“The evolution of variable energy pricing is a market outcome and should continue to replace the old fixed demand change and variable energy-rate designs. The power industry is in transition away from regulatory mechanisms toward market mechanisms for setting retail rates.”
The electricity market has undergone a revolution that is still evolving. Large end users’ power purchasing practices must adapt to the way the power market is changing in order to remain competitive in their own markets. An understanding of this market’s development provides insights into the future features of the retail power market and how customers can best respond to the next phases of its development.
Traditionally, a utility’s rates reflected its own fixed and variable costs. The utility’s fixed costs (principal and interest payments on capital, primarily) were recovered in demand charges. …
Continue Reading“I’d like to see a rebirth of the country — go back where there’s equal rights for everybody, as I said, and that people succeed to the extent that they help other people improve their lives. To lead toward a society that maximizes peace, civility, and well-being for everyone.”
A series of posts at MasterResource has examined the views on business/government relations by classical-liberal entrepreneur Charles Koch, who has become a rare voice for government-neutral business relations. These post include:
Charles Koch: An Entrepreneur for Liberty
‘Good Profit’: Charles Koch on Cronyism (Part 2)
Charles Koch on Cronyism (Part 1)
Who is Charles Koch? (A builder of business and critic of political capitalism)
Charles Koch’s most recent thoughts on cronyism have been provided in an interview by the Washington Post’s Jim Tankersley (misleadingly titled “‘I don’t like the idea of capitalism’: Charles Koch, unfiltered.”…
Continue Reading“The best approach to understanding wind’s impact appears to be that properly structured ‘bench’ tests should be performed, and results made publically available, on actual fossil fuel plants under the full range of conditions experienced in balancing the effect of the presence of wind’s generation behavior.”
Part I on Tuesday and Part II yesterday focussed on the greater range of variations and the increased ramping levels caused by wind in short time intervals of a few minutes or less, and introduced some of the complexities involved in analysis of the impact of wind in an electricity system.
This post looks at the analysis of published fossil fuel consumption and emissions information and addresses two major issues:
(1) the questionable nature of the published information, and
(2) the questionable attempts by external analysts (those outside the information publisher organizations) using this information to determine the cause and effect relationship between wind production and fossil fuel consumption and emissions leading to the determination of savings with wind.…
Continue Reading