillca n 't fig ure o u t I\" h y it cost s mor e to flyfro m Ne w York to Akro n than New York to Par is? Wlw hav e we d e-p rived mill ion s o f re ti rees of th eir d iv id end s and ca u sed billi on s o fd oll a rs of wr ite-off's?Is all of thi s ju st a full employment act for energy law yer s, con-s u lta n ts and lobb yi st s?" Ah ." yo u say , " we a re do ing it for the be nefi t of con s um er s, wh ow ill p,l y less for e lectricity ," Rea lly? Whe n? And hOI\" m uch less? Po li-ticia n s hav e mi sr epr es en ted pri ce sa vin gs by t out in g th e percen ta gered ucti o n o f on ly par t of bill. They hav e produ c ed immediat e p rice re-du ction s b y sh ifting th e am o rti zation o f stran d ed cos ts fro m cu rr en t tofut ur e years . Th ey hav e propo s ed to red uce taxes lev ied on electricitysal es, w h ich pr esum ab ly ha ve to be ma d e u p for so me w he re e lse , O nereg u l,lt l1ry ,lge ncy d ecr ee d a do uble d ig it ra te re du ct ion for the ind u s-tria l cus to me rs o f a ut ilit y that had no indu st rial cus tom ers a nd a lowsing le d igit d ecr ea se for e veryone else,
Distributed Generation and Competitive Retail Electricity Markets
Authors: Wong Eric
Published: April 2022

Thi s article discusses what it will take to finally make retail accessand cons umer choice happen. Many of the components are in place orar e in the process of being addressed . These include FERC's Jurisdictionover wh olesale rates and transmission tariffs; and the historic December1998 California Public Utilities Commission's decision, at the urging ofthe California Alliance for Distributed Energy Resources (CADER), tobegin a rulemaking on Distributed Generation.With the federal role being solidified and definitive and progres-siv e rules expected from the initiative in California and other states, thefocu s now shifts to the practical side of retail competition. In a nutshell,th e mak e-or-br eak of fully competitive retail markets rests in Internetappliances and the start-up firms that are developing them .
Energy Realities
Authors: Bradley Dr. Robert L.
Published: April 2022

Fossil fue l technologies in free m ark et se ttings have d i spla ced oncedom inant te chn ologies that are politic ally favored, such as electric ve-hicl es at the turn of the cen t ury and so lar wat er heat ers in th e 1940s.Natu ral gas te chn olog ies on the pow er g eneration side and refor-mulat ed gaso line on the transp ortation side are setting the c omp etitivepa ce. Thi s co uld con tin ue for d ecades. Fuel-cell h ydrog en veh icles arede cad es awa y from mass comme rcialization at best, and th ey must getth eir ene rgy from eithe r fossil fuels d irectl y (on-boa rd con ver sion ) orindi rectly (electro liza tion) .Env ironmen talists touting r enewabl e en er gy are really toutin g cer-ta in ren ewabl e ene rgies at th e expe nse of other ren ewabl e en er g ies.Their op pos ition to h yd roelectr ic pow er, both with existing facilities an dnew facilities, can alon e cancel out cap acity addit ion s with the m oresu p p ly-co ns tra ine d wind pow er. Solar pow er is so mu ch m ore ex pe n-sive th an o the r ren ewabl e and n onr en ew abl e alte rna tives wher e gridelec tricity is available that not eve n the Dep artm ent of Ener gy for eseessignifican t mark et pen etrat ion .The re is pl ent y of ene rgy hyp e in the air , and th is w ill c ontinu e forth e ind efin ite futur e. DO E Secr etary Bill Richard son recently a nno unce dth e Clinton Ad m inis tra tion 's plan for w ind to ha ve a 5% share of th eLl .S, gene ra tion m ark et by 2020. That compares to a pr ed iction for w indf rom DO E's for eca stin g ar m (Ener gy Inf orm ation Adm ini strati on ) of.19% by 2020.
Natural Gas Purchasing As A Strategic Input
Authors: Whelan Casey D.
Published: April 2022

