EPRI developed Ti, a robot capable of crawling over conductor shield wires and harvesting power from ambient energy sources to support autonomous, high-fidelity condition assessment.
Author Bio:
Dr. Andrew Phillips is director of Transmission and Substation Research at the Electric Power Research Institute. Phillips earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Managing Overhead Transmission Lines
State laws challenge FERC Order 1000.
Linda L. Walsh and Noelle J. Coates, Hunton & Williams
States have passed laws to bypass FERC Order 1000 and its reforms favoring incumbent grid developers. Could those laws themselves fall under attack?
The case for tighter coordination among transmission planners and protection engineers.
By Diwakar Tewari, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)
Recent outages show the importance of proper transmission system design. As the grid becomes more complex, meeting NERC reliability standards and proper assessment of power grid reliability will require closer coordination between system planners and protection engineers.
(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...
Utilities in the Midwest ISO want greater access to sell into PJM’s lucrative market. But that might require a virtual merger of the two RTOs — a move rejected seven years ago as too costly, and perhaps still impractical today.
Author Bio:
Bruce W. Radford is publisher of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
PJM and MISO ran from the altar once before. Now there’s talk of a shotgun wedding.
Changes in regulatory requirements, market structures, and operational technologies have introduced complexities that traditional ratemaking approaches can’t address. Poorly designed rates lead to cross-subsidies, inequitable outcomes, and perverse incentives. An objective-based approach can better communicate costs to customers in a way that better serves operations and policy goals.
Author Bio:
Philip Q Hanser is a principal with The Brattle Group. He acknowledges the contributions of Brattle colleagues Ryan Hledik and Ahmad Faruqui, as well as Ken Costello of the National Regulatory Research Institute. He also acknowledges editorial assistance from Heidi Bishop and Shannon Wentworth at Brattle. The opinions expressed in this article are Hanser’s and don’t represent those of The Brattle Group or its clients.
A purposeful approach to setting energy prices.
Xcel Energy’s Teresa Mogensen discusses public-private collaboration
Michael T. Burr
One of the most ambitious transmission projects in America today is CAPX2020. In this second of two exclusive interviews, Fortnightly's Spark talks with Teresa Mogensen, Xcel Energy’s vice president of transmission, about how the investor-owned utility collaborated with public-power utilities to develop a complex set of lines and a solid investment for shareholders.
Did FERC Jump the Gun?
Bruce W. Radford, Public Utilities Fortnightly
In an October order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) trimmed the authorized rate incentive for the RITELine transmission project by one-third. The action prompted Commissioner Moeller to ask whether the commission is retreating from its incentive policy on needed transmission lines.
