Reliability


Cars could be the thin end of the wedge for a modernizing electricity sector.

The move to electric cars and electric hybrid vehicles in the US has been slow, but the comparative popularity of new models being offered by mainstream automakers on a broader scale are raising the profile of vehicles and mobility as a mechanism for updating the swiftly-aging US power grid.

Volkswagen
said today it would launch its XL1 two-seater, a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle that can be recharged from a conventional household electric outlet. Keep reading →


BP will build a fourth wind farm in Texas, the oil giant announced on May 4, just days after the anniversary of the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

This latest renewable energy project from a troubled oil company has illuminated controversial disagreements over the real costs and benefits of wind power. Keep reading →

Electricity consumers in the US have to be forced to make choices about their power.

That’s the conclusion of a recent Energy Information Administration’s “Today In Energy” update, which compares customer uptake of competitive power suppliers in several states. Keep reading →

Smart grid (n). An overhyped and misunderstood term for making our electric grid more intelligent so we can all save energy and money.

Lie #1: Smart grid is a project for the utilities and its success rests in their hands. Keep reading →

New terms are always emerging in the energy business. Like the nacelle discussed on Breaking Energy earlier this week, many in the business are not yet aware of the power of a synchrophasor, which allows smart grid elements to speak to each other through standardized data flows.

Here’s the technical definition: Keep reading →

The following observations on issues before the public dealing with the evolving US energy economy reflect my 50 years of experience in the electric power industry both nationally and internationally. This includes seven years as an energy analyst with the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), 12 years with Edison Electric Institute as a VP for Economic Policy, 13 years with Gulf States Utilities retiring as CFO upon the company’s merger with Entergy and six years as a consultant for USAID on electric utility restructuring in the former Soviet Union.

Summary Review Keep reading →

At the intersection of Thomas Edison and the Internet lies the smart grid, the energy industry’s newest effort to enhance the effectiveness of their power lines.

Integrating the multi-directional data capabilities of the Internet into the U.S.’s thousands of miles of transmission wires, still based on the 130-year-old system Edison designed to distribute electricity, remains one of the smart grid effort’s biggest challenges. Keep reading →

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