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Federal regulators want to reward consumers and companies for using less electricity, a switch in approach that many in the industry see as politically driven even as some argue it boosts competition.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency charged with regulating interstate electricity, natural gas and oil markets, has recently taken the lead on power market issues championed by the White House. Keep reading →
The first high-profile spill at a natural gas hydraulic fracturing operation is proving to be no “Macondo” Gulf spill for the industry, which is pressing ahead on an sector-transforming drilling program.
Growing reliance by electricity generators on natural gas is unlikely to be weakened by reports of air and water contamination by the booming shale-gas industry, even after an April 20 gas well blowout in Pennsylvania renewed concerns that the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) technology used to harvest shale gas is a threat to water quality, power-industry analysts said. Keep reading →
Six key smart grid application trends are shaping the evolving electric industry sector.
Distribution automation, data analytics, demand response, carbon management, home energy management and electric vehicles have been identified as central to improving efficiency, reliability and versatility of the electric grid, according to analysts and experts who talked to Breaking Energy. Keep reading →
Donald Jessome and his partners are on track to break ground next summe
r to bury a 350-mile stretch of cable – much of it on the murky bottoms of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River – to bring a mix of hydro and wind power from Quebec to New York City’s congested electricity grid.
The US $2 billion underwater transmission system, which avoids the problem of unsightly and controversial overhead power lines, would dramatically boost the region’s use of clean energy. Except there’s one hitch: New York State doesn’t consider large-scale hydroelectric power a renewable source of electricity. Keep reading →
Skyrocketing costs at energy-hungry US federal government data centers have begun to attract criticism from within the federal bureaucracy’s ranks.
While private industry has been consolidating data centers for years, the federal government has been moving in the opposite direction. Since 1998, the number of government-run data centers has grown from 432 to nearly 2,100, according to Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. Keep reading →
