In international trade, a gap between theory and practice has always existed. Theory stresses, as an underlying ideal, the economic benefits of trade based on comparative advantage. In practice, and for a variety of reasons—institutional constraints, political factors, ambiguity of legal doctrine, bilateral or multilateral treaty obligations—the ideal intermittently bows to reality, whether in the […]

How fast does your spam filter fill up? What about your personal message filter? We are absolutely overwhelmed with messaging. Digital ads pop up during Internet searches. Direct mail pieces fill our mailbox. Robo-calls interrupt our dinner. Traditional TV ads shout at us. Newspapers and magazines carry forgettable ads. While driving, we listen to CDs to avoid […]

The Obama administration recently changed its nomenclature on a topic of much interest to readers of this publication and those in the power industry. The administration has said it prefers to talk about its policies advancing a “resilient grid” as opposed to its previous emphasis on developing a “smart grid.” The new policy thrust, for […]

Employees are increasingly turning to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to share information about their jobs. To the chagrin of companies everywhere, employees are also using social media sites to complain about their jobs. More and more, employers are having to make tough decisions about when and how to discipline employees for negative […]

It seemed like a good idea at the time. About 10 years ago, large investment banks that had long traded in energy commodities and derivatives, including playing in the wholesale, organized electric markets regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), concluded that it made sense to combine physical assets—power plants, pipelines, and the like—with […]

The purpose of regulation is to align private behavior with the public interest. That public interest imposes two chief obligations. The first obligation is the utility’s obligation to serve the public. This obligation must be defined by commission-established standards for performance. The second obligation is the commission’s obligation to compensate the utility. This compensation must be based on the […]

Everyone loves to be identified as a top performer. In power generation, our plants strive for increased availability and reduced forced outages. We measure performance indicators (metrics), report them to the Generating Availability Data System (GADS), and benchmark ourselves against similarly designed power plants. And just when we think we are sitting pretty, we deal […]

The Imperial Solar Energy Center South facility, one of the largest commercially financed solar plants in the U.S., commenced commercial operations on Nov. 1 near El Centro in California, just north of the Mexican border. The 130 MW project, which was developed by Tenaska Solar Ventures, began construction in December 2011 and consists of nearly […]

Duke Energy’s drive to reorient its fleet away from coal took another step on Nov. 4 when it announced demolition plans for its 84-year-old Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C. The 454-MW plant was one of Duke’s oldest fossil assets, having come online in 1929. It was retired in April, two years ahead of […]

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