The Power Industry Review

Oooh, I want one!

2012-02-06T17:29:00.001-08:00

Some new nuclear power books out now!

2012-02-06T17:17:00.001-08:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Natural Gas Glut

2009-08-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

With natural gas prices dropping like a rock in recent months, it will be interesting to catch it on the rebound. A cold winter could have an interesting effect on the severely depressed prices due to recession and unusually mild summer.

I'll be watching this, could get interesting.

Peak Loads

2009-07-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hot summer days means peak loads, and peak loads means I've been getting questions about load duration curves.

I posted a little "How To" on Load Duration Curves on eHow. You can check it out here.

60 Minutes (again), Carbon Sequestration & Algae

2009-04-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

60 Minutes tonight featured Duke's Jim Rogers (see my 7/4/08 post), and carbon sequestration:

I believe underground carbon sequestration is and probably always will be too expensive.

I'm more excited about the prospects for biological methods of sequestration. We can grow CO2 hungry algae that doubles as an energy-rich biofuel. A little like Soylent Green, but friendlier.

A must-listen podcast on the smart grid.

2009-04-22T21:00:00.001-07:00

RenewableEnergyWorld.com's Stephen Lacey interviews smart grid leaders in this info-packed podcast. This episode pretty much sums up what I've been living in for the past 3 years.

I've been listening to this podcast since 2007, and give it two thumbs-up for anyone who wants to keep up with or learn about renewables, project finance, energy policy, and the power business in general.
Link here.

Cold Fusion is Hot Again - on 60 Minutes

2009-04-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

Glad to learn progress being made:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Uplifting news on the heels of a depressing segment about our201(k)s.

I Spy the Electric Grid

2009-04-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

I nearly dropped my Starbucks when I saw the headline Spies Hack in to the Electric Grid on yesterday's Oakland Tribune. Grid vulnerability is a topic that has been near and dear to my heart ever since I read Louvin's Brittle Power and wrote a few papers on the topic after the 2003 blackout.

As creepy as it might seem that there are 007s prowling substations around the world, the lights are still on. We've come a long way in just a few years, and I expect that the smart grid technologies are going to ensure the grid is much less vulnerable to widespread outages. The grid will be more fail-safe in the future as operators will have a lot more information available to them to nip problems before they cascade across entire regions, and can respond much more quickly to problems than they could before.

On the topic of data privacy, well, in an era when I can get a perfect image of my my own front door on Google street maps, a satellite image of my backyard, my resume on LinkedIn, and my political contributions on Huffington Post, I think we're in a losing battle with ourselves. We get ourselves in a dissonant conflict between sharing data with the world, and maintaining our privacy.

Distributech, Cont.

2009-02-12T15:57:00.001-08:00

I was pleased to work our trade show booth at Distributech trade show in San Diego last week. It was another great show, and the delegate turnout was very good considering the economic times.

The smart grid is hot right now. (How about that Superbowl commercial?). And it's not just the electric grid that's getting buzz. The gas and water "grids" are realizing benefits from technology too.

The topic on many peoples minds, besides the smart grid, was the utility economic climate, and the stimulus package.

What do I think about the utility economic climate? Well, my crystal ball looks lovely on my coffee table, but I discovered long ago that it's as unreliable as DSL service -- circa 1998. (Webvan? come on, crystal. I might never forgive you for that onoe). So I won't speculate.

But I can speak for myself and say that I am very busy. And in a good way.

And I'm hopeful that our collective innovation, and a bit of that stimulus money will lead to the new green collar jobs that we really need.

Ice Energy at Distributech 2009

2009-02-02T16:48:00.001-08:00

I'm in San Diego this week attending Distributech 2009. The show hasn't started yet, but as I was helping set up the Itron booth, I got to check out Ice Energy's display.

Ice gained notoriety in the industry by winning the Energy Venture Fair several years in a row, and for good reason. They have a clever yet simple solution to managing peak air conditioning loads. Freeze a big ol' block of ice at night when power is cheap, and run fans over the ice to blow cold air during the day when power is expensive.