After mor e th an 40 years as a regulatory strong ho ld, the naturalgas indu str y felt th e fir st s tir r in gs of a fundamental ch an g eup on th e ena ctme nt of the Na tural Gas Policy Act of 1979.Thro ug h fits and starts the indu str y has been ref ormin g itself, Th en atur al gas indu str y is now subject to competitive forces. Cu stom er sge nera lly have sup plier cho ices and the indu str y tend s to focu s on cus-tom ers and their need s. The new structure is qu ite an im prove me n t overth e historic struc ture .
P eak Load Management Opportunities Are Waiting
Authors: Barrett Larry B.
Published: April 2022

Peak load management has been described as a killer application.Yet it has been used by too few electric utilities or their commercial andindustrial customers. Utilities seem strangely paralyzed in the face ofsignificant benefits as evidenced by the huge price increases for a fewhours and days each summer. Regulators seem no better at recognizingtheir role in restructuring to facilitate efficient markets for all energy re-sources, including backup generators and other distributed resources.
H ow Your Company’s Credit Rating Will Affect Your Electricity Costs
Authors: Fraser Kevin D.
Published: April 2022

If you are ready to pass this article by because financial issues arenot part of your energy-related property operations concern—pleasedon’t! Every facilities professional with properties taking delivery ofelectricity in deregulated, or to be deregulated, territories has a directneed to understand and become involved with this issue. Soon, if notalready, your company credit rating will have a direct effect on the costof your electric commodity. And soon, I submit, you will be placed in aposition of being forced to deal with this.In concept the issue is very simple. Without competition there wasonly one provider possible, and no opportunity existed for a consumerto leave the provider with energy costs in arrears. A property might gomany months without paying the bill, but the provider was reasonablysafe in that there was no way for the consumer to escape ultimately pay-ing or being cut off. And so, the provider utility was not particularlyconcerned with the creditworthiness of its consumers (in fact they were,but only behind the scenes).Now, with open access and alternative providers, it is possible toincur past due charges and switch to a new provider leaving the oldprovider holding uncollected dollars. The old provider no longer has theoption to shut off the power because the property has already switchedto a new provider. This old provider was operating in a position ofcredit risk left over from the ‘old days’ of monopolistic guarantees
A Critical Technology: Interconnecting Distributed Generation to the Grid
Authors: Lenssen Nicholas
Published: April 2022

Are current interconnection rules, as utilities often state, simplymeeting utilities’ needs for protecting the grid and ensuring the safetyof linesmen? Or—as independent developers of distributed genera-tion claim—are the rules’ anti-competitive measures designed to blockthe spread of on-site generation? Conflicts of interest appear to becommonplace, and the answer probably depends on one’s perspective.But no other issue controls the future of distributed generation likeinterconnection.
Technology Strategy as Rosetta Stone
Authors: Bobker Michael
Published: April 2022

Before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian hieroglyphicswere indecipherable. The stone tablet with its message inscribed in threelanguages, one of which could be read because it was similar to modernGreek, enabled classical scholars to break the code and enabled the wallsof the pyramids to again speak.Immensely detailed, electronically encrypted customer data are thepresent business world’s inscrutable writing on the wall. Businesses aresucceeding, to various degrees, in understanding these messages—ac-cording to how accustomed they are to viewing their core business asinformation management. For example, the financial sector has long un-derstood transactions and dollar movements as bits of information andits technology strategy has emphasized massively networked process-ing. As a result, we are used to spending money without ever touchingit. The transition to web-based banking, brokering, and other financialservices has been rapid.The utility industry has also embraced information technology. Butunlike the financial sector utilities have a huge asset base in productionhardware—generating plant, transmission, and distribution. Technologystrategy has focused on these assets—coordinating them, improvingtheir reliability and performance. In discharging its responsibility to so-ciety of maintaining this infrastructure, the utility industry treats energyas a physical production process and a resulting commodity.
Are You Throwing Money Away By Following the “2-Year Payback” Rule? C lose the Efficiency Gap: Use Profits to Drive the Capture of Value
Authors: Wells John Bruce , Hoffman John S.
Published: April 2022

This article suggests that profitable energy efficiency measuresare often foregone due to the internal structure of most American cor-porations, in which energy functions are managed by cost centersrather than profit centers. This limits access to capital and fosters useof financial decision rules such as the “2-year payback” criterion thatlead to suboptimal investment. The authors propose that corporationsrestructure their operations so that energy functions are managed byprofit centers that can implement energy efficiency measures in otherbusiness units, realize a profit, and return it to their parent company.
Fundamentals of Energy Outsourcing
Authors: Cowan Terry S.
Published: April 2022

