In this year’s twelve-pack of predictions for 2023, I forecast that the attacks on the U.S. power grid would continue, and the media would desperately attempt to blame their ideological opponents as extremists. Yawn. The attacks certainly risk public welfare, safety, and security, but what’s behind them? I took a couple of hours to investigate. Terrorism The Time article I referenced includes a quote, “’ Domestic terror groups understand that citizens losing power from gunfire or sabotage is an easy way to receive media attention, which they crave,’ says Brian Harrell, a former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the…
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This blog features dozens of posts regarding the nuances, obscurities, and upside down world of the public utility industry. To wit, every other industry provides things people need or want at the lowest possible price in competition with dozens or even hundreds of competitors or alternatives. Conversely, electric utilities with transmission and distribution systems are fully regulated with an obligation to serve all customers. Those customers have no other choice. The show must go on. To financially destroy a utility serves no one but attorneys. This post is about the bankruptcy and viability of the nation’s largest investor-owned utility, Pacific…
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This week’s post is brought to you by AESP’s 2014 Summer Conference, which went off last week in San Francisco. I was speaking with a lifelong esteemed consultant from the Bay Area during the opening reception, and his disclosure was that regulators in a certain state are wrenching down too tightly on baseline assumptions. At the same time, they are unyielding in their energy-saving targets. This is a problem because it leaves customers that haven’t been picked over with artificial barriers.During the closing plenary, I noted a similar comment by Janice Berman from Pacific Gas and Electric. Her comment, stated…
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