They'll be filling the "Ice bear" with water water tonight, so I'll get to see the massive block of ice tomorrow. I'll be sure to bring a sweater.

Bailout is a Bonanza for Smart Grid

2008-10-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

The US Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - aka the $700 billion bailout/rescue plan passed on Friday includes provisions for energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy credits.

Now I'm still seething mad at the irresponsibility of the lenders and grandiose homebuyers that led to this problem in the first place -- my 401k looks more like a 201k these days. But the energy provisions provides some consolation.

Included in the act - smart grid assets can be depreciated over 10 years, instead of the customary 20. This provision was originally slated, and then pulled, from 2007 EISA. This bailout bill unexpectedly provided an opportunity to get it back in.

I know that lots of eyes glaze over when they hear the term depreciation. Shortened depreciation means that utilities can write off the value of the meter assets sooner, paying lower taxes and improve cash flow. This sweetens utility's business case for smart metering infrastructure. Smart meters enable dynamic (time of use) rates. Time of use rates provide financial incentives for consumers to use cleaner baseload energy rather than dirtier and more expensive peaking energy. That saves polar bears.

The act also included a slew of renewals for renewable energy tax credits, and energy efficient appliance credits. That's great for the solar, wind, biomass, energy efficient appliance manufacturers, consumers, and polar bears.

See also Demand Response and Advance Metering (DRAM) Coalition website.

Before Electricity

2008-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

On the late evening of September 13, a gracious woman and fantastic cook, passed away after 85 good years and a brief illness. Miss Ruby, my husband’s grandmother, spent her entire life in Northwestern Alabama.

After her funeral, I joined the extended family over a traditional southern spread complete with black-eyed peas and fried apple pies. As I shooed away a yellow jacket, I almost fell out of my chair when I heard one of the cousins tell a story about their childhood. She said - “you remember, that was before we had electricity.” Umm, did I hear that correctly? You remember a time when there was no electricity?

Yessir. Older folks in the Tennessee Valley - and I’m not just talking about the octogenarians - have clear memories of living in homes B.E. (before electricity). This was hard to believe, as we were just a stone’s throw from the Tennessee River, nestled between Wilson and Wheeler dams, just upstream from Colbert Coal plant, and downstream of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Miss Ruby got married around the time the Rural Electrification Act was signed, so even though power plants were going up all along the river, it took a while for the distribution system to bring the electricity to rural homes. She lived to witness a huge boom, and gradual decline, of a local power industry.

Ruby’s husband Britton was a veteran of WWII and Korea, a mason, and a career pipefitter for TVA. Men like Britton literally electrified the Tennessee Valley. He also knew how to “save money” by drilling a little hole in an elecric meter, sticking a piece of straw in it, and slow down the the wheel.

Not long after the area was electrified, the low cost power attracted other major industries along the Tennessee River including aluminum, paper, and manufacturing. The nearby city of Huntsville boomed as German rocket scientists including Werner Von Braun moved in after WWII to launch the space program as we know it today. Huntsville still thrives on the defense and aerospace. Areas around Huntsville were not so lucky, as manufacturing moved offshore, and talented craft personnel were left to work at Wal Mart or move out of the area.

The region’s power industry could be stimulated once again during this critical time of new energy development. TVA is planning to restart Bellefonte nuclear power plant, again. And with all the engineering talent in Huntsville and nearby Knoxville, the low cost of living would make the Tennessee Valley an ideal place for a clean tech startup with a manufacturing component (solar, fuel cells, instrumentation and controls) to gain a foothold.

I think Ruby and Britton would like it very much if the area would come alive once again with the optimism that comes with thriving industry, and a sense of community that is built when people come together to build something important.

Precourt Institute Workshop

2008-09-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

I had the great honor to participate in the Precourt Institute's Energy and Feedback Workshop at Stanford this week.

A phenomonal group of about 50 people from a broad variety of disciplines came together to discuss behavioral aspects to energy efficiency and demand response.

