Many years ago, a comedy group released a video, including ordinary Americans of actors, which is a smooth artificial business satirical coal energy. It turns out that the goal of this mockery is that our rest of the people and our ability to live in our lives are rarely. [emphasis, links added]
“What if the power of the world is in Yamauchi?” Asked the narrator. He continued: “What if you can provide motivation for the entire city at a price of $ 100?”
A man wearing a hard hat said: “The power of cheap is the power of cleaning. The future is in the future.” A woman watched the camera soberly, “the power comes from the wall in my home where I live.”
This is interesting. Even if I was a former colleague of a public business company owned by an investor, I worked for 18 years.
But the reality is that your power company conflicts with the esoteric understanding of what they want customers to do.
Of course, this is beneficial to people, attaches importance to energy efficiency and protection, and how to be safe around the power line.
But when it comes to how to produce and deliver electricity or make money by public utilities? Outstanding …
The fact is that the world of public utilities has changed a lot in many aspects, and almost no change in other aspects. This industry has a natural change, mainly because it is usually called the world's largest machine-the power grid-has served us for more than a century.
It is the basis of our entire industrialization economy and supply all power. However, in decades, in order to clean up and make it smarter efforts, it often conflicts with the main instructions of the power grid to provide reliability, affordable, and safe power.
Today, this conflict has not yet been resolved.
Therefore, I think everyone should understand the following six things about public utilities:
1. All the power to restrict innovation-this is not necessarily a bad thing
Let's start with a simple concept-you don't want the power company to fail and go down. At the same time, the public cause must provide services to any customer in the service area. No choice.
This “service obligation” often stimulates the proposal to put forward its rates of public utilities, which is very urgent. This also means that public causes may not be an organization that you want to adventure for new ideas that have not been proven.
In the world of billions of dollars, any failed means waste customer bills.
Some noticeable examples of near or thorough turkey: smart grid, vehicle to grid, micro grid, internal control, clean coal, carbon solidaries, smart meters, hydrogen fuel cells, fluctuating energy, sea off -the -way wind and sea off -the -way wind and sea off -the -field wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind and wind at sea Creative pricing strategy.
Some of these projects are just in trouble, while others have lost billions of dollars, but all these projects are pursued by the best intentions-this is due to supervision tasks, and customers require or even manage wrong judgments.
Although many people think that our public business should invest in research and development, others want to hold their INS rope and let them only buy verified technology, thereby restricting the risk of bad bets.
2. “Banana” is the new “Nimby”
For public utilities, nothing is more challenging than expanding infrastructure, because no one wants to watch it and approach it. In fact, the community opposition has become so powerful and mature, so that Nimby (not in my backyard) is renamed Banana-Never build anywhere anywhere.
Those who are responsible for your energy will usually build power plants quietly, string up the wires, and attract customers without any concurrency, such as regulatory approval, county permission and public open houses.
But this is not its way of working, Because when spending a lot of funds as a supervised public institutional company, it must get benefits from local, countless people at the prefecture, and the federal level.
Increasing complexity is a narrow OCH priority that each group may not match others.
For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC recently voted in favor of the State Public Business Commission to play a greater role in the development and cost distribution of electric transmission systems. Hey, more local control-what is going on?
Okay, according to some observers, Individual countries can postpone projects that they think to benefit other areasEssence If the states use their enhanced participation to oppose certain projects, this may be aimed at moving the transmission obstacles of transmission of electricity.
Historically, the community has always tried to prevent the scale of public utilities, because people are worried about EMF, reducing property value, and interruption of their mountain views. But in the end, the high -level authorities determined that the success of a project was mainly based on greater interests. Do we hope this change now?
3. artificial intelligence Data is swallowing us
Every time you send a selfie to a friend, the photo will be copied in a acre of solid -state computer and cooled all over the weather.
Now, artificial intelligence (can be written as semester paper or making movies within a few seconds) is increasing the demand for electricity, and the public cause is working hard to meet.
Not only the generation is not there, but A short -term communication engineer also needs to conduct complex grid research with a service load.
AI is promoting new needs in certain areas, so that they sign nuclear power, It generates a lot of energy at a relatively small size at a close fixed cost.
The honest agent was written by the climate expert Roger Pielke JR and supported by readers. If you value the content of reading here, consider subscribing and supporting the work.
This is the post of Craig Eicher. Craig has recently retired for more than 20 years in the supervised U.S. public business industry. Craig's main role includes negotiation and maintaining natural gas and power franchise agreements to integrate community interests into large projects, such as transmission services expansion, renewable energy and regulatory procedures, and leadership wholesale power business.
Read and rest in honest agents
