Financial
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Fresh off its first profitable quarter, Tesla Motors Inc. plans to raise about $830 million in a stock and debt offering that will enable the electric car maker to pay off its $465-million federal loan.
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Utilities are experts in a ton of areas: making power, moving it, troubleshooting outage issues, handling consumer desires. But, on the other end of the utility’s daily work are all those unrelated areas that come along with the general cost of doing business, in some cases quite literally. Today, we talk to money powerhouse PwC about utility financials.
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A new three-part E Source report reveals strategies for calculating the return on marketing investment (ROMI) for utilities, along with case studies of existing measurement solutions and future opportunities based on smart grid data.
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With 4.4 million customers, Atlanta-based Southern Company provides electricity to much of the American Southeast. Today, we talk with Southern Company Senior Vice President and CIO Kenneth Coleman about the utility’s IT programs, plans and projections.
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Readers positive, with conditions
Readers provide a swath of ideas on how public/private investments in infrastructure renewal should and shouldn't work and whether it enables U.S. competitiveness in a global competition marked by aggressive government roles by our rivals.
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We can't escape the connections, but we can act
The power sector needs leaders to articulate the critical nature of infrastructure investment, stripped of the "smart grid" hype. Turn off the TV if you want to understand that our economic future and lifestyle is at risk if we don't ante up.
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Public-private partnerships: rat hole for investment?
The argument that public-private partnerships helps innovation, the economy and our global competitiveness is poppycock. Not a dime of taxpayer money should ever be used to encourage, coordinate or facilitate research into market-ready technologies, argues our columnist.
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The fundamental selling point is overlooked
Grid modernization, as with upgrades to water and transportation infrastructure, is the linchpin of our quality of life and our economy. If we want growth, we need to invest in the basics. Or cede our world leadership and kiss our quality of life goodbye.
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Financial modeling will be crucial to discern strategy
Boulder, Colo. continues to offer ideas on how it could work with its spurned power provider, Xcel Energy, in a scenario short of forming its own municipal utility. Meanwhile, it is moving ahead on concrete steps to articulate alternative strategies and develop a financial model to evaluate them.
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Colorado city adds engineering, finance muscle, talks to Xcel
Boulder, Colo., is talking to former (and current) power provider Xcel Energy, while it also retains engineering and financial expertise to explore municipalization. (The city already has retained legal counsel on regulatory and asset matters in dispute.) The city proceeds on both fronts tomorrow night in an open session.
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More systems integration talk, for `next time'
Americans love to point fingers, demand something for nothing and pretend they still live in the greatest nation on Earth. Alas, Hurricane Sandy's impact on Eastern utilities appears to establish a vast gap between expectations and willingness to adapt or pay. Recent coverage of the situation underscores why.
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Austin Energy veteran looks ahead to new paradigm
John Cooper, co-author of The Advanced Smart Grid, updates his views on grid modernization and the trend away from centralized power towards "the edge." Is Cooper onto something or is he blowing smoke?
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Customer education, KPIs, data analytics, cyber security, all on agenda
The collaboration at Knowledge2012 covered customer service and IT topics extensively, especially in areas where the two overlap, as with mobile applications for consumers, for example. A number of small, medium and large utilities gathered to discuss smart grid customer education efforts, key performance indicators for smart grid success, social media issues, analytics, cybersecurity and even economic challenges.
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Hard analysis needed of practices and technology
As the media documented the damage to the grid by Hurricane Sandy, before economic losses can be properly estimated, questions were ubiquitous and largely unanswered. Good answers will take time. What utilities do with the answers may determine our future quality of life.
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Sober discussion needed in wake of extreme storms
Killer storms last fall. Killer storms this spring. Killer storm this week. What w're learning about grid modernization and resiliency in the wake of extreme weather events should inform investments going forward, if hype, spin and unsubstantiated claims are subtracted.
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ICC approach on cost recovery is slowing projects
A former regulator, now consulting with Commonwealth Edison in Illinois, expresses concern that Ilinois regulators are applying an inappropriate cost recovery mechanism to interest on billions of dollars in capital invested for grid modernization.
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SGCC study shows education increases favorability
The more consumers learn about grid modernization, the more they like it and support it. But the needle measuring consumer awareness hasn't moved in a year, despite widespread smart meter rollouts. That's good news and bad news in one.
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Longtime CEO identifies pressures affecting modernization
Could utility commissions at the municipal level help insulate muni utilities from local politics? Do "joint action agencies" provide the needed clout and financing to assist munis buffetted by pressures on their business model? A long-time executive offers insights.
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Long-time CEO identifies pressures affecting modernization
Everyone knows that "the circumstances" for the power sector have changed over the past century, but what about the business model(s)? Today, a longtime utility manager with experience in all utility business models, calls into question the public power business model in particular.
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Both approaches reveal serious shortcomings
Addressing cyber security for the power sector drives many conversations: mandates versus voluntary programs, IT versus industrial control systems, technology versus people, the list goes on. We reprise some of the logic to these apparent dichotomies and provide further reading.
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