Engineers and constructors adapt to serve an industry in transition.
Michael T. Burr, Public Utilities Fortnightly
From gas pipelines to PV arrays, the nation’s contractors are seeing growth in utility infrastructure. Fortnightly talks with executives at engineering and construction firms to learn what kinds of projects are moving forward, where they’re located, and what lies over the horizon.
Byline:
Michael T. Burr, Editor-in-Chief
PUCs are concerned that a rapid shutdown of coal-fired plants will start a full-tilt dash to gas—similar to the one that caused bankruptcies among independent power producers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But this time around, ratepayers and not IPP investors will be stuck with the risk, if utilities rush to add all that new gas-fired capacity to rate base.
Author Bio:
Michael T. Burr is Fortnightly’s editor-in-chief. Email him at burr@pur.com
Portfolio planning in the age of gas.
Byline:
Bruce W. Radford and Michael T. Burr
When Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led an attack on the federal Springfield Armory in January 1787—the spark that ignited the federalist movement—he scarcely could’ve guessed that now, 225 years later, his spiritual descendants would still be fighting that very same battle.
The jurisdictional battle rages on, with FERC and EPA squaring off against the states.
Byline:
J.P. Pfeifenberger, J.W. Chang, and D. Hou
With no single entity in charge, transmission planning has plagued projects that span multiple regions. A new framework offers a solution.
Author Bio:
Johannes Pfeifenberger and Judy Chang are principals of The Brattle Group. Delphine Hou is a former Brattle associate. This article is based on work undertaken for the Southwest Power Pool’s Regional State Committee and the associated report, Seams Cost Allocation: A Flexible Framework to Support Interregional Transmission Planning, April 2012, available at www.spp.org and www.brattle.com. The authors acknowledge sole responsibility for the content of this article.
Interregional planning under FERC Order 1000
High prices have turned Michigan against regional planning -- a possible foretaste of what to expect under FERC Order 1000.
Author Bio:
Bruce W. Radford is publisher of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Michigan chafes over regional grid planning, providing a policy lesson for the feds.