The Great India Blackout - Could It Happen Here?
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06 Aug 2012
by Ellen Vancko
The US grid is in vastly better condition than India’s, but major outages here have been costly and preventable. Given the threats posed by human error, solar storms, and cyberattack, we should take advantage of our resource diversity and get ahead of whatever problems may arise.
he massive power outages that swept across India this week leaving hundreds of millions of people without power brought back vivid memories of the August 14, 2003 blackout that left more than 50 million people in the Northeastern United States and Ontario, Canada in the dark. I’m not suggesting that India’s electric system is in any way comparable to ours, but we should remember that large blackouts have happened here and can happen again.
Risk-Aware Planning and a New Model for the Utility-Regulator Relationship
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18 Jul 2012
by Ron Binz and Dan Mullen
The analytical tools for utilities and regulators to take more explicit account of risk, in an increasingly uncertain world, are at hand. What remains is the need for a more effective way to gauge and reward effective utility performance.
he US electric utility industry has entered what may be the most uncertain, complex and risky period in its history. Several forces are conspiring to make the next two decades especially challenging for electric utilities: large investment requirements, stricter environmental controls, decarbonization, changing energy economics, rapidly evolving technologies and reduced load growth. Navigant Consulting recently observed that “the changes underway in the 21st century electric power sector create a level and complexity of risks that is perhaps unprecedented in the industry’s history.”
Prepaid Electricity Service: Smart Grid-Enabled Customer Choice
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05 Jul 2012
by Chris King
Far from what some may suppose, prepaid electricity service is a choice many utility customers – and utilities themselves –deem advantageous. Customers who use it in Arizona and Oklahoma overwhelmingly like this purely voluntary option.
ith many utilities deploying smart meters, the electricity industry has a new opportunity before it: the ability to implement opt-in prepayment service at little incremental cost and considerable benefit both to the utility and customers who choose to participate in the program. Because smart meters include remote-connect and disconnect capability, implementing prepayment as part of service setup, with immediate connection and disconnection – e.g., in the case of a customer’s move – is simply a software matter. But prepayment offers both benefits and challenges. Can it be an attractive option? This paper reviews the issues and tentatively concludes that the answer is “yes.”
Sustainable Utility Regulation and Socio-Economic Success
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11 Jul 2012
by Richard J. Rudden
Institutional investors are increasingly looking to invest in companies that embrace sustainable practices. Given the trillion-dollar investment that utilities must make to modernize our electric infrastructure, both regulators and utilities should embrace the opportunity this development presents.
State Retail Electricity Markets
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14 Jun 2012
by Kenneth Rose