The Chinese Communist Hedgehog’s Dam Project

The Chinese Communist Hedgehog’s Dam Project

Doing a minor cleanup on personal transportation this week, here in the beloved City of La Crosse, I have one perennial gripe: road construction that takes an entire season. The saying goes, there are two seasons: winter and construction. Winter lasts three months,...
Electric Utility 2050

Electric Utility 2050

As we prepare to take our energy storage solutions to market, I gathered recent news reports, analyzed them all, and came to some conclusions. I concluded that utilities, and especially regulators, need to think differently. What got us here – constant load growth and...
The Power Grid’s Glide Path to Reckoning

The Power Grid’s Glide Path to Reckoning

“The U.S. electrical system is becoming less dependable. The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.” – The Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2022. I can take down another one of my seven predictions for 2022. Some numbers from the WSJ: in 2000, there...
Regulation v Deregulation in True Color

Regulation v Deregulation in True Color

Recent projects have led me to examine how deregulated electricity markets work. Since I am naturally curious, I wanted to investigate differences between electricity price performance of deregulated states versus those of regulated states. This week we examine the...
Regulation v Deregulation in True Color

Electricity Storage by the Other NWA; Chum v Beluga

Energy storage is easy and cheap. Grid-grade electricity storage is complex and expensive. Definitions of energy storage vary. Some consider hot water, chilled water, or ice to be stored energy. It’s really storing the benefits of energy consumption. For phenomenal...