January 05, 2009

Running for office is one matter. Governing divergent interests is quite another. That's something in which the future Obama administration is now coming to grips.

The administration has painted itself green. But it is now trying to avoid doing so at the expense of the coal industry, which provides about 50 percent of the fuel to run this country's electric generation. And while the president-elect has said that he supports the advancement of modern, cleaner coal technologies, his nomination of Steven Chu as the secretary of the Department of Energy is controversial.

December 26, 2008

Power generation is likely to be the only driver for increased natural gas demand this winter as warmer weather and a sluggish economy dampen retail and industry demand, the Natural Gas Supply Association forecast in its annual winter outlook for 2008-2009.

"Gas-fired generation is an area where gas demand is expected to increase as a result of gas generating capturing most of the new power generation capacity," says Patrick Kuntz, vice president at Marathon Oil and current NGSA chairman, at a presentation of the forecast in Washington in October.

December 24, 2008

A perfect storm of rising world coal demand and falling international supplies is creating higher prices for U.S. producers who can sell into the export markets instead of domestically.

Utilities are also facing rapidly escalating railroad transportation contracts as shippers take advantage of their pricing powers. Major utilities such as AEP, Duke, TVA and others are either raising rates or weighing their options while they struggle to contain their fuel costs, develop new procurement strategies and re-evaluate alternatives.

December 22, 2008

From winter's ice and heavy snow to summer's tropical storms and hurricanes, extreme weather has been offering North America's electric utilities repeated lessons in emergency preparedness. Further, it has raised questions in state after state about whether utility companies are adequately prepared to respond to the storm-related outages, and what additional measures need to be taken in the future to improve reliability.

Disaster preparedness breaks down into two distinct camps. One side favors a "hardening" approach that clears vegetation near wires and replaces wood poles with concrete, steel or composite structures, or by burying the entire system below ground. The other side looks to developing intelligent grid technology to better focus the efforts of its on-the-ground restoration crews, thereby decreasing electricity outage time to a larger volume of its customers. Both camps cite cost versus benefits, as their customers ultimately bear the brunt of these costs.

Fixtures produced after 12/31/08 must be efficient or be eliminated.
by Craig DiLouie
Posted December 2008

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 contains significant provisions affecting the sale of metal halide lighting fixtures.

Starting in 2009, 150-500W metal halide lighting fixtures must contain ballasts that operate at a certain level of efficiency, virtually eliminating probe-start lamps and ballasts from new fixtures.

This provision of the 2007 Energy Act essentially makes a Federal standard of efficiency requirements already enacted in California, New York, Arizona, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.