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Archive for July, 2010

What Drives Your Monthly Electricity Costs?

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When you receive your monthly electric bill, do you look at anything other than the total? If so, you’re not alone.

Among the many line items that may appear, understanding the “when and how” of your electricity consumption is helpful in evaluating what may drive usage related costs.

The screen shot below, extracted from the Constellation NewEnergy Online tool, provides an example of a customer’s interval energy consumption, reflecting customer demand (how much electricity a customer is using across all of its interval meters at one point in time) within a certain period.

[caption id=”attachment_1579″ align=”alignleft”…
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Natural Gas Storage Deficit Continues to Widen

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Gas storage levels rose 28 Bcf in the week to July 23 as the increase in cooling degree-days week-on-week and the heat build-up helped to push the injection 23 Bcf lower than the week before.  Higher demand in the mid-Atlantic due to significant heat helped to drive the increase.  Helping to tighten inventories further was some Gulf production taken offline as a precaution ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie.  

Overall storage stands at 2,919 Bcf and the deficit to last year has widened to 104 Bcf.  With continued heat into August, the deficit is expected to widen further before potentially narrowing. 

Despite record heat…
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For Small Businesses Developing Clean Energy Technologies, Aug. 4 Deadline Approaches for DOE Funding

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Small companies developing clean energy technology, including wind shown above, have until next Wednesday to submit applications for funding to the DOE.

Great news for the future of clean energy technology and small businesses! Small companies developing clean energy technology can now receive funding from $30 million appropriated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from the Recovery Act and Fiscal Year 2010 budget. The DOE’s recent announcement of the funding opportunity states that successful small business applicants “may receive up to $3 million…
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What’s Happening With Tropical Storm Bonnie

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The depression in the Gulf developed into a tropical storm last night and moved across southern Florida today. The tropical storm, named Bonnie, is fairly weak with sustained winds only around 40 mph. If Tropical Storm Bonnie doesn’t dissipate over the weekend, it is expected to hit land near southeast Louisiana. No major impacts to production are anticipated. Traders appear to agree with this forecast considering that NYMEX Natural Gas prices are off 6 cents today to settle at $4.58 for the week.

No other tropical development is expected in the near term. However, 2010 is likely to have an active hurricane season…
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Ohio Becomes No. 1 Retail Choice State for Natural Gas

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An aerial view of Ohio, near Cincinnati

My colleagues and I were excited when we heard the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report that Ohio became the leading state for residential choice customers in 2009. According to the report, with approximately 1.7 million customers equaling 58 percent of all eligible households, Ohio’s new leading position is remarkable.  Especially given that Georgia, one of the first states to adopt a choice program in the U.S., has had the largest number of choice customers for years.

But what’s…
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National Weather Service Predicts Above-Normal Temperatures Through Dec.

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The National Weather Service announced late last week that from August to October above-normal temperatures are likely for most of the lower 48 states except for the Pacific Coast, Northern Intermountain West region, and most of the Great Plains territory.

The National Weather Service also reports that the above-normal temperatures are likely to last into December for the Southern U.S. and the Northeast. The National Weather Service attributes this abnormal weather pattern to La Niña conditions, which are likely to develop by late summer.

The La Niña condition includes cooler than normal water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, which is…
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