NW Energy Coalition – For a clean and affordable energy future

Customers right to be wary of smart grid
“Cyberfying” the electric system is one of the biggest topics in today’s energy world. Article after article extols the wonderful things the smart grid will do for customers, from heightening energy system reliability and safety, to capturing energy efficiencies, to more easily incorporating renewable resources and facilitating electric vehicles, etc.

Given all these assumed benefits, smart grid proponents seem surprised that so many consumer advocacy organizations — particularly those concerned about low-income ratepayers – are urging caution.

How green is my electron? Overcoming the smart grid’s color blindness
Energy journals and, increasingly, the popular media now teem with updates and predictions on developing “smart grid” technologies … how they will help smooth power demand, greatly improve efficiency and outage/service response, and reward consumers with lower bills.

This issue of The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system. tackles the question of why the smart grid isn’t necessarily a green grid and, in fact, could actually foster greater demand for power from coal-fueled or nuclear baseload plants. It also presents one proposed means of dealing with the problem: buying green electrons…

The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system.: A cheaper bright future

The region’s new power and conservation plan closely tracks NW Energy Coalition’s Bright Future analysis and provides an even lower consumer cost estimate for achieving our clean energy vision…

The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system. – Energy efficiency brings good things to life

The new official power and conservation plan for the Northwest confirms that more than enough inexpensive energy efficiency is availability to meet most new electricity needs.

Click here to subscribe to The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system. and The Energy Activist Update

More and more utilities are rushing to substitute gas-fired combustion turbines for coal in their resource plans while rapidly expanding their use of renewables and efficiency. But are the assumptions behind this change correct? The new rush to gas is raising serious questions about domestic and international supply, price and price volatility, and lifecycle carbon emissions. This edition of The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system. addresses those questions and considers the controversy surrounding liquefied natural gas.

Using simple smart water heaters to integrate intermittent renewables
– Wind-generated power is clean, relatively cheap and available in large quantities. But the wind itself is quite unpredictable, so much so that for each average megawatt (aMWAn average megawatt is 1 million watts delivered continuously for one year, or enough for 728 residential electricity customers in the Northwest.) of wind power we need, we must erect about 3 megawatts of turbine capacity, since actual output could be anywhere from 0 to 3 megawatts at any instant.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are a step beyond traditional hybrid vehicles. Much of their fