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Energy Policy

Should We Be “Thinking Big” About Energy Efficiency?

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The most inexpensive and unobtrusive means of incorporating environmental efforts into an energy management strategy is energy efficiency – reducing the quantity of energy required to deliver the same unit of value. A unit of value might be one degree of temperature reduction in a warm building, one ton of concrete or one mile driven in a mid-sized sedan.

Relatively simple –  and very often high return – energy efficiency and energy management efforts can go a long way toward lowering consumption and reducing energy costs, while achieving sustainability goals and, in some cases, achieving…
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From Executive Energy Forum: “A More Competitive, Innovative and Resilient National Energy Policy”

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By James L. Connaughton
Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Public and Environmental Policy, Constellation Energy

A major challenge that businesses, policy leaders, and legislators face today results from our country having to labor under an incoherent hodgepodge of outdated, disjointed, and often needlessly expensive and inefficient energy policies at the federal and state level.   

During our Executive Energy Forum in November, I was honored to sit down with Byron Dorgan (former Senator and Congressman [D. ND] and Sr. Policy Advisor of Arent Fox) and Don Nickles (former Senator [R. OK] and Chairman and CEO of The Nickles Group) to…
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Phase 4 of Direct Access in California: Update & Next Steps

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Customer applications in Phase 4 – the final phase – of California’s Direct Access reopening will be accepted on January 13, 2012.  The cap for Phase 4 of Direct Access in California is smaller for businesses and organizations than in previous phases. There’s only 10 percent (or about 850,000 annual MWh) of available load in the final phase of this limited market reopening.  In each of the prior three phases, non-residential electricity customers in California have shown great interest in reserving space under the cap, and the same type of response – where many businesses and organizations will simultaneously submit…
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Implications of the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) Standard

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The EPA has revealed the final rules that would curb mercury and 84 other toxic chemicals from U.S. power plants.  These rules would implement a provision of the Clean Air Act (CAA) known as the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standard or Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).  The EPA believes they will affect about 1,400 coal-fired units and oil-fired units at about 600 power plants that emit harmful pollutants.  The EPA ruling has given coal and oil plants until 2016 to comply with the rules and finish their retrofits and/or closures.    

Critics of the MACT rule have argued…
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How PUCO’s Order That Modified AEP Ohio’s Proposal Could Impact Ohio Customers

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Yesterday, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) entered Orders that modified American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio’s settlement proposal.   At this time, we do not know if the modifications are acceptable to AEP Ohio but the PUCO directed that compliance tariffs be filed by December 23rd.  The following are key points from the Order adopted by the PUCO that modified a prior settlement agreement:

– Gradual Base Generation Rate Increase: The PUCO lowered the base generation rate increases to half of what was proposed in the original agreement. The current base rate is 2.1 cents/kWh. Customers, per the Order…
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Regulatory Changes to Impact Demand Response Compensation in Organized Wholesale Energy Markets

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Customers and aggregators that act as demand response resources in organized wholesale energy markets should take notice of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s Order 745, issued on March 15, 2011.  FERC Order 745 directs each organized market operator (ISO) to institute incentive payments for demand response resources that curtail energy consumption during certain hours that would confer a “net benefit” to purchasers of wholesale supply by reducing price volatility during those hours.  

The incentive payment structure provides that demand resources will be paid the prevailing locational marginal price (LMP) at the wholesale market location at which the curtailment…
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