Commentary
-
Jan 08, 2003 |
Demand response is an essential component of a well-functioning market. Historically, however, U.S. electricity markets have experienced relatively little demand response by end-use customers. As a result, electricity markets have been prone to price spikes, wholesale price volatility, concerns about system reliability, economic inefficiency, and market power abuses. -
Jan 06, 2003 |
It’s no mystery why electricity providers try to avoid power disruption to their customers. From a momentary interruption to a full blackout, any disturbance is costly to the provider and consumer alike. Six days of rolling blackouts in 2001 cost Silicon Valley businesses more than $1 billion according to the San Jose Mercury News. A report released by the Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) Consortium for Electrical Infrastructure to Support a Digital Society (CEIDS) notes that U.S. businesses lose over $45 billion annually from outages. -
Jan 03, 2003 |
Although the construction of data centers has slowed along with the sag in the high tech economy, no one expects this kind of facility to become obsolete. Data centers will grow as new uses for their capabilities are developed and the economy improves. They are an invaluable support function to almost every business’s daily transactions and infrastructure. -
Jan 02, 2003 |
Referring to a recent article ‘Uncovering and pricing the hidden risks in power marketing’ from Global Energy Business, the authors correctly pointed to a number of issues energy suppliers need to address when assessing the risk factors that need to be applied to a corporate energy Buyer’s profile. -
Jan 02, 2003 |
Customers are gold to your utility company! They are your lifeblood. Without customers, we would all be out of business. So if customers are truly the lifeblood of the business, why do utilities fail to promote customer loyalty even as they attempt to broaden their revenue base with cable TV, cellular phone service, Internet access and high-speed data services? -
Dec 31, 2002 |
If history tells us anything, it is that it repeats itself. While many of the problems faced by an IT executive today are new issues caused by the rapid pace of technological changes, we can still gain many insights from the past. This article serves to address the complex and continual debate between standardized enterprise solutions, or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), versus multiple applications integrated via middleware. The historic event surrounding the Spanish Armada can provide us insights in the most competitive of all environments – warfare. -
Dec 30, 2002 |Do financial managers see an Energy Information System (EIS) as a toy for facility managers, rather than a money-saving tool? Is there any payback on these things? Isn’t one analysis per year good enough to find energy inefficiencies, rather than a real-time data hog? Probably, Usually, and No.
-
Dec 20, 2002 |
After spending enormous sums of money implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, many are asking the question, “Who Moved My ROI?” . . . and justifiably so. If you were the one spending, a million or two on the latest consulting craze “must-have,” wouldn’t you want to know exactly what you paid for? -
Dec 19, 2002 |
They are the engines that are fueling the phenomenal growth of the Internet economy. They’re also the foundation upon which information is fast becoming the new utility of the 21st century. Today’s data centers are highly secure, highly reliable, and highly expensive information fortresses built to move information with maximum efficiency—and keep it moving no matter what. -
Dec 18, 2002 |
Responding to a negative newspaper editorial, Abraham Lincoln quipped, “I may be a slow walker, but I never walk backward.” Perhaps the same thing can be said about the last few years of deregulating the energy market.
