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Just Ducky

Byline: 

Steve Huntoon

The neck of the Duck Curve gets longer every year due to California’s energy policies.
Image: 
Figure 1 - California’s Duck Curve
Figure 2 - Mid-Day Peak Demand
"The neck of the Duck Curve gets longer every year due to California’s energy policies." – Steve Huntoon
Author Bio: 

Steve Huntoon is the principal of Energy Counsel, LLP. He is former President of the Energy Bar Association, and for over 30 years of practice in energy regulatory law advised and represented such companies and institutions as Dynegy, PECO Energy (now part of Exelon), Florida Power & Light (NextEra Energy), ISO New England, Entergy, PacifiCorp, Williston Basin (MDU Resources) and Conectiv (now part of PHI).

If you provide free storage and distribution services, too much will be used, and costs for everyone else will go through the roof(top).

Demand Growth and the New Normal

Byline: 

Ahmad Faruqui and Eric Shultz

Magazine Volume: 
Fortnightly Magazine - December 2012

It’s tempting to attribute the recent slowdown in electricity demand growth entirely to the Great Recession, but consumption growth rates have been declining for at least 50 years. The new normal rate of demand growth likely will be about half of its historic value, with demand rising by less than 1 percent per year. This market plateau calls for a new utility strategy.

Image: 
Figure 1 - Electricity Sales Growth (Two-Decade Distributions)
Figure 2 - Cumulative Demand Growth (2010-2035)
Figure 3 - Arc of Price Responsiveness
Figure 4 - Impact of Codes and Standards on Electricity Consumption
Figure 5 - Efficiency Gains of ENERGY STAR Qualified Models
Figure 6 - ERCOT Loads in Texas (3/9/11 and 8/3/11)
Author Bio: 

Ahmad Faruqui is a principal at The Brattle Group, and Eric Shultz is a research analyst. This article was revised from Faruqui’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Power & Utility Conference on Aug. 14, 2012. The authors acknowledge research assistance by Jennifer Palmer.

Category (Actual): 
DR & Conservation
Strategy & Planning
AMI (Smart Meters)

Five forces are putting the squeeze on electricity consumption.

Vendor Neutral

Magazine Volume: 
Fortnightly Magazine - December 2012

(December2012) KC Electric Association expects soon to finalize installing a Sensus FlexNet network and iCon A electric meters to serve about 4,000 residential and small commercial members across a 5,000-square-mile territory in rural Colorado. Itron and C3 Energy formed an alliance to integrate and jointly market an energy management solution to North American utilities. And others...

Image: 
KC Electric Association is installing Sensus meters in rural Colorado.
PG&E became the first utility to deploy Picarro Surveyor mobile devices for gas leak detection.
Georgia Power started up the final unit at its new McDonough-Atkinson combined-cycle plant.
Siemens will supply a SGT6-5000F gas turbine for a new power plant in Manaus, Brazil.
Category: 
Vendor Neutral
Category (Actual): 
Generation & Markets
T&D Grid
Finance

Vendor Neutral

Magazine Volume: 
Fortnightly Magazine - October 2012

Constellation completes 16.1 MW PV project in Maryland; Ikea commissions 31st solar project, reaching 38 MW installed; IPL and MidAmerican install $545 million scrubber in Iowa; DTE partners with Enbridge and Spectra on pipeline for Utica shale gas; plus contracts and announcements from Dominion, Sempra, Southern Company, AEP, EPRI, Itron, Landis+Gyr, Opower and others.

Image: 
Spent fuel at AEP’s Cook nuclear plant will move to a recently completed on-site dry-cask storage facility.
IKEA’s Bloomington, Minn., rooftop photovoltaic array—its 31st U.S. solar project.
Suntech says its new utility-scale solar module, the Ve-Series, is certified to withstand extreme winds and snowfalls.
The C.P Crane coal-fired generating plant, one of three Maryland power plants that Exelon will sell to Raven Power Holdings.
Exelon sold its stake in five Constellation power plants in California, including the Chinese Station biomass facility.
Category: 
Vendor Neutral
Category (Actual): 
Generation & Markets
T&D Grid
Finance

Vendor Neutral

Magazine Volume: 
Fortnightly Magazine - September 2012
Panda Energy awards turnkey $300 million turnkey contract to Siemens and Bechtel; Dominion starts up 585-MW CFB plant; Ocean Power Technologies and Lockheed Martin partner on wave power project; Infigen awards wind turbine service contract to Mitsubishi; ITC commissions 345-kV line in Oklahoma; ABB tests world’s biggest DC transformer; Xcel gets green light for Tres Amigas-area transmission upgrades; plus contracts and announcements from Elster, Sensus, Enertech, and others.
Image: 
Dominion Virginia Power started up the 585-MW Virginia City circulating fluidized bed power plant in July.
The latest inspection report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates steam generator tube wear at the San Onofre nuclear plant was caused by excessive vibration under certain circumstances.
ITC Great Plains commissioned the Hugo-Valliant HVDC transmission line and substation project in Oklahoma.
The first three wireless EV charging systems were installed on Nissan LEAFs as part of the Plugless Power program. The systems use electromagnetic induction to charge EV batteries without driver interaction.
Category: 
Vendor Neutral
Category (Actual): 
Generation & Markets
T&D Grid
Finance

CPUC Targets Privacy Worries

Setting the Standard for Smart Meter Data Privacy
Gary L. Hunt, Scalable Growth Strategy Advisors
The California Public Utility Commission’s recent proposed rule aims to protect customer privacy while also facilitating third-party access to smart meter data for energy management, demand response and other customer service applications. But does it go far enough?
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