As states around the country begin allowing retail customers tochoose their electricity provider, industries of all types, shapes, andsizes are becoming concerned with the question of preparedness. Willmy company be prepared when the day comes? What are the risks?What’s the upside? What’s the downside?These are questions that must be asked and more importantlymust be answered now. Planning for this major change in the energyindustry will require most companies to devote a three-year effort be-fore they will be totally ready for all systems to operate smoothly. It isessential that a company begin as early as possible. In most cases, out-side help will be required and should be hired early into the program(during the initial planning stages).To cope with many of these changes in this era of downsizing,rightsizing, restructuring, etc., companies are considering outsourcingtheir total energy requirements, not only electricity, but also naturalgas, and other energy-related commodities.This article discusses the fundamentals of outsourcing, how toprepare for outsourcing, and what to look for in an outsource com-pany. Pitfalls and issues of concern that should be considered prior toentering into agreements with an outsource company are identified.
Cogeneration in Europe (Spotlight on Belgium)
Authors: Luyckx Wim , Martens Adwin
Published: April 2022

As every country in Europe has a different approach towards co-generation, a global overview is hard to give. The structure of the energysector and a decent government policy used to be the key factors in thesuccess of cogeneration leading to a very different status of cogenerationin each country. However, nowadays the ongoing liberalization of thegas and electricity sector has an overwhelming impact on cogeneration.Where it leads a level playing field and strong impulse for cogenerationin one country, it is also the reason why cogeneration has to struggle tosurvive in many other countries.First an overview of cogeneration in Europe is presentedwith in section two a focus on Belgium. Section three tries togive the most important elements for the future. Apart from theongoing restructuring of the energy sector, new technologies asmini (and micro) cogeneration deserve special attention. Finallysection four summarizes the main conclusions
Cogeneration in Central and Eastern Europe: An Upbeat Perspective
Authors: French Ian
Published: April 2022

The Central and Eastern Euro-pean (CEE) market for cogenerationequipment displays relatively low lev-els of saturation and appears poised toenjoy a healthy upsurge in sales, ac-cording to a new Frost & Sullivanstudy.Initial growth monitored in theCEE cogeneration market seems stimu-lated by the widespread restructuringof the energy sector currently sweepingthe region. Demand for new facilitiesremains increasingly prevalent, drivingpotential users of cogeneration systems to opt for on-site generation asit becomes increasingly viable in economic terms.Eastern bloc countries have been restructuring their economies,and this has meant a decrease in their needs for industrial power. Butthe overall demand for energy by industry is increasing, as well as in allareas. In recent years, over 40 percent of cogeneration equipment salesto Europe have been by the industrial sector.In most countries, cogeneration installations are old, and often in-efficient. In heat and power generation and distribution, losses are esti-mated to be around 25-30 percent.
How ComEd Used Distributed Generation To Handle Its Peak Summer Load
Authors: Fiorito Joseph
Published: April 2022

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd-A Unicom Company)serves more than 3.4 million customers across Northern Illinois, or 70percent of the state’s population. The summer of 2000 marks the thirdconsecutive year that ComEd used diesel generation for peak shaving,distributed generation, in the Chicago area.It began back in 1997, when the effects of El Niño forecast in-creased temperatures throughout the nation. Research began to deter-mine what alternatives existed to provide extra power capacity on atemporary basis. After reviewing data from portable diesel generatorsuppliers, it was determined that is was feasible to supply generation onan as needed basis.With that, a plan was put into place to provide temporary, regionaldistributed generation to critical areas in the territory. ComEd contractedto rent 90 megawatt’s of portable diesel generation during the months ofJune through August. Although the running hours were limited, theproject was viewed as a success. This success shed light as to the pos-sibilities of providing a quick and cost effective means of local, peakshaving generation.In 1998, ComEd researched the market for temporary power alter-natives. Areas that were covered included, power barges, 3-5MW dieselson railcars, and small jet turbines. Once again the diesels won out andwere contracted for the project. Only this time, the scope was raised to210MWs.
Political and Regulatory Risk—The U.S. Challenge
Authors: Zimmer Michael J.
Published: April 2022