Although we didn't come out of the workshop with the theory of everything, but we did get one step closer. And I came out of this workshop with a changed vision for the future of utilities.

Some takeaways:

- Wireless sensor networks will be ubiquitous, and we have no idea how great the benefits will be in the long run.
(ref. anecdotes from Echelon, GE, Stanford Researchers, etc.)

- Privacy and security concerns are and will continue to be a huge component to the smart grid/home
(ref. Diedre Mulligan from Berkeley law, et. al)

- Low tech solutions - broadcast media, direct mail, DIY energy efficiency measures - are effective, and underutilized.
(ref. PositiveEnergy direct mail campaigns)

- Personal identification with the messenger, peer pressure, and guilt, are remarkably effective methods to market green messages
(ref. Stanford research showing that if a querent shares your birthdate, you're more likely to try to answer the question, Al Bandura's results of mass media messaging)

- Consumers can be quite irrational when it comes to perceived value of things, so rational price structures don't always work as expected. Adequately communicated tiered pricing has promise
(ref. CPUC's explanation that tiered pricing hasn't worked as a behavior incentive in CA, Brattle Group)

- Some people will irrationally overreact to economic shocks
(ref. Ideo's research on homeowners responses to Juno Alaska power outage for DOE. (Look for this DOE study when it comes out))

- Some people will spend irrational amounts of time playing games that others perceive to be work.
(ref. Google's labeler game)

- Comfort, entertainment, and social acceptance trump cost savings.
(ref. anecdotes from Omar Siddiqui (EPRI) et. al., response to the PCT pilots and 11% drop rate for direct load control programs without override)

- Social networking around energy use will be one of the first consumer applications of the smart grid
(validated by the under 30's who attended the workshop)

- A new generation of young people is going to revolutionize the electric power industry.
(ref. the remarkable and creative students I met from Stanford, MIT, RPI)

I truly appreciated participating with this group, and it has allowed me to think about the same issues in a new way. And it gave me a plethora of new blog topics.

Speaking of blogging, posts should pick up again in October. I've been extra busy this summer, but look forward to catching up in a few weeks.

I'm off to Atlanta (Utilimetrix conference) tomorrow. I'll be working the Itron booth, so stop by.

Energy Data and Privacy

2008-08-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

This month's issue of Scientific American features technology and privacy. This has been a hot topic in the smart metering space as well. How much are we willing to trade off personal privacy, and the convenience and utility of sharing data?

I see three schools of thought when it comes to consumer data privacy:

1) I have nothing to hide. Go ahead and prowl through my weblogs, phone calls, load profile data, and shopping behavior to better market to me, and route out bad guys while you're at it.
2) I have something to hide, so and don't you dare look into my data, or
3) Whether I have something to hide or not, I value my privacy, and don't want strangers mining it to find out what products I might like to buy, or making sure I'm a good compliant citizen.

I like to think I fall into the third category, but I don't do much to protect my own privacy. I blog. I have a detailed public LinkedIn page. My wedding photos are on Facebook, my novice oil paintings on Flickr. I intentionally trade a certain level of privacy for the convenience and perceived fame.

Once I get a smart meter on my house and install a wireless sensor network in my home, I will be faced with similar privacy decisions. Our hour-by-hour, and even minute-by-minute energy will be stored in databases somewhere - and potentially shared with third parties who will find value in the data. If I want the benefit of time of use rates, I'll have to share that data with my utility. We may also have the opportunity to make our use data completely public. "My load curve is flatter than your load curve" is a conversation that utilities are hoping people will have with their neighbors in the not too distant future.

Look closely at a residential load profile, and you'll get a pretty accurate picture of when people are home and when they're away, how many appliances, like Plasma TVs or computers. Combine that data with street level maps, Facebook photos, our credit history, our political donations, and a Safeway club card, our lives are truly an open book to anyone who might have the keys.

(off topic) Ahmedabad in my thougts

2008-07-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

My thoughts and prayers are with the residents of Ahmedabad - particularly my friends and colleagues from SNL Financial.

Al Gore's Challenge - What will it take?

