Energy User News articles from May 2004

Energy User News archives from May 2004

Final blackout report released.
May 1, 2004... WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States and Canada need to establish tighter and tougher electricity reliability standards in order to prevent a repeat of the August 14th, 2003, blackout, according to the final report of the U.S. Canada Power...

Newly-released industry data show increased reporting of natural gas transactions.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... WASHINGTON. DC -- Newly released energy industry data show a significant increase in reporting of natural gas market transactions to price index publishers and exchanges, according to a 30-member stakeholder coalition of energy companies,...

ComEd.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... ComEd announced March 19 that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the company's plan to complete its integration into PJM Interconnection. FERC made its approval contingent upon a final reliability review by the North...

FirstEnergy Corp.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) announced that the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station on April 4 resumed generating electricity at the 100% power level, sending nearly 900 MW of electricity to...

Power Measurement.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Power Measurement, Victoria, BC, recently announced that it has acquired ABB's Retail Energy business, formerly Energy Interactive Inc. in Oakland, CA. Under this arrangement, ABB's staff, services, and products will be integrated into Power...

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Fuel-Cell Energy Inc.'s distribution partner, PPL EnergyPlus, to install a 250-kilowatt fuel-cell power plant at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers,...

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on March 24 conditionally approved a plan for New England's transmission grid operator to be formally designated a regional transmission organization (RTO).

Chevron Energy Solutions, a unit of ChevronTexaco, has expanded its performance contracting capabilities in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Chevron Energy Solutions, a unit of ChevronTexaco, has expanded its performance contracting capabilities in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region through an acquisition of a portion of the performance contracting assets of FirstEnergy...

Sempra Energy.(EUN Ticker)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Sempra Energy plans to acquire 10 power plants in Texas from American Electric Power for $430 million. According to reports, a Sempra subsidiary will pay half the total, with the balance paid by a combination of private investment companies....

EUN calendar.(Energy User News )(Calendar)
May 1, 2004... MAY 10-12 5th Annual USCHPA Policy Day Conference, Hotel Washington, Washington, DC. United States Combined Heat and Power Association. For more information, visit: www.uschpa.org. 11-13 NetWorld+Interop Las Vegas 2004, Las Vegas...

Stationary fuel cell generation has great potential: ACEEE.(News)(Stationary Fuel Cells: Future Promise, Current Hype (report))
May 1, 2004... Washington, DC -- In a new report, Stationary Fuel Cells: Future Promise, Current Hype, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) presents the benefits and disadvantages of a variety of stationary fuel cell technologies,...

Florida schools first to use "Utility Report Card".(News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... OCOEE, FL -- The public schools in Florida's Orange County are the first in the nation to try a new on-line energy monitoring system that tracks, evaluates, and charts energy use in the schools. The new system, called the "Utility Report...

New website helps communities pursue economic development.(News)
May 1, 2004... SNOWMASS, CO -- Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) announced the launch of the Community Energy Opportunity Finder, an interactive website that calculates potential energy and dollar savings, air pollution emissions reductions, and potential jobs...

More heat than light: researchers want clarification.(Your letters: our readers speak out)(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2004... Articles in the March issue raised quite a few letters. The lead researcher of a study wrote to clarify citations of their work in a story about energy use by deskop devices. The researcher cautions about the difficulty of estimating energy...

Making sure things are done right: resource efficiency managers: human performance contracts.(Fundamentals: understanding current industry technologies)
May 1, 2004... Perhaps because corporate and government facilities have so successfully reduced energy consumption using performance contracts, these end users have begun to realize that it makes economic sense to reduce consumption of all resources--water,...

Excuses and blame: causes of the August blackout pinpointed.(Editorial: opinions and commentary from the editor)
May 1, 2004... Anyone who attended Electric Power 2004 (March 30th) knew that the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force was going to blame Ohio utility FirstEnergy for the August 14th blackout. Calls to strengthen the North American Electric...

Meeting the nation's demand for power: a new take on demand programs.
May 1, 2004... In an effort to get the nation's crippled electricity markets up and running, market administrators have begun to establish demand-bidding programs that pay large commercial and industrial customers to reduce their electric use when wholesale...

LEEDing the way? Integrated design approach key in rasing the bar in energy efficiency.(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
May 1, 2004... The United States Energy Information Administration estimates that energy bills for the approximately 67 billion square feet (ft2) of existing U.S. commercial space total $82 billion annually. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design...

NREL highlights leading utility green power programs.(News)(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... GOLDEN, CO -- The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on March 4 released its annual ranking of leading utility "green pricing" programs. Under green pricing, consumers can choose to help support...

