Nora Brownell's Energy Blog

Virginia Commission discourages citizen participation in Energy Efficency Workshop

The Commonwealth of Virginia's State Corporation Commission makes it very easy for energy companies and the rich and powerful to participate in thier workshops. All they have to do is file their intention to participate via electronic filing. Not so for citizens. We'll have to file a paper copy with the Commission; no faxes are allowed. It also looks like the deadline for receipt of your filing is tomorrow. Read what you can do about it.

LEDs and Demand Response Technologies- options to runaway electricity consumption

This is the last of a three-part post on my take of investor and energy technology conferences that I attended in the US and Japan. The attendees included :

1) Light Emitting Diodes called LEDs,
2) Demand Response Technologies
3) Grid Monitoring, and
4) Storage capacity (nice for solar particularly).

I'll focus on LEDs and Demand Response technologies in this post.

Did Electricity Deregulation really fail?

Yesterday I read an article in the Boston Globe's website, Boston.com, entitled Deregulation Burns Out which is based on a 14 page study by the Tellus Institute entitled "A Failed Experiment: Why electricity regulation did not work and could not work." I think the article misses the point on energy deregulation. I provide some food for thought in this post.

No Lack of Interest in US Energy Sector from Investors and Technology Firms

What I saw at the US and Japan conferences was very encouraging, especially if we really embrace the concept of an updated and restructured US and North American energy sector and markets. First, there is an enormous amount of money that would like to invest in the US energy sector from large and small private equity funds in the the US and abroad.

No Room for Mistakes in US Energy Sector Investment and Technology

The demand for capital investment in electric transmssion, distribution, generation, demand side management and smart grid technology are too great to make the same old mistakes. Yet a lack of regional planning in the US energy sector makes the likelihood of making big mistakes (wrong stuff, wrong place, too much/too little) a big risk. The solution may be better clarity by federal and State regulators on where they stand on new financial and technolgy entrants and programs they can establish to encourage innovation.

What Nora Brownell's been doing since leaving FERC

Since leaving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2006, I have been traveling and participating in various energy infrastructure, financial and technology conferences in the US and Japan. These topics are of great interest to me and I hope to share some insights and views. Here's a brief break down of the subjects discussed at these conferences.