2008-07-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Can the US produce 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources by 2019?

Al? Are you sure that's tobacco you've been smoking down on the farm? Isn't this waaay too costly? Coal, natural gas, and rail industries won't like this idea one bit. Besides, it takes forever to site, license, and build new nuke and wind plants.

I figure it would cost about $1 - $2 trillion. (hmm, about the same as the Iraq war). The 10-year timeframe is only plausible if we can cut through lots and lots and lots of red tape quickly, and rally lots of people - not just in the US but around the world.

So what would it take to become 100% non-carbon emitting?

1) Retire the 1,400 (300 GW)coal fired generators plants that provide 50% of our electricity. Many of them work perfectly fine, and will still owe lots of money to banks even in 2019.

2) Build 300 new large nuclear units and quadruple our current nuclear power supply. (will require tremendous streamlining of the regulatory process and adoption of a standard design.)

3) Retire 9,000 natural gas and oil-fired generating peaking plants (500 GW)

4) Install about 500,000 wind turbines (20 times current capacity) plus an average of 2 kW of solar plus localized storage in every commercial and residential building in the US to replace the gas units.

4) Keep the hydro plants we do have running where they are, and continue to face the challenge of possible salmon extinction in the northwest

5) Keep all the 1970's era nuclear plants that we now have that provide 19% of our running or upgrade/refurbish them to ensure continued/extended operation

6) Increase incentives for demand response and energy efficiency to reverse anticipated demand growth and flatten peak power use.

7) Hire armies of people - nuclear and electrical engineers, construction workers, solar installers, linemen, etc. etc. We may have to import them from India, France, Canada, China, and other places as we don't yet have enough skilled workers to meet this need - and that means allowing more work visas.

8) Materials - we'll need concrete, high quality steel, silicon, copper or better conductors, uranium, and transportation for these materials.

9) Say no to coal, oil, natural gas, and NIMBY interests. Put wind turbine and solar manufacturing sites in West Virginia and Wyoming (or give them all Wii's or scholarships or something).

10)Open Yucca Mountain.

So we build 800 GW new capacity, plus new transmission lines to move the power around to where it needs to go, and decommission all the old plants - we're looking at $1 trillion at the low end.

The biggest challenges will be securing enough wind sites (including off of cape cod), getting wires from the wind to uses, making solar truly ubiquitous, and finding ways to store energy for peak times. The wildcard is if we have some breakthrough new generation source such as tidal or massively efficient solar or fusion - but it's unlikely that we can broadly commercialize any brand new technology within ten years.

I'm skeptical, but behind it 100%. If we pull this off, we'll have a cleaner, safer, healthier, smarter, more independent nation.

Sources: EIA, and Al Gore's speech on Youtube and everywhere

Duke Energy's Save-A-Watt and its opposition

2008-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Per Charlotte Business Journal North Carolina’s state advocate for utility customers say Duke Energy Corp.’s Save-A-Watt proposal is too expensive, saves little energy and should be rejected by regulators.

Through Save-A-Watt, Charlotte-based Duke (NYSE:DUK) wants to get a return on its investment in conservation. It proposes a system that would verify how much energy Save-A-Watt conserves. Duke would then charge ratepayers for 90 percent of the costs it avoids by not having to build plants to provide that energy.

The public staff calls on the commission to reject the pricing proposal at the heart of Duke’s program. The staff says the margins Duke would make on energy-efficiency programs could reach almost 50 percent. The staff proposes a more modest pricing system that would provide Duke with a 5.55 percent margin.

The following are the save-a-watt energy efficiency programs Duke Energy Carolinas is proposing:

Residential Assessments – to help residential customers identify opportunities to use energy more efficiently through a mail-in analysis, on-line analysis and on-site energy audit. Participating customers will receive either an energy efficiency kit or compact fluorescent light bulbs at the time of the audit to begin their energy savings immediately.

Non-Residential Energy Assessments – to help commercial and industrial customers identify opportunities to use energy more efficiently through an on-line analysis, telephone interviews and on-site energy audits.

