Energy Consulting News

On Tuesday, United Illuminating Company filed for new Last Resort Services rates with the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). The new default service rates for the period between July and September apply to customers above 500 kW who do not procure electricity directly from an alternative supplier. Those customers are subject to the rates (in cents per kWh) – for all hours of the day – below.

July 2013: 8.1150₵
August 2013: 7.6940₵
September 2013: 6.9270₵

Click here to learn about our energy management services in Connecticut.

Matthew Faulkner
Business Analyst
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www.bidurenergy.com

Think about the considerable amount of damage Hurricane Sandy did to the Northeast last summer. Utilities received numerous complaints about how slow they were to respond to the disaster, and how they failed to restore power in timely manner. Military drones could aid utilities in providing disaster relief after a super storm like Sandy, or at least that is what Matthew Olearczyk of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) told the panel at “Platt’s Energy Week” last Sunday.

Olearczyk argues that a utility’s response after a large storm may be slowed by a lack of information about what is needed to respond to a disaster. Sending drones instead of work crews to assess damage in the field would allow for a much quicker response. It might allow utilities to better evaluate and prioritize the work that needs to be done after a disaster.

Last week, the PJM Interconnection seemed disenchanted by a series of recommendations that the IMM made in its annual report on the energy market. The grid operator released a public statement expressing its concern, late on Friday, saying that they disagreed with many of the IMM’s 58 recommended changes in the grid operator’s market.

While PJM said it would consider some of the recommendations, including some modeling assumptions for its capacity market minimum offer price rule and to work with neighboring ISOs to enhance its interface – it said it disagreed with other proposed changes to the capacity market. For instance, PJM reconsidered the recommendation that it get rid of its short-term procurement target in the based residual auction and halt the consideration of modifying existing resources for the treatment under the minimum offer price rule. Additionally, it said it disagreed with recommendations to eradicate having fuel shortages as a possible reason for an “out of management control” outage, to get rid of certain demand response products and to make an unambiguous requirement that day-ahead energy offers be competitively priced at short-run marginal costs.

Energy Curtailment Specialists, Inc. (ECS) is helping to maintain stability on our nation’s electrical grids by paying significant dollars to commercial, industrial, retail and other facilities to assist the power grid during high-stressed times. ECS’ award-winning Demand Response program, known as PowerPay!, has proven year in and year out that demand response is of vital importance not only for the participating businesses that earn significant revenue in the program, but also for the stability of the electric grid.

On hot summer days and other times of high electricity demand, utility companies and grid operators must find ways to support the increase in electrical usage along distribution lines. Without demand response, this increase in demand may result in service interruptions, voltage reductions or possibly even blackouts, which in turn could create millions of dollars of lost revenue when businesses can’t operate “in the dark” and multi-millions of dollars more in damage to a facility’s equipment or processes that cannot withstand the voltage fluctuations. Click here to learn how demand response works.

The Maryland Public Service Commission approved a rate increase for Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) standard offer service (SOS) customers effective June 1st – September 30, 2013. The rate increase will be upheld for customers who do not choose an alternative supplier. The total SOS rates for the residential and Type I Commercial & Industrial service classes are laid out below:

The nearly 20% increase in the SOS rate is the first rise in prices in four years. BGE attributes the rise in electric rates to rising natural gas prices – among other reasons.

“We fully understand that cost increases are never welcomed,” said Robert Gould, representative for BGE, “but we really encourage our customers to help offset the increase.” Almost 40 percent of BGE electric customers shop in the competitive market for energy supply.

Customers are always encouraged to participate in Maryland’s competitive market for energy supply. Customers in Maryland who procure energy for an alternative supplier will typically save on their energy bills, sometimes in the 15-25% range.

Click here to learn about our energy procurement services that cost nothing out-of-pocket and this page for Maryland electric rate information.

Matthew Faulkner
Business Analyst
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
BidURenergy.com