May 21, 2010 
 
Europe's utility regulatory model is now unfolding. But the process hasn't been an easy one as commissioners there have wrestled with how to dislodge national interests.

For more than a year now, the European Commission has forced utilities to legally separate their generation assets from their transmission lines. The goals have been to increase the opportunities for alternative and greener energy suppliers while also enabling the flow of technology, reducing inefficiencies and, perhaps cutting costs.

May 19, 2010

The Wichita lineman may still have a job in the utility of the future, but he won't be driving alone down the main road searching for an overload. He, or she, will be part of a mobile unit dispatched by a computer that identified a problem as soon as it occurred and may be called something like a "field technologist."

More to the point, that lineman won't be the iconic symbol for the power industry. More likely it will be a young man or woman with a handheld computer ringing the doorbell of a suburban home to perform an energy audit and design a customized energy use plan for the household.

May 14, 2010

The recession's end is signaling the beginning of changes in the utility world. Declines in demand along with those of whole electric prices are prompting companies to revise their business strategies.

Now some notable players are buying and selling assets. The goal is to trim debt, increase revenues and raise stock prices -- as well as to prepare for the next sustained economic cycle. While mergers often take place during good times and when companies have ample cash to spend, the recent wave of activity is a reaction to what has been a relatively stressful time.

May 05, 2010

Electrical network design is a complex, continuously evolving process. Energy Central's Sierra Energy Group says that as many as 150,000 people are working on this arcane pursuit.

Many of these people have engineering degrees that enable them to deal with the complex mathematical and scientific calculations necessary to deal with America's complex and constantly growing electrical grids. Whenever a new generation source comes online, engineers have to design the system that will take the power from the station, get it to the correct voltages for the transmission system, specify all the proper equipment and supervise the construction. At the other end of the grid, when a new subdivision -- or even one house -- is added, similar steps are taken at lower voltages.

April 19, 2010

Natural gas has been riding high ever since the most recent estimates say that it can feed the country's electric generators for another 100 years. But it got an even bigger boost when President Obama vowed to end a two-decade long ban on drilling throughout much of the Outer Continental Shelf.

The proposal is part political and part economic. The administration came to office on the promise that the offshore energy reserves would play a part in the country's energy picture but that the oil and gas found there would be sensible -- not a pedal to the metal strategy. As such, it reasons that the newfound supplies could held erode the country's dependence on foreign sources as well as raise money from offshore leases.