Smart $aver® – to provide residential customers with incentive payments to install more energy-efficient equipment, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs and high-efficiency air conditioners and heat pumps. The commercial and industrial customer program will provide incentives to install high-efficiency lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, motors and pumps.

Low Income Service – to assist low income residential customers with energy efficiency measures using kits or assistance in purchasing equipment and weatherizing homes.

Power Manager – to enable residential customers to receive a monthly credit from July to October in exchange for allowing Duke Energy to cycle their central air conditioning in times of peak power demand.

PowerShare® – to enable commercial and industrial customers to receive a credit on their bills in exchange for reducing their electric use in times of peak power demand.

Residential Bill Check Pilot – to evaluate the use of new technology to provide customers with a monthly report analyzing their energy use and comparing it to weather patterns and other issues that relate to energy use. The pilot will initially test new technologies in up to 200 homes in the Charlotte area.

Efficiency Savings Plan Pilot – to evaluate allowing residential, commercial and industrial customers to install energy efficiency products with no up-front payment, allowing customers to save money by reducing their energy use. Customer would pay for these products through an added charge to their power bill.

Advanced Power Manager Pilot – to evaluate new technologies and advanced metering to study the feasibility of an energy management system that enables customers to participate in energy efficiency without disrupting their lifestyle or normal business practices.

For months, Duke Chief Executive Jim Rogers has said traditional regulatory policies have given utilities little incentive to save energy. Simply put, the more power a utility sells, the more money it makes.

The business case for EE is fundamentally sound, we'll just have to wait and see how the terms of this negotiation (Duke vs. ratepayers share) shake out.

P.S. I had the pleasure of hearing Jim Rogers speak at Itron's user's conference. He blew me away. Very impressive and inspirational speaker. I think he's genuinely concerned about the environmental issues, however he also needs to answer to shareholders.

The heat content of poultry poo?

2008-06-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

A power plant in Benson, MN uses burns 700,0000 tons of turkey litter combined with agricultural biomass to generate up to 55 MW of power.

The obvious question for any engineer - what is the heat content of poultry poo? (for non engineers, that just means how much energy can you squeeze out of it?)

One source says 6,200 BTU/lb.

Lower than lignite (a low quality coal) - around 8,000 BTU/lb, and much lower than bituminous coal at 13,000 BTU/lb, but hmm not bad.

It is not suprisingly more energy intesive than wood/wood waste which is around 4-5,000 BTU/lb.

Such plants aren't without thier controversies. Some contend these plants emit relatively high levels of toxic emissions, and as a combustion process, it contributes to greenhouse gasses.

I wouldn't say this kind of biomass is a green option, until we start using less energy, increasing non-combustion energy methods (nuclear, solar, wind), we will burn whatever is economical to do so.

TVA's Draft Energy Efficiency Plan

2008-05-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

Despite TVA's seemingly vast nuclear and hydro resources, last summer's hydropower-affecting drought caused suprising tightening of power supply.

The region, somewhat less affected by the economic downturn we're feeling here in California, is continuing to grow at a pretty good clip. With high fuel prices, and inability to build a new nuclear unit in the short term, demand response and energy efficiency has been put on the front burner. TVA recently unveiled (via a multi-city road show) a new plan that features many of the same energy efficiency and demand response projects that are currently being implemented in California and the UK.

Here are some highlights of the plan:

TVA believes there is potential to reduce the growth in peak electricity
demand by up to 1,400 megawatts (4%) by 2012. Reductions could be achieved through energy efficiency, demand response, distributed (end-use) generation, and internal reductions (making TVA more energy efficient)

TVA is looking at defining AMI interoperability standards between TVA and local power distributors; developing, testing and implementing pilot projects on all AMI technology options; and implementing economic demand-reduction tools.

The AMI interoperability question can get tricky. Since TVA is a wholesaler, it remains to be seen exactly how they can influence AMI and retail demand response decisions by their distributors. But, they could look to the deregulated markets of Texas (Reliant/Centerpoint) and the UK (Scottish & Southern, ESB) for potential models.

