Non-residential behavior change programs are becoming increasingly popular. Not only do they move customers beyond widgititis, but can also result in larger, longer lasting savings.
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Texans may need Tabasco, not just for their favorite dish or condiment, but as a deterrent to chewing their fingernails as they ride the cliff of blackouts this summer. Numerous articles, including this most recent one I saw from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, caution of rolling blackouts as capacity margins are less than 7.5%, which is about half the margin the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) would like to maintain. Supply and Demand I drew a cartoon showing supply and demand curves for differing scenarios below. Sales will increase slightly at lower prices. Electricity sales are very inelastic in…
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We are taking a break from exergy this week, and we are going to examine what is happening in distorted electricity markets around the country. This will be somewhat of a sequel to Regulating Deregulation and Wind's Other Big Subsidy. Too much of a good thing, or as they say, unintended consequences, is pushing the grid in some places toward instability. By the way, I scoff at the term “unintended consequences.” There are only two types of consequences: intended and ignorant ones.Utility Dive notes that Texas (Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – ERCOT) and the Southwest Power Pool are the…
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The utility business is fascinating and bizarre to me, and this can only mean I’m a hapless, pathetically boring person. But that is what it may look like to the uninformed. It’s like soccer, baseball, or Indy car racing. If you don’t like these games/sports, you just don’t get it. First off, from business and investor perspectives, utilities are not growth stocks, and they haven’t been for decades. Essentially, they are like US treasuries. I learned this in a 1989 personal finance class. Geezers invest in utilities for the steady dividend. Clearly, I wasn’t interested in a paltry 7% yield…
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Hypothetical: Our company has about 40 employees. We’re going to split into 4 teams and have a tournament. What’s the game? We have cyclists, runners, a guy who thinks he can play golf, a guy who throws hammer but not when I’m around, skiers, people who fish, people who hunt, play cards, Sudoku, video games, Frisbee golf, and play board games. We’ve played softball games (poorly) when the economy was good. We have people who were born when I was in college. We have people who were in college before I was in the first grade. Female, male, burley, squirrelly,…
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