Electric Light & Power articles from May 2005

Electric Light & Power archives from May 2005

Events.(Calendar)
May 1, 2005... : June 7-10: NMRC 2005 Conf. NMRC (909/794-8167) www.nmrc-conf.com New Orleans 19-22 : 2005 EEl Annual Convention & Expo Edison Electric Institute (202/508-5131) ...

Transformers and circuit breakers not the only aging utility resources.(commentary)
May 1, 2005... Utility executives have been warned of the dangers posed by aging utility equipment so much that it has begun to sound old hat. Conference speakers and industry trade journal editorialists have spent much of the last half-decade or so pointing...

TXU's portrait gets a little Wilder.(profile)(Interview)
May 1, 2005... In this issue's profile, TXU Corp.'s president and CEO C. John Wilder talks with EL&P about electric competition, strategic outsouring and the bottom line. ELP: When you joined TXU last year, you were the first external CEO in the...

International energy focus: CBM in China.(news)(coalbed methane )
May 1, 2005... The booming Chinese economy is now old news--so much so that recent word that the Chinese economy expanded by 9.5 percent in 2004, the fastest rate in 10 years, hardly raised an eyebrow. While economic growth may moderate, if one can call it...

Marketing buzz: navigating the rough waters of public relations.(news)(Column)
May 1, 2005... As I write this column from my back deck, I am repeatedly distracted by the abundance of life teeming around me. Quail are noisily gathering into their coveys for an afternoon nap, hummingbirds are zooming from one blossom to another and even...

Power industry needs look at long-term.(news)
May 1, 2005... You are architects of the future. You--the representatives of the transmission and distribution utilities, the vendors, service providers and others are charting the course for the future in the actions you take every day. I'm sure all of...

Benefit of counsel: new cap and trade programs target reductions in C[O.sub.2], mercury, S[O.sub.2], N[O.sub.x].(news)
May 1, 2005... Recent developments in the regulation of air emissions from power generation facilities portend increased compliance costs coupled with market mechanisms designed to offset some of those costs. The regulatory approach known as "cap and trade"...

California pricing experiment yields new insights on customer behavior.(news)
May 1, 2005... While many problems conspired to create California's energy crisis, most people agree that the crisis was exacerbated by the lack of dynamic price signals in retail markets. Dynamic pricing would have given customers an incentive to lower loads...

Business is personal.(news)
May 1, 2005... Every decade a Hollywood blockbuster perpetuates the myth, "It's not personal, it's just business." Within the utility industry, business is personal. And the industry must become even more personal in the future. Just as we customize some...

The power of collaboration: what's going on at EPRI these days.(news)
May 1, 2005... During the heyday of electric power industry restructuring, in the late 1990s, serious questions were raised about the suitability of collaborative research in a more competitive business environment. As the industry's research arm, EPRI...

A powerful partnership.(news)
May 1, 2005... As the debate continues over what the U.S. should do about the climate change issue, the electric power industry plans to continue leading all sectors of the economy in voluntary efforts to address this issue. The Power Partners the nation's...

Getting proactive about reactive power.(news)
May 1, 2005... Early in February, FERC issued a staff report on a subject that is critical to grid reliability but has not received as much attention as one might expect. The topic is reactive power, or more specifically, how to ensure the transmission system...

Competitive power: a renewed commitment to the basics.(industry report)
May 1, 2005... Much has been made recently of the return by investor-owned electric utilities to the basics of the utility business--generation, transmission, distribution and customer service. It is difficult to say whether this movement can be reconciled...

Will rising interest rates confine basics to a widow's & orphan's portfolio?(finance)
May 1, 2005... Consult any recent analysis of the performance of public utility stocks and the chances are better than even you'll encounter the phrase "back-to-basics" or B2B. B2B (not to be confused with the 1990s over-hyped "business-to-business" online...