The beneficiaries of high natural gas prices

2008-05-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

From Energy Biz:

U.S. natural gas prices are poised to head higher over the long term when commercial demand increases, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

. . .

"Much higher natural gas prices seem likely even though U.S. producers are thought to be sitting on sizable supplies of undeveloped resources," the bank says. "A recovery in U.S. manufacturing should sharply boost natural gas demand. Once LNG imports become the marginal source of U.S. supply, much higher international natural gas prices should prevail."

Higher natural gas prices means rising home heating costs, and increased generation costs, particularly at peak times. This will accelerate the need for utilities to pass time of use pricing and peak price messages down to customers - and that means more intelligent electric meters, such as those provided by my employer, Itron (ITRI).

High natural gas prices will also make competing renewable options as well as nuclear and coal generation more economically attractive. (Areva (CEI.PA), Siemens/Westinghouse (SI), ABB, Peabody Coal (BTU), FirstSolar (FSLR), GE, etc.)

Demand response systems and programs will also get a boost. Utilities and consumers will want to automatically adjust thermostats, and shut off non-essential appliances such as pool pumps to save a lot of money during peak times. This means even more opportunity for companies like EnerNOC (ENOC), and Comverge (COMV) that facilitate these kinds of programs.

Green Energy and Creative Financing

2008-04-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

According to this article in BizJournal, companies are talking the talk, but not yet walking the walk on energy efficiency.

"The Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator survey found that nearly 72 percent of organizations are paying more attention to energy efficiency than they were just a year ago. However, the percentage of companies expecting to make energy efficiency improvements, as well as their planned investment over the next year, has remained constant."

With a focus quarter-to-quarter capability, what company has the incentive to make investments now for 10-year payback projects? Once we start seeing energy solutions that provide a short-term payback, we'll start to see this 72% of organizations get on board.

Some solar companies have this figured out. With the help of venture capitalists, solar companies willing to front the capital expenditure can recover investment over the long term from companies that are interested in solar, but don't want to wait for years to get their money back. Under these agreements, companies can continue to pay their projected electric bill, as usual, but under a power purchase agreement with a solar company rather than to the utility. The solar company then constructs and maintains solar panels on the roof, and take on the responsibility of delivering a reliable mix of solar and grid power to the company. In the long term, the solar company is betting that it can provide power much more cheaply than the utility can, and sell some back to the grid for a profit, and thus get a return on their investment, enough to pay back the VC and make a profit for themselves. The owner then can claim to be green, and hedge against the possibility of rising future electricity costs. It's brilliant.

Similar creative ways to finance renewables/energy efficiency that satisifies the myopic shareholder as well as the long-term investor could be the key to pushing energy efficiency to the next level.

A silly prediction for 2025

2008-04-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

I have a theory (and maybe it's obvious) that oil companies aren't building refineries because they're unable to demonstrate the 20- or 30-year ROI needed to get the $billion loan necessary to permit and build one in the first place. They'll try to squeeze the last bit of life out of the existing refineries before eventually shutting them down.

So what will the oil companies do then? I'd like to think they'd convert to pristine parks. But, many refineries tend to be located on waterfront property that happen to be an electric car or monorail ride away from city centers. So, I foresee the development of residential communities a la Denver Stapleton, Lowell's textile mills, the Presidio, or the old marine corps base near Irvine.

Imagine this parade of homes:

"The Chevron" in Martinez, CA - Just a ferry trip across the bay to San Francisco's financial district.

"Exxon Estates" Long Beach, CA - The next Malibu

"Mobil Manor" Mobile, Al - A beautiful place for an Eric Estrada-endorsed retirement community

"BP-Vista Valley" Tacoma, WA - a community of virtual offices for Microsoft's work-at-home employees

"Valero Project" - Galveston, TX - Gated luxury for ex-oil company execs

Benefits - the asphalt has already been poured. Residents will only need to keep the starbucks brewing to mask the smell of crude in the morning.

