State of Industry

Working with Third-Party Companies

How utilities can outsource essential functions or services BY ASBURY GAULT, Zenius LLC In today’s business world with ever-increasing employee benefit costs, regulated utilities are challenged with reducing their costs for the benefit of all stakeholders. This force is driving utility managers...

Storm Hardening Utility Communications

Save money and increase reliability. BY JEFF GROSSHAUSER, Motorola Preparing for winter is more than just a seasonal ritual for utility providers. Electricity and gas must still power cities during violent snowstorms and extreme cold. Arguably, that power is never more needed than when extreme...

Trudeau Liberals in Turmoil Over Energy and Climate Change Policies

The Trudeau government is facing increasing turmoil over its energy and climate change policies, reflecting a broader crisis of coherence within Canadian environmental and energy strategy. As the Liberal administration grapples with internal dissent and external pressures, the nation watches...

Substation Focused on Environmental Design

One of the important trends in design of new overhead lines over the past 20 years has been development of structures and designs that are less obtrusive and more pleasing visually. Much the same process has also been going on at substations. For example, even 25 years ago, efforts had already been...

Cutting CO2 Emissions

How to manage compliance costs and distribute economic benefits BY ANDREA OKIE, PAUL HIBBARD & SUSAN TIERNEY, Analysis Group In early June 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released proposed rules in Cutting CO2 emissions from existing fossil power plants. EPA’s Clean Power...

A Snapshot of the US Market for Smart Solar Inverters

Advanced solar inverters could be one of the biggest distributed energy resource communications and control points out there someday. With California now requiring at least early-stage “smart” capabilities from all new solar projects — and a standards road map for next-stage...

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