Reliability

As US Shale Gas Output Booms, Who Should Fund Required Infrastructure?

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Are deregulated power markets producing the long-term, reliable energy infrastructure that manufacturers need to invest and expand?

The issue looms because the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom has raised the potential for a “manufacturing renaissance” in Pennsylvania and other shale states, David Ciarlone, manager of Global Energy Services for Alcoa told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) technical conference on growing electricity and gas industry interdependencies recently held in Washington, DC. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Big Utility Calls for Big Data Collaboration on Smart Grid

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Collaboration between utilities and third party software developers will be crucial in the implementation of the smart grid, bringing innovation to large energy suppliers and reliable customers for data firms.

Large utility companies need to embrace “big data analytics” to better understand the “health of our assets,” Karen Austin, the senior price president and chief information officer at Pacific Gas and Electric, said. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 17, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Sign Of The (Slow) Times: PJM Seeks to Cancel Planned Transmission

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Grid operator PJM Interconnection said its staff will recommend dropping the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) and the Mid Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) from its regional transmission projects.

PJM’s planning process looks 15 years ahead to identify transmission upgrades needed to maintain stable power systems. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM

In Hydropower, Small Can Be Beautiful

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While some parts of the world take hydropower for granted, it’s an unfamiliar concept in many others. Energy market analysts at GlobalData, however, say government support globally is “making hydropower a key renewable energy resource” and that small hydropower plants (SHP) in particular are showing serious growth, largely because of the numerous advantages they have over larger facilities.

According to a recent GlobalData report, global installed hydropower capacity grew from 896.9 gigawatts in 2006 to 1.072.1 gigawatts in 2011. The company anticipates that number to climb to 1,443 gigawatts by 2020 because of continued government support. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 2, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Addressing the Blackouts in India: One Company’s Perspective

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Indian passengers sit on the railway tracks near the platform of Sealdah train station waiting for the resumption of services during a power failure in Kolkata on July 31, 2012.

Even on a good day, millions of people in India are without access to electricity or deal with power outages on a fairly regular basis. However, the massive power failures that hit the country during the last days of July were striking in how widespread they were. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM

#Electricity coming back in spots and stages in huge #India #blackout today covering 1/2 of country http://j.mp/M0Mvv6 #energy

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 #Electricity coming back in spots and stages in huge #India #blackout today covering 1/2 of country http://j.mp/M0Mvv6 #energy @j3juliano

 /  Published July 31, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Energy Points Explains the Joined Up Approach to Energy Management

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Companies are finding revolutionary ways to convey their unique advantages, selling points and business models. Publications like Breaking Energy and the Huffington Post are accustomed to receiving – and running – featured or contributed articles from company executives discussing their take on the news of the day, or on broader trends.

Breaking Energy joined the online video energy community the day we launched, but we rarely receive direct video commentary, reactions or feedback about the content in the way we traditionally have in written form. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Wind’s Midlife Crisis

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As new technologies go, wind has enjoyed three decades of continuous innovation, performance and reliability improvements and falling costs – benefits of economies of scale, technological advancements and learning by doing. The law of diminishing marginal returns, however, appears to have gotten in the way of further cost reductions.

That appears to be the underlying message from a new report, The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy with contributions of experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a number of European collaborators. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 13, 2012 at 2:15 PM

Big Data and energy

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 /  Published July 12, 2012 at 8:00 AM

How Good is Your Security? A New DOE Tool Will Help You Find Out

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Cyber security is of course a major issue for utilities. The risks, the potential vulnerabilities, the investments. And probably that nagging question: Is our security as good as we think it is?

A new tool from the Energy Department, the Cyber Security Self-Evaluation Survey Tool, has been released to help utilities answer that question. Part of an overall White House initiative to develop a Cyber Security Capability Maturity Model for the electricity industry, the new tool “helps electric utilities and grid operators identify opportunities to further develop their own cyber security capabilities by posing a series of questions that focus on areas including situational awareness and threat and vulnerability management.” Keep reading →

 /  Published July 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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