Smart Power - Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of

Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities
Island Press 1st edition (April 5, 2010) | ISBN: 1597267066 | 344 pages | PDF

A new national policy on climate change is under debate in the United States and is likely to result in a cap on greenhouse gas emissions for utilities. This and other developments will prompt utilities to undergo the largest changes in their history. Smart Power examines the many facets of this unprecedented transformation.

This enlightening book begins with a look back on the deregulatory efforts of the 1990s and their gradual replacement by concerns over climate change, promoting new technologies, and developing stable prices and supplies. In thorough but non-technical terms it explains the revolutionary changes that the Smart Grid is bringing to utility operations. It also examines the options for low-carbon emissions along with the real-world challenges the industry and its regulators must face as the industry retools and finances its new sources and systems.

Throughout the book, Peter Fox-Penner provides insights into the policy choices and regulatory reform needed to face these challenges. He not only weighs the costs and benefits of every option, but presents interviews with informed experts, including economists, utility CEOs, and engineers. He gives a brief history of the development of the current utility business model and examines possible new business models that are focused on energy efficiency.

Smart Power explains every aspect of the coming energy revolution for utilities in lively prose that will captivate even the most techno-phobic readers.

Biographies

Peter Fox-Penner is a consulting executive and an internationally recognized authority on energy and electric power industry issues. Dr. Fox-Penner is a principal and chairman emeritus of The Brattle Group, a leading international economic consulting firm.


Table Of Contents

chapter one: The First Electric Revolution
chapter two: Deregulation, Past and Prologue
PART I: The Smart Grid and Electricity Sales
chapter three: The New Paradigm
chapter four: Smart Electric Pricing
chapter five: The Regulatory Mountain
chapter six: The (Highly Uncertain) Future of Sales
PART II: Supply Side Challenges
chapter seven: The Aluminum Sky
chapter eight: The Great Power Shift
chapter nine: Billion Dollar Bets
PART III: Business Models for the New Utility Industry
chapter ten: Energy Efficiency: The Buck Stops Where?
chapter eleven: Two and a Half Business Models
chapter twelve: The Smart Integrator
chapter thirteen: The Energy Services Utility
Conclusion
Technical Appendix A
Technical Appendix B
Technical Appendix C
Notes
Bibliography
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Index