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Maryland Takes Major Step Toward Self-Reliance
The Maryland General Assembly passed the Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2013 on Monday. This bill provides rate payer subsidies to what may be the first offshore wind farm constructed in the US,...
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Toyota Uses Kaizen to Cut Electricity Costs
There is a major industrial energy user in WV that does not belong to the WV Energy Users Group. It is Toyota’s plant at Buffalo, WV. Why doesn’t Toyota join the Users Group’s lobbying efforts at the...
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Boulder Continues to Move Toward Municipally Owned Microgrid
The people of Boulder, CO continue to move toward taking control of their own electrical power system. They are dumping power giant Xcel Energy because the company cannot meet their power and...
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Transmission Activists Meet Up in Wisconsin
I have one more post on the FE Harrison case expert testimony coming, but so much has been happening this week that I have to make some other new posts first. Last weekend, two West Virginians traveled...
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FirstEnergy’s 17 Minute Shareholders’ Meeting Adds New Icon to Company Image
I joined my friends in Morgantown this morning to greet FirstEnergy CEO Tony Alexander at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. FirstEnergy’s management celebrated corporate democracy and...
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Transmission Developers Must “Buy the Farm” in Minnesota
Carol Overland reports that the MN Supreme Court ruled today that a state law is constitutional that allows land owners to force transmission developers to buy their entire property in condemnation...
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Del. Skinner Pushes WV PSC to Investigate FirstEnergy Billing Failures
Del. Stephen Skinner must have gone all Truman Chafin on the PSC after last week’s public hearing on the disaster that is FirstEnergy’s customer billing in WV. Good for Del. Skinner. He promised his...
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WV PSC Opens Investigation of FirstEnergy Billing Disaster
The WV PSC has opened a general investigation into the collapse of the billing system of FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison in WV. The case number at the PSC is 13-0830-E-GI. You...
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Stagnating Centralized Grid, But Rising Solar Capacity Continues in US
The disruption of centralized power companies and grid technologies is now the hot topic among power company executives. The larges industry organization in the US has issued a report warning of the...
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PSC Secrets 2 – WV PSC Takes Advice of Solar Producers, But Keeps It a Secret
Click here to see my account of the WV PSC’s attempts, over the recommendations of their own engineering staff, to obstruct solar power development in WV. It took almost exactly a year for WV solar...
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Morgantown Learning Efficiency Investment Pays
Since it contracted with an efficiency company to install power saving investments in 2009, Morgantown has saved over half a million dollars on its electric bills and other costs. And they paid the...
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WV PSC Takes Control of FirstEnergy Billing Mess, Promises Public Hearings
I am often critical of the WV PSC, but I also praise them when they get it right. On Friday, they got it right. The Commissioners are requiring FirstEnergy to provide detailed reports on the status of...
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Boulder Dumps Xcel
Boulder, CO is dumping utility Xcel and is moving to create its own municipal power company. Boulder’s city staff recently prepared a memorandum which recommends moving forward with municipalization....
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Power Companies Want to Crush Both Innovation and Reliability
US power companies have a very cozy system in place. They build big power plants to provide base load power which creates many opportunities for high profit speculation when peak power demand exceeds...
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Comments Being Filed at WV PSC on Renewable Energy Credit Certification
Regular readers of The Power Line are familiar with the fact that the WV PSC never took seriously the idea that anyone would want to be certified to sell real renewable energy credits in WV, because...
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Ohio Citizens Signing Up to Support Lake Erie Offshore Wind Power
Here’s a link to a blog post on Climate Progress about a push for new wind power development on Lake Erie. Over 4,500 customers in northeast Ohio have pledged to buy electricity from offshore wind...
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Boulder Fighting Back for Local Power Against Xcel Juggernaut
Citizens of Boulder, CO are moving forward to take over their own electrical system. They have told their local corporate monopoly, Xcel, that they are terminating their control of the city’s...
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Net Metering for Residential Solar Installation Exploding Across US
Take a look at the US Dept. of Energy’s EIA new monthly update. Based on preliminary 2012 data, the number of residential net metering customers has grown to approximately 297,000 nationwide. Although...
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Rethinking the WV PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division
A number of events have brought me to the point of writing about the purpose of the WV PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division. The current Consumer Advocate, Byron Harris, is retiring at the end of...
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Great Electric Industry Blog in East Virginia
Those of you who want to keep up with developments in East Virginia should check out Power for the People VA. The blog has a fact filled post on Dominion winning the offshore wind auction for federal...
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