My first job in the power industry focused on evaluating the impacts of demand-side management (DSM) programs on the efficiency of electricity usage, overall electricity demand and the economics associated with both. At that time, power companies were not particularly thrilled with the idea of programs that promoted less power consumption.

Fast-forward 25 years: DSM has become a large and growing industry. Today, both the power industry and regulators are pinning their hopes on DSM as a means of maximizing the utilization of existing plants and minimizing the need for new plants. Electricity providers are promoting DSM in concert with new regulatory arrangements that provide financial incentives to increase the efficiency of electricity use, and shift loads from peak demand periods...
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At our recent NOx webcast people asked some good questions and I thought I’d share some of our conversation here. One question that was raised was whether optimization can help generators better deal with peak electricity demand periods. While the answer is a definitive “yes,” I thought it would be useful to broaden the discussion to address both changing load, maximum output, and overcoming capacity constraints. 

Rapid Load Changes
CombustionOpt® has been proven to address changing load, rapid ramping, and units operating under automatic generation control (AGC). Our customers that use CombustionOpt fall into three categories:...
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NeuCo has completed it's first webcast titled Surviving More Stringent NOx Regulations, in a three-part Storm Survival Webcast Series.   The webcast featured strategies for addressing The Perfect Storm of pressures affecting electricity producers.

If you'd like to listen to the archived taping, click here. 

Guest speakers include:

• Bob McConnell, US EPA Region 1 regulatory expert, to discuss the state of new and emerging NOx regulations such as CAIR and tightening...
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Recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the unprecedented high prices in the ERCOT wholesale power market encompassing Texas. This has raised new questions about the reliance on deregulated locational marginal price (LMP) markets as a mechanism for competition to set prices and promote economic efficiency for electric power generation. Prices during peak periods have been exceeding $2000 per MWh and the previous cap of $1500 per MWh was recently raised to $2200. The variable costs of the nuclear generation in ERCOT are even lower than the average variable generation cost for coal-fired power plants.

The pure “energy-only” LMP market used for ERCOT is not only used to provide economic signals for efficient use of existing generation. It’s...
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The CO2 cap & trade proposal in the US will impose a hefty burden on the economy, but because it’s buried in a retail rate, it won’t necessarily have a big impact on consumer decisions about electricity use. And it will likely have no impact whatsoever on the other major CO2-emitting economic sectors, particularly transportation.

Some members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are proposing a “carbon ration card,” which every adult will carry. They’ll use the card when they pay for gas, airline tickets, or household energy. Anyone who exceeds their ration limits would have to buy credits from people who...
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