Distribution

The Tools To Power Our Recovery

By


There are lots of reasons to love renewable energy. It’s homegrown and domestically produced. It provides long term stable pricing and is not subject to fluctuating fuel costs. It generates economic development for America’s heartland. It is constant and will never run out. And it’s clean. In order for America to harness the most amount of power from the wind and the sun, a stronger electricity grid is fundamental.

From the winds of the Great Plains to the desert sun of the Southwest, America has vast, untapped potential to generate low-cost renewable power. The Great Plains states – from North Dakota to Texas – possess the strongest wind resource of all developed countries. We have the potential to generate as much electricity annually from domestic renewable resources as the U.S. consumes as a whole – several times over. There is no lack of generation potential. The trick is getting the clean power to market. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 10, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Before You Build: New Tool To Ease Permitting Headaches

By


It is a wonder sometimes that new energy infrastructure is ever built.

On a recent walk-through of a new tool devised to help renewable energy projects with permitting challenges that arise in Department of Defense reviews, the overriding impression was one of wonder. Complex maps and layered data showing flight routes, radar line-of-sight limitations and domestic US military installations left surprisingly scant available open land for project development, although projects that lie in restricted areas do get permitted by DoD. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 9, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Group Energy Rates Inspire A New Kind Of Business

By


Pennsylvania is getting help in its campaign to persuade more retail electric customers to switch away from their local utilities to lower-cost suppliers.

AlphaBuyer, a Paoli, PA-based startup, is bundling customers and negotiating deals with power distributors that result in cost savings to households and new clients for suppliers who probably wouldn’t have got the additional business through their own marketing efforts. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 7, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Paying For The Solar Powered Community

By


As prices for solar photovoltaic (PV) panels continue to drop, utilities and power companies are increasingly looking for new and creative ways to add solar to their power portfolios.

Some have chosen a residential solar leasing model, in which homeowners provide rooftop space for solar panels in exchange for a monthly discount on their energy bills. Dominion Virginia Power has decided to try a different kind of model that would involve leasing community and public rooftops for the development of distributed solar power. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 3, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Payment, Not Planning, The Top Issue In Electricity Transmission Debate

By


US electricity regulators may be further toward a consensus on transmission planning than many in the disparate space have forecast, though the devilish details of cost allocation remain a stumbling block.

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chief of staff Howard Shafferman, now a lawyer at Ballard Spahr, says in this video interview that although there is always room for misunderstanding, the basic principles of regional transmission planning are widely understood. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Bulls Amid The Bears: AOL Energy Week In Review

By


The energy sector has turned upbeat in recent weeks despite still-strong economic headwinds and widespread complaints about political and regulatory uncertainty.

Surviving the financial crisis largely intact has bred a sense of having passed through the worst among the power companies, fuel providers and service firms that keep the energy sector ticking. Although there was widespread acknowledgment this week–at energy industry events in Florida and New York–among bankers, analysts and operators that the business cycle remains stuck at a low, the stress was on fundamental support for new investment and new deals to support continued consolidation. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 28, 2011 at 1:30 PM

Wind Power, Grid Mismatch Costly To Investors

By


Wind farm investors face growing losses from “curtailments,” as turbine installations outstrip the capacity of local transmission systems to accommodate the new power.

The issue is a “growing pain” of wind technology, Judah Rose, Senior Vice President, ICF International in McLean, VA, said. Curtailment has become an increasing problem since 2008 as wind capacity nationwide increases from almost nothing 10 years ago to more than 42,000 megawatts now. “It’s occurring even in RTOs (regional transmission organizations) with advanced pricing and management systems,” Rose said. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 27, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Upgrading The Wind

By


In the era before steam power, wind was one of the world’s preeminent energy resources, and new technologies for capturing its accelerating power drove the rise of seafaring nations and commercial powerhouses.

If an experiment currently underway in Ohio goes well, wind could be poised for a full-scale comeback as an energy source. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 25, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Are Today’s Smart Meters Already Obsolete?

By


Should smart meters ship with additional memory and processing power, plus an operating system to run applications? Several meter and communications vendors have taken a step down that road, including Echelon and SmartSynch. Now a UK firm called Sentec wants to take things to the next level. If it succeeds, next-generation meters will look less like old-fashioned meters with a communications module grafted on. And more like smart phones for energy (with apps and all).

I use the Discovery Showcase series to highlight new companies and new ideas. I bumped into this latest concept at Metering Europe in Amsterdam this October. If the concept takes off it could insulate utilities against the obsolescence issue – the fear that smart meters will need to be swapped out in just a few years. And it could send meter makers scrambling back to their labs to catch up. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 24, 2011 at 2:30 PM

The Game Changer: Developing Natural Gas Shales

By


Can you have too much a good thing? When it comes to natural gas, massive new supply development could alleviate energy price increases, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and enhance US energy security, but finding the right price to encourage development when a glut of gas is available remains a challenge for both producers and consumers.

Covering the quickly-evolving natural gas industry requires a broad range of knowledge, and Ballard Spahr LLP partner Dena Wiggins demonstrates an unusually comprehensive understanding of the sector’s opportunities and challenges in this Breaking Energy video interview. Breaking Energy spoke with Ballard Spahr attorneys at the US Association For Energy Economics conference in Washington, DC earlier this month. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 24, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Page 18 of 261...141516171819202122...26