by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 14, 2023 | Energy Rant
A couple weeks ago, I quickly read this article, Cracking the Code – Aligned Incentives, on EnergyCentral.com. It concerns incentives for high-performance employees, but my read was about incentives for efficiency programs. It applies to that too. Myopic Focus...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 6, 2023 | Energy Rant
East of the Mississippi, we haven’t had a heat-induced stress test of the electric grid for a long time. I don’t remember names, but I remember weather events, places, and numbers well. The hottest summer of my life was 1988, with many days over 100F throughout the...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 30, 2023 | Energy Rant
We open this week’s Energy Rant with a called shot. Michael and Chantell Sackett are enjoying fresh mulch provided by the SCOTUS as they sent the EPA’s interpretation of “navigable waterways” to the woodchipper as predicted here last October. The energy transition is...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 24, 2023 | Energy Rant
I spent last week in California, where the energy transition is being jammed at a breakneck pace like a square peg in a round hole. I’ll set the stage with just a few things. First, the duck curve, a feature of excessive solar generation that began overgenerating a...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 16, 2023 | Energy Rant
Now and then, a seemingly dumb idea flies through my neocortex like a bat at dusk. Bats have Mr. Magoovian eyesight and rely on radar technology to catch bugs. They are silent in flight. A few weeks ago, one such metaphorical flying rodent got too close for me to...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 9, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last year I wrote that the Supreme Court of the United States, SCOTUS, ruling in the West Virginia case, is a sign of things to come. That case buried a fork in the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. The legislative and executive branches would have to modify...