Energy Consulting News

On Monday, two utilities in Maryland set new standard offer service (SOS) rates with the Public Service Commission (PSC) for customers of Pepco and Delmarva Power & Light (DPL). The rates apply to energy customers who do not exercise their authority to choose an alternative supplier in Maryland’s competitive energy supply market. Rates for the 3-month period beginning September 1st and ending November 30th are as follows:

Pepco-MD SOS rates (¢/kWh)

Schedule MGT LV II
On Peak: 8.420
Intermediate: 7.788
Off Peak: 7.520

Schedule MGT 3A II
On Peak: 8.303
Intermediate: 7.680
Off Peak: 7.416

The Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S. trade association focused on building and financing solar projects, released a report last Tuesday summarizing the solar sector of the energy industry. The report, done in collaboration with GTM Research, showed that the U.S. added more than 720 MW of solar or photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity in the first quarter of 2013. The amount added was over 30 percent more than in the first quarter of 2012.

The report cited a year-end spike in other utility projects resulting in a lower rate of PV installations than in the last quarter of 2012, which was marked at 45 percent. The residential market, on the other hand, has shown consistent growth in PV generation over than last 3 years, at 11% per quarter.

On Monday, it was reported that worldwide CO2 emissions climbed more than 1.3 percent to over 31.5 billion tons in 2012. The estimates reported by France’s IEA showed China ranking as the world’s top emitter, contributing more than 9 percent of global emissions.

While the gain was quite large, it was actually one of the lowest China has seen in ten-years – proving its efforts to go “green” and embellish on energy-efficient practices are showing progress in the giant economy.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the greater deployment of natural gas in power generation has resulted in emissions to be reduced by around 200 million tons. This has helped our nation recede back to carbon emissions it achieved in the mid-1990s.

U.S. President Barack Obama instructed his administration to speed up the reconstruction of the power grid. In a seven-page memo released by the president last Friday, Obama called our nation’s electric grid “the backbone of our economy.” He agreed that we must continue to modernize the electric grid – such as transmitting electricity generated from renewable-energy projects in rural areas to dense urban centers with large electric loads.

His call for revitalizing the grid is directed at making blackouts minimal and the utilities less vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

"In order to ensure the growth of America's clean energy economy and improve energy security, we must modernize and expand our electric transmission grid," the president explained in his memo. "Modernizing our grid will improve energy reliability and resiliency, allowing us to minimize power outages and manage cyber-security threats."

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report on the anticipated reserves of electric capacity for the upcoming summer season. The metric, which measures expected supply of electricity over the demand for electricity, is forecasted to be below target levels in Texas – much like it was for last summer. Read more about Texas electric rates here.

California, by contrast, is seeing an overall reserve model that has improved but may be of concern during harsh weather conditions or when available supply is compromised. Click this link to learn more.

In the energy industry, the simplest strategy to maintaining reliability is to always have an excess of generation and transmission capacity to be prepared for adverse situations that could cause a blackout. The reserve margin is the measure of the current supply and demand situation for a region. Grid planners, like ERCOT or PJM, compare their regional estimates of reserve margins to reference levels to determine the adequacy of the supply for the region. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to expect what electricity demand will be in the future and building new power plants can take several years.