(please note the sarcasm. I don't endorse living on an old oil refinery. That can't be good for you.)

How to put a dent in a 12% electric rate increase

2008-04-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Utilities are grappling with rising fuel and construction costs. One utility just filed for a 12% rate hike, or about $9/month for the typical customer.

So what can we do? Well, how about unplugging standby devices? Any device that consumes a few watts running 24x7 will add up over the course of a month.

I write this as I watch my VCR blink 12:00 . . . 12:00 . . .12:00. I don't think that VCR has been used since my husband got a hold of it on my last very long business trip. So I'll unplug it.

. . .

. . .

Ok, unplugged. That was a bit of a dusty ordeal, but hypocrisy averted.

So how much will I save? That's 5 Watts x 720 hrs/month *10 cents/kWh = 36 cents/month.

Not quite $9, but it's a start.

(By the way, I verified the VCR wattage using my $29 "Kill-a-Watt" meter that most likely traveled across the ocean on a diesel freighter from China.)

A disclaimer

2008-04-02T12:32:00.001-07:00

For those of you who are not regular readers of this blog (which, I thought until recently was everyone - even my husband doesn't read this), I will reiterate, the opinions in this blog are my own.

I explained that in my July 23, 06 post, and will mention it again:

My unedited and admittedly biased opinions don't represent any company or organization, including my employer (which is now Itron). I also don't represent any media company, industry association, electric utility, or customer advocacy group. I also don't get paid to do this.

Itron is a great company whose customers include virtually every major utility in the world. I realize that as an employee, today more than ever, I bear a certain responsibility to Itron and its customers.

So, if you have any comments about this or any of my former posts, please leave comments below, let's have a discussion and tell me what you think.

Sincerely,
Lori

CO2 From US Power Plants Said To Show Biggest Jump In Decade

2008-03-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

CO2 From US Power Plants Said To Show Biggest Jump In Decade

March 18, 2008: 06:18 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP)--The amount of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, released by the nation's power plants grew by nearly 3% last year, the largest annual increase in nearly a decade, an environmental group said Tuesday.

The analysis of government emissions figures covered more than 1,000 plants including those burning coal, natural gas and oil.

The report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, said that the 2.9% increase in CO2 releases outpaced a 2.3% year-to-year increase in electricity production.

"Carbon emissions actually increased faster than (electricity) demand," said Eric Schaeffer, the group's executive director. He said reduced efficiency of older coal-burning power plants that often are some of the largest coal burners may have been one reason for the CO2 increase.

The report said that Texas, Georgia, Arizona, California and Pennsylvania had the biggest one-year increases.

Bill Sang, climate issues director for the Edison Electric Institute, said the increase reflected greater demand for power last year and a shortage of hydroelectric power that forced utilities to shift to fossil fuels.

"We think as much as two-thirds of the (CO2) increase was due to increased demand for electricity," said Sang, whose organization represents utilities that generate 70% of the electricity.

Carbon dioxide is the leading so-called "greenhouse gas" that is linked to global warming. It is a product of burning fossil fuels. Power plants account for nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, about a third of the U.S. total.

"The amount that we're emitting today makes any long-term (reduction) goals that much harder to reach," said Schaeffer.

Melissa McHenry, spokeswoman for Ohio-based American Electric Power (AEP), which has 25 coal-burning power plants in nine states, said her company showed a 2.8% increase in CO2 emission in 2007, but "we also saw a 3.6% increase in electricity demand." She said AEP is investing in wind generation and purchasing carbon "offsets" through a carbon exchange program.

According to the environmental group's analysis, the most CO2 in 2007 came from power plants in Texas, 262 million tons; Ohio, 138.6 million tons; Florida, 134.5 million tons; Indiana, 132 million tons; and Pennsylvania, 123.6 million tons. Those numbers did not take into account amount of power produced.

States where plants release the most CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity generated were North Dakota, Wyoming, Kentucky, Indiana and Utah.

I wonder if this increase has been offset by reduced transportation miles (high gas prices). And, how much of this has been related to the relative cost of coal to natural gas.