Skip to main content
Tag

capacity

Jul 28
Love143

All Aboard the Less for More Train

By Energy Rant No Comments
Michaels Energy was founded in 1984 in the wake of the 1970s energy crises when fear of energy starvation gripped the nation and world. Forecasts indicated natural gas and crude oil reserves would soon be depleted. Policymakers were so freaked out that, for a short period, natural gas was banned from new buildings, not for greenhouse gas reductions, but because we needed to save it for, I don’t know, manufacturing or something. Indeed, Michaels’ first office building, located at 811 Monitor Street in La Crosse, was all electric, with a horrifically designed HVAC system with perimeter ceiling diffusers delivering heat…
Read More
Jun 17
Love139

Avoiding a Downshift Tailspin with the ITC On Storage

By Energy Rant No Comments
Since the One Big Beautiful Bill (a meme from the 80s comes to mind – gag me with a spoon! 🤮) has passed, interest groups from every angle have mobilized to steer it in their direction as Senators take it up for handouts to their favorite funding organizations, led by Big Tech. Lobbyists in the Sausage Factory They say lobbyists write these bills. Gemini tells me, "Yes, lobbyists can and do write legislation. They often draft bills or provide significant input into the language of bills, which members of Congress or state legislatures then introduce. This practice is common, especially…
Read More
Jun 10
Love138

Derisking Load Growth and Cost Overruns

By Energy Rant No Comments
If you haven't seen my recent conversation on The False Promises of Electrification with Katherine Johnson on The KJ Show with Dr. KJ, check it out. I received a lot of great feedback from folks. I don't grade my work except for my objective, New Year's Predictions, but I'll take others' word for it on this one. Gaslighting Natural Gas and Electricity Prices Here is something from Food and Water Watch that caught my eye in the middle of the night: Lawmakers, Advocates Rally in Manhattan to Demand Action on Soaring Utility Bills. That is clickbait to me. New York…
Read More
Mar 31
Love128

Anatomy of a Brazen Scam

By Energy Rant No Comments
Some readers may recall headlines last fall stating that the PJM Interconnection would stop accepting energy efficiency resources for its forward capacity auctions. Capacity auctions work in the following simplified process: Local distribution companies, aka utilities, determine peak load contributions at multiple levels of aggregation – e.g., zonal and network transmission. PJM aggregates those loads and adds reserve margins to ensure there will always be enough power to keep the grid energized at specified voltages and 60 Hz alternating current frequency. Capacity providers, including generators and demand side and load management aggregators, bid their resources into the market until the…
Read More
Dec 17
Love113

A Better Value of Economic Dispatch

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week and many other times, I've written about soaring electricity loads and prices climbing even faster. The reality is prices are rising much quicker than load. For example, grid loads in Oregon have increased at a compounded rate of a modest 2%, while prices have risen by a compounded rate of nearly 9% in the same period. Why is that? Wholesale Electricity Supply Curve A year ago, I demonstrated using a typical generation supply stack from PJM, reposted in Figure 1. Each dot shown represents a generator. Refer to one of my concluding questions last week, "Will stakeholders increase,…
Read More
Dec 09
Love113

Two Questions for Electric Utility Stakeholders

By Energy Rant No Comments
Remember the theory that deregulation in the late 1990s would waive the need for energy efficiency programs? If not, you can read up on the Great Depression in Energy Efficiency, the origins of which began with the 1992 Energy Policy Act. I believe the theory at the time was that electricity prices would be so low that energy efficiency couldn't possibly compete. Or maybe the theory was, "We're deregulating; efficiency programs are a regulatory thing, so we no longer need them." I've written this blog for over 15 years, producing roughly 700 posts. I can't say that I've written a…
Read More
Sep 10
Love101

Mini, Macro, and Mega Looks At the Modern Data Center Industry

By Energy Rant No Comments
Every day, there is a headline about the explosion of data center growth and associated electric loads that will rapidly deplete reserve capacity on the electric grid. The Energy Rant featured several posts to describe the magnitude of the issue and concern among regulators, utilities, and government officials, most recently from the Mid-America Regulatory Conference and Syncing Power Generation with Soaring Loads. Since load management and reliable and affordable electricity are near and dear to me and because Michaels has been successfully engaging with developers of monster data centers, I pounced on the opportunity to attend the inaugural Data Center…
Read More
Apr 29
Love79

Theory #2 For Batteries Increasing Emissions

By Energy Rant No Comments
As a glutton for punishment (I look forward to getting past sciatica so I can run marathons again), I tasked myself with getting to the technical bottom of this article from Utility Dive: Energy storage for grid reliability can increase carbon emissions: University of Michigan study. The article doesn't get into the details, so I dived into the source document sponsored by the University of Michigan – a brutal read – like the last miles of a marathon, maybe Heartbreak Hill or Central Park. I spare readers the pain so they can follow along from their La-Z-Boys.  I know enough about wholesale electricity markets to use terminology and…
Read More
Jan 02
Love61

Twelve Pack Lookback

By Energy Rant No Comments
This post features my predictions from a year ago and what has happened since. Forecast #1: “The Ukraine war will not end peacefully with a desirable outcome as long as the bipartisan U.S. Congress keeps laundering money through the military-industrial complex (and others) in this proxy war with Russia.” The Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2023: “Nearly two years into the war, Putin’s gamble that Russia can outlast Kyiv’s Western backers appears to be paying off.” That was after Ukrainian President Zelensky visited Washington in December to urge Congress to send more weapons, to no avail. The average Ukrainian soldier…
Read More
Dec 19
Love60

Load Flexibility vs Indeterminate Supply and Demand

By Energy Rant No Comments
Two weeks ago, I roasted the federal government’s solution to 24/7 renewable energy: buy renewable energy locally. That can work to some degree for locating new-build data centers, which are significant loads on the grid. Most other sectors and subsectors need access to ports, rail, supply chains, and people – i.e., cities and military bases. For the most part, they are not geographically positioned with local access to significant renewable energy generation and, therefore, need electron superhighways known as transmission lines to receive bulk power sources hundreds of miles away and in different time zones in many cases. Pole and…
Read More