In This Issue
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THE PROMISE AND UNTAPPED MARKETS
THE U.S. NUCLEAR ENERGY INDUSTRY HAS enjoyed significant accomplishments in the last year, including the issuance of the first construction and operating licenses for nuclear power plants in the United States in over 30 years.We've also been faced with major challenges, including economic uncertainties that are slowing domestic expansion of nuclear energy.And today, foreign competitors are making... -
A TIME SAVINGS
SANDIA LABS and the Department of Energy have developed a free Web-based tool for utilities and regulators to evaluate the technology and cost issues of using four different energy storage technologies and a variety of different battery types.The Energy Storage Select tool lets a user conduct a quick, high-level analysis of energy storage options and determine the value of different energy... -
Moving Solar Forward
WHEN SEPA brought a group of U.S. utilities to Germany in June for a first-hand look at the world's solar leader, the question our members asked throughout the weeklong trip was, "How can they keep this up?"In the United States, solar power has gained strong momentum, but is nothing close to the installed solar capacity of Germany, which has more than six times that of the United States.Germany's... -
RENEWABLE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
HAITI POSSESSES SIGNIFICANT renewable energy potential: full solar irradiance occurs 300 days a year, predictable daily trade winds on the coast are funneled through mountain passes, and streams and rivulets run down from the mountains that form the interior of the country. The Haitian government is offering energy credits for installation of green energy up to a total of $200 million. Numerous... -
KEVIN BURKE was about to face a major labor crisis. Jim Rogers would soon be embroiled in controversy surrounding a long, carefully planned merger to create one of the nation's largest utilities.Dealing with unanticipated big issues goes along with the job of utility chief executive officer. As the industry grows and changes, the challenges and their consequences multiply.EnergyBiz sat down with... -
PUBLIC POWER FOCUSES ON MISSION
GOVERNMENT MANDATES pile up like never before with sweeping consequences, while new technology reshapes the business. It is a time of profound change, according to leaders of public power entities who recently met with EnergyBiz editors at the American Public Power Association's annual meeting. The association represents 2,000 community-owned utilities serving 46 million Americans. The responses... -
ANALYTICS REALIGNING UTILITY IT
THE UTILITY INDUSTRY is forging ahead with more advanced analytics. More than 65 percent of North American utilities have some sort of advanced analytics initiative in the planning or implementation stage today, according to the Utility Analytics Institute, a division of Energy Central.This new wave of analytics initiatives is about more than having a database, extracting data and analyzing... -
FOSTERING INNOVATION
THE WAY COMPANIES use technology and partner with IT continues to evolve. As a result, IT is becoming more and more of a strategic partner across all areas of the business. Southern Company IT is meeting this growth in demand by supporting new insights, enabling the business and promoting innovation.At the same time the technology industry is working hard to provide customers with valuable... -
ENERGY INDUSTRY MUST COMMAND THEIR ATTENTION
READ OUR COVER STORY - toward the end - and weep.Some of the most thoughtful executives in the utility industry say they see little chance of a meaningful national energy policy emerging in Washington.We can agonize about all the institutional failures that have brought us to this juncture. Foremost among them is the poisonous, destructive atmosphere created by those men and women in Washington...1 -
THE ROLE OF INFORMATION SHARING
THE NATURE OF THE CYBER THREAT to our nation's electric grid and the efforts at both the national level and state regulator levels to address this threat are well documented.A recently reported example of these evolving vulnerabilities is that of the Niagara Framework. The Framework, a suite of interface software used to connect users to a wide range of SCADA-associated functions across a broad...
