State of Industry

FERC Approves California ISO's Interconnection Reforms: A Major Step Forward for Renewable Energy

In a significant development for the renewable energy landscape, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved the California Independent System Operator's (California ISO) proposed interconnection reforms. This decision is poised to streamline the process of connecting new energy...

Internet of Things Phenomenon

The introduction of wearable smart watches was a major step forward for Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the consumer electronics arena, and the next major step for computing. The Guardian News, a U.K.-based national newspaper, calls this next era a “programmable world” where multiple...

Renewable Energy Job Creation Is a Better Bet Than Coal

When it comes to renewable energy job creation, the Trump administration would do well to take a fresh look at clean energy rather than focusing only on fossil fuels. The solar power sector employed twice as many workers in 2016 than power generation from coal, gas and oil combined, according to a...

Deep Packet Inspection Firewalls

Protecting legacy SCADA systems from cyberattacks BY ERIC BYRES, Belden Over the past decade, the power industry has embraced network technologies such as Ethernet and transmission control protocol (TCP)/Internet protocol suite (IP) for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and...

Texas PUC Shelves $1B Grid Credit Mechanism

The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) has unanimously decided to shelve the proposed $1 billion Performance Credit Mechanism (PCM) for power generators, concluding that it would not deliver the anticipated grid reliability benefits. The PCM was conceived as a means to incentivize power...

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...

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