The independent power (IPP) industry faces the highest dimensionof political risk, regulatory uncertainty and market challenges in its briefdynamic history over the next five years. A number of key market issuesin the U.S. driven by regulatory changes are pending for resolution im-pacting the long term health and performance of the industry.Originally, the industry was spawned by the provision of strongregulatory and tax incentives to promote successful non-utility genera-tion and development. These initial inducements were overtaken by theforces of competition and project development through the provision ofregulatory market supports, competitive bidding and least cost planningat the state level.Finally, competitive market forces were in control during the pastdecade as power matured into more of a commodity industry with price(through marketing and trading) becoming the critical arbiter of service.This created the current transitional environment in the U.S. in whichregulatory risk is at the largest level the industry has faced in its briefhistory. When converged with the threats of overbuilding and plum-meting asset valuations, the combination, until 2005, could be deadly.Frequently, IPP developers have faced regulatory risk and its con-sequences in the development of international projects during the pastdecade. Special forms of political risk insurance coverage and support-ive government programs have been established to manage the volatil-ity and uncertainty associated with the political and regulatory dimen-sion of project development in international markets.
Electric Utility Deregulation (Two Front-page Dreams)
Authors: Feldman Roger D.
Published: April 2022

“If you don’t have a dream, how’re you gonna make that dreamcome true” crooned an old Rodgers and Hammerstein musical number.“Talkie, talkie, talk...” was the chorus.This describes, precisely, Washington’s approach to electric deregu-lation. If there is a dream, however, Washington does not appear to bewhere the dream is being dreamt.Some months ago, on the same day, two stories appeared on thefront pages of both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post (anominous sign for any industry) that tells it all:
Energy Technologies Will Make the Difference
Authors: Hyman Leonard S.
Published: April 2022

I am not anengineer. I studiedeconomics. But Ihave spent a lot oftime with scien-tists, engineersand venture capi-talists. First, I be-lieve that techno-logical changebrought about therevolution in theelectricity marketjust as surely as itbrought about theindustrial revolu-tion. Electricity is not a low-tech industry. It is a high tech industry witha low-tech managerial mindset. Technological change will play an im-portant role in the rest of the electric revolution, too.Second, the electricity revolution is closer to the beginning thanthe end of the process. Technology will power the process. And thecompanies that understand and control the new technologies will winthe race.Third, what happened in other deregulated businesses will hap-pen in electricity. The laws of physics will not protect the electricitybusiness from revolution. Electricity is not different.
Electricity Restructuring: Growing Problems
Authors: Torres Roberto
Published: April 2022

For most of its history, the electricity industry has been regarded asa natural monopoly. Thus, it was believed that efficiency in electricityprovision is greater when the industry is vertically integrated, with in-dividual firms controlling generation, transmission and distributionfunctions in a particular geographic area.Recent advances in electricity generation technologies, however,have weakened the reasons why the sector should be vertically struc-tured and treated as a monopoly. Consequently, in many countries aswell as U.S. states, the goal has been to change this industry to a hori-zontally structured competitive marketplace.But designing a regulatory framework for the new system hasproven difficult.Among the problems that have emerged include generators’ abilityto manipulate market prices. A report by the U.S. Department of Energysays that firms can increase profits by employing a simple market powerbidding strategy to cut output and increase net revenues from genera-tion by driving up the market price of electricity. In California, as wellas the United Kingdom, researchers have estimated wholesale electricityprices to be up to 75 percent above competitive levels at times
Distributed Generation and Resources
Authors: Hyman Leonard S.
Published: April 2022

EPRI has forecast “at least 20 GW of distributed resources... forinstallation in the United States during the coming decade...” 1 orabout 20% of the total.McGraw-Hill’s World Energy, “The Official Publication” of the17th World Energy Congress, seems to have no mention of distrib-uted resources,although onewriter commentedthat “You mightbuild manysmaller plantsfaster, but youmust build manyof them—and inthe end, the timesaving may beminimal and thecost higher.”2The EnergyInformation Administration projects a 0.7 GW increase in customer owned on-sitecapacity from 1998 to 2020, and adding in fuel cells brings the numberup to 0.9 GW. 3At the same time, the market value of the stocks of only fourcompanies in the distributed generation arena approximated $16 bil-lion at the end of August, 4 or about 5% of the value of the electricutility stocks in the S&P 500 average. That market valuation, probably,implies net income for the four of $1-2 billion within 5-10 years,which probably implies sales of at least $5-10 billion.