by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 28, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last week, we looked at Total Resource Cost (TRC) tests that were developed decades ago to put a high value on avoided source energy costs. That was right for the time, but not today. I demonstrated that energy costs, mostly dominated by natural gas, are near historic...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 21, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last week Michaels Energy delivered a webinar, Achieving Grid Resiliency with Thermal Energy Storage. There are about 70 gigawatts of refrigeration load in the United States frozen storage and chilled-water HVAC systems alone. That 70 GW does not include distributors...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 1, 2023 | Energy Rant
This week I’m focusing on the concerns expressed by members of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, NASUCA, which met in parallel with NARUC in Austin, TX, a week before last. The topics of concern include outage risk, high prices, and related...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 27, 2023 | Energy Rant
Lazard recently released its 16th levelized cost of energy or LCOE report. The LCOE represents the total cost of generating (or storing) electricity over the asset’s life divided by the total MWh or kWh delivered. The total cost includes construction, land,...
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...