Exclusive C Three equity index: LDCs continue to outpace electric and electric/gas combo.(finance)(Local distribution companies)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Local distribution companies (natural gas distribution companies) continue to outpace all but the Dow Utility Index. But, when viewed from January 1998, LDC's, The C Three Composite Index and Electric/Electric & Gas Combo Index have...

Weather and risk: monitoring yields cost savings, operational efficiencies.(risk management)
May 1, 2005... There is a fine balance expected of utilities when it comes to managing weather and risk. By knowing what the weather is going to be like in the next hour, the next week or even the next three months, a utility can take the necessary steps to...

Leveraging, outsourcing partners for improved business process management.(it/cis/crm)
May 1, 2005... Today, most utilities recognize the value of outsourcing and use it in some capacity to cut costs. However, many are looking to outsourcers to get to the next level of business performance, possibly through deploying business process management...

Outsourcing customer care provides cost savings.(it/cis/crm)
May 1, 2005... Some of you have been there before. You're in the middle of a conference call with a potential technology or service provider who is promising big increases in productivity and customer service figures if you outsource with them. You even get a...

LNG: electric's opportunity for fuel moderation without demand destruction.(generation)
May 1, 2005... LNG offers the North American electric industry the opportunity to proactively secure fuel supplies while also bringing about fuel price stability. A proactive approach by the electric industry today will ensure a solid foundation for a growing...

Speak naturally.(management methods)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Been invited to give a speech? Bear in mind that no speaker is ever asked to talk because he or she has an enormous vocabulary or expresses himself or herself in very complex sentences. It's far more difficult to follow a line of thought by...

One secret of achievement: create momentum.(management methods)
May 1, 2005... Newton was fight: a body at rest tends to remain at rest. Frequently, it is the simple inability or reluctance to get started on a project that prevents us from achieving what we ought to achieve. Standing still is safe, comfortable, strangely...

Minimize misunderstandings.(management methods)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Despite its limitations, language is a wonderful tool if you can master it. The roles for good communication are deceptively easy to state, but hard to follow. Be clear in your own mind whom you want to do what, how and why, as a result of...

How to fight rumors.(management methods)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... "They're going to automate the whole plant." "That foreign outfit is buying us out and closing this facility." "They're eliminating all bonuses." Rumors can be generated by the misinterpretation of facts by employees, boredom,...

Connecting the dots on energy policy.(transmission & distribution)
May 1, 2005... It time to break the gridlock on energy policy reform--and to recognize new patterns of connection among some of our toughest energy challenges. Two years after the nation's most populous region endured a massive blackout, important legislative...

AGL Resources.(appointments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Atlanta-based AGL Resources, parent company of Virginia Natural Gas, Virginia Gas and Elkton Gas, has named Robert Duvall vice-president and general manager of Virginia and Maryland operations.

Georgia Transmission Corp.(appointments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Michael Smith is the newly appointed president and CEO of Georgia Transmission Corp. He has served as acting president and CEO since last November. The corporation also named Barbara Hampton senior vice-president and chief financial officer,...

ScottishPower.(appointments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... ScottishPower appointed Simon Lowth executive director, finance and strategy. He succeeds David Nish, who will take up his previously announced appointment as executive director, infrastructure division on the same date.

Cap Rock Energy Corp.(Resignation)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Cap Rock Energy Corp. announced that Lee D. Atkins' employment with the company ended April 5, 2005. Mr. Atkins had served as the company's senior vice president/chief financial officer/treasurer since September 2001. Atkins' departure is "not...

Constellation Energy.(notes)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... * FORTUNE magazine has selected Constellation Energy as the most admired energy company for its prestigious 2005 list of "America's Most Admired Companies." Constellation Energy earned its top ranking after scoring high in several key areas...

Mirant Corporation.(notes)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... * In April, the Mirant Shareholder Rights Group expressed outrage at what they deemed the "excessive compensation of Mirant Corporation's management team, in spite of their track record of failures." They noted: * For 2004, CEO Marce...