Electric Light & Power articles from July 2006

Electric Light & Power archives from July 2006

Events.
July 1, 2006... : AUGUST 15-18: Appalachian Gas Measurement Short Course www.agmsc.org Coraopolis, Pennsylvania 16-18: CoalGen www.coal-gen.com Cincinnati, Ohio : SEPTEMBER 13-15: UtiliPoint Client Conference...

Is it, or isn't it?(commentary)(Column)
July 1, 2006... I once worked for a weekly newspaper in central New Mexico that served an expansive area of ranches and farms. As the county's paper-of-record we were guaranteed income from legals, so we could afford to devote plenty of space to local...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... "Pearl Street Pilgrimage" [Commentary, May/June 2006 EL&P] was an interesting commentary. After reading it, I got to thinking about the claim that 3 million pounds of manure were picked up in Manhattan every day. That seemed awfully high, so I...

Customer service: utility style effective outage communications.(columns)(Column)
July 1, 2006... Our CEO, Tom May, reminds us frequently that our customers do not want to be in the dark, literally or figuratively. This was recently reinforced when I met with a group of concerned citizens at a town meeting focused on system reliability....

Taking it into account consolidation should advance local and regional interests.(columns)
July 1, 2006... Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair James Hoecker recently pointed to stalled federal efforts to standardize the design of energy market operation, efforts resisted by the "centrifugal forces" of jealously guarded state and local...

Benefit of council psst--wanna build a power plant? Three fuels plus two business models equals one impasse.(columns)
July 1, 2006... Life was a lot easier years ago when it came to building power plants. When a state or region identified a need for power, the local utility would build to that need. Depending on where the plant was built, the utility could choose coal, hydro,...

Industry report: industry and government partnering for cyber security.(industry report)
July 1, 2006... Cyber security is five to 10 years behind typical IT systems, although the gap is narrowing. But being behind IT is not a good place to be because "they're behind the attackers." That was one of the messages at the super session on cyber...

The insider threat: when trusted assets go bad.
July 1, 2006... The potential for serious compromise of corporate security is higher than ever before because of increased application deployments and a more complex network infrastructure. Electric utilities and related industries face a unique set of...

You think your job's fun? Try providing power to Las Vegas, Nevada: a special interview with Walt Higgins, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, Sierra Pacific Resources.(profile)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... One might expect the guy in charge of keeping the flamboyant, pulsating lights of Las Vegas and Reno burning 24/7 to be a pretty slick fellow. You'd think he'd be a guy that wows you with big talk of the big things he's going to do and all the...

A new wave of consolidation in the utility industry.(KeySpan Corp., National Grid Company PLC)
July 1, 2006... After a lull of several years, mergers in the utility sector are on the rise due to stronger balance sheets, improved stock performance, and in certain cases, utilities seeking growth and scale. Since January 2004, with the latest being the...

Exclusive C three equity index: Duguesne Light to go private. DJ utility average up, driven by TXU.(finance)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Macquarie Infrastructure Partners and Diversified Utility and Energy Trusts announced that it would take Duquesne Light private in a transaction valued at $3.15 billion. While Berkshire Hathaway's takeovers of PacifiCorp and MidAmerican seemed...

It's time to target lost revenue.(electric utilities)
July 1, 2006... Before the industry deregulated, lost revenue associated with unaccounted-for energy (UFE) was accepted as part of the cost of doing business. Most utilities maintained revenue protection departments to respond to reported cases of UFE but only...

Emissions trading programs are evolving.(risk management)
July 1, 2006... Emissions reduction and trading programs in the United States have experienced significant growth and evolution in recent years. In addition to the federal sulfur dioxide (S[O.sub.2]) and state-implemented nitrogen oxide (N[O.sub.x])...

This year's stocking isn't likely to be filled with coal.(generation)
July 1, 2006... It used to be that if you were bad, you could at least be assured of getting coal in your Christmas stocking. This year, if you're a coal-based power producer, you're going to have to take matters into your own hands to assure adequate supply....

CIS Week: practicing and implementing innovative techniques.(it/cis/crm)(Column)
July 1, 2006... CIS Week is an energetic non-profit set of educational venues with a combination of technology and humanity. We devote our efforts to bringing utility professionals innovative and reliable information on current cost-effective trends in...

Ensuring quality outsourced contact center service.(it/cis/crm)
July 1, 2006... Contact centers and their agents are the first line of service and support for utilities. They communicate with customers, triage inquiries, open trouble tickets and dispatch repair staff. While web self-service is helpful and low cost, it is...

A more efficient supply chain in the Tennesse Valley.(transmission & distribution)
July 1, 2006... Ten years ago, the general manager of a fast-growing utility in Tennessee made a call to its power supplier, TVA. "We need help in our purchasing," he said. "We're spending more than we're taking in." The utility's customer base had been...

Efficient asset management depends on IT.(information technology)
July 1, 2006... part one of three: Business Process Management, an antidote for aging assets Utility companies are facing a problem of epic proportions. Assets are aging, the workforce is getting older and legacy IT systems are becoming an impediment to...

Create job interest.(management changes)
July 1, 2006... Compare the employee who is interested in his or her work to the one who isn't. The interested employee is more reliable, more creative, and more productive than the one who is disengaged. It follows that the manager who knows how to generate...

Tracking management changes in energy.(management changes)
July 1, 2006... total management changes for Energy and Utilities, including directors, CEOs, CFOs, EVPs, SVPs, VPs May 2006 registered the largest number of C-level, board of director and CFO changes since Liberum Research first began monitoring...