Wind turbines, photovoltaics winners in distributed generation market.(News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... OYSTER BAY, NY -- In the distributed generation (DG) industry, most of the fuel cell and microturbine companies reported disappointing results for 2003, as they failed to ship expected unit quantities of their products. Wind turbine and...

Green index returns 98.5% vs. -10.69 for S & P 500.(News)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... BOSTON, MA -- A new study by Winslow Management Co. adds to the evidence that companies that are good to the environment are also good to their shareholders. Since it was created four years ago, the Winslow Green Index (WGI), an equally...

Variable-speed drive from Schneider.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 101 The Altivar 31 drive incorporates "plug-and-drive" operational simplicity and is designed for the control of three-phase asynchronous motors with power ratings from 0.18 to 15 kW. Enriched functionality enables it to...

Filtered battery charger from SENS.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 102 The EnerGenius ECU features dual-path cooling design to isolate critical components from all powertrain heat. Because battery charging requires constant small adjustments, the ECU automatically adapts its output to...

AS-interface master from WAGO.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 103 The 750-655 AS-interface master allows easy, fast, and seamless integration of the AS-interface bus protocol as a sub-network to other popular bus protocols such as Ethernet, PROFIBUS, DeviceNet, MODBUS, etc., the...

Advance ballasts for metal halides.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 104 Advance Transformer F-can ballasts are available with the company's wide-range ignitor, a feature which supports applications involving up to 50 ft of remote, ballast-to-lamp mounting distance. The low-wattage...

Lighting catalog from Luraline.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 105 The updated and re-designed 2004 Luraline Products Co. luminaire catalog features a new look and more user-friendly format. A range of new product families, each with dedicated catalogs and expanded specification...

E-Mon's energy-cost software.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 106 RightEnergy is an integrated energy intelligence software system that allows business users to allocate and bill costs for all utility services, including electricity, gas, water, and steam, to the actual users. The...

Ride-through power from Pentadyne.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 107 The basic package of the Pentadyne UPS Voltage Support Solution is a 120-kW unit providing 20 s of dc power, thus delivering 2400 kW (2/3 kWh). The power and energy of the system can be adjusted higher or lower by...

RH meter brochure from GrayWolf.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 108 New literature details the company's relative humidity meter that utilizes the power of Pocket PC palmheld computers. A thin film capacitive %RH sensor and PT100 temperature sensor are incorporated. The unit displays...

Reference guide from BAC.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 109 For owners, facility operators, engineers, and service contractors who require information concerning the operation and maintenance of evaporative heat rejection equipment, BAC announces the availability of its parts...

Occupancy sensor guide from WattStopper.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 110 Brochure offers information on occupancy sensors for every type of building, including schools, offices, hospitals, and warehouses. The devices are also compatible with all standard lighting methods, including high...

Integrated energy services brochure.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 111 Comfort Systems USA publication describes the company's integrated energy services for developers, building owners and managers, architects and engineers, and project managers involved in commercial and industrial...

Building automation from Encelium.(Products literature & services: controls, bas and lighting)
May 1, 2004... FREE INFO: WRITE 112 ECS is an integrated lighting control and energy-management system designed to reduce lighting related energy costs by 65-80% and provide an average payback from energy savings of 1-3 years, the manufacturer states....

Degree days for selected cities: March.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... DEGREE DAYS For Selected Cities March Monthly Cumulative Monthly Deviation Cumulative Deviation Monthly Deviation from Last Deviation...

Weather hedging: Chicago mercantile exchange weather futures prices.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Weather Hedging: Chicago Mercantile Exchange Weather Futures Prices Each Degree Day valued at $100 per contract Heating Degree Days Cooling Degree Days Location March April ...

Gas price comparison.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Gas Price Comparison Breakeven Rates ($/therm) 1st 2nd 3rd ...

Ranking of electricity prices industrial.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Ranking of Electricity Prices Industrial Rank Cts/kWh ST UTILITY % Total kWh 1 21.87 HI Kauai Island Utility Cooperative 0.065% 2 16.47 CA Southern California Water Co...

Rebate report.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Rebate Report Tech Building State Lighting VSDs Assistance Envelope Alabama X Alaska X...

Ranking of gas utility prices by state industrial.(Marketplace and data: statistics, trends & energy data)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Ranking of Gas Utility Prices By State Industrial Rank State Price/Mcf 1 Hawaii $12.17 2 Maine $11.02 3 Maryland $9.56 4 Ohio...