exelon Archives - Michaels Energy

Sep 22

Utilities and Using Less – Making the Abstract Concrete

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 2 Comments

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…

Apr 28

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Utility Death Spiral? The Duck has Your Back

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Utility Stuff 15 Comments

There is weekly, if not daily, chatter about the end of the monopolistic electric utility systems we have today. They call it the utility death spiral, and it goes like this: Distributed generation, also known as DG, which includes rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will compete directly with utility power. Utilities are stuck with fixed rate base for which they need to be paid through purchased energy from customers. Photovoltaic may produce competitively-priced energy for some customers after the bevy of incentives and tax breaks. Home-generated electricity drives down the utility’s revenue. Utility raises prices to cover their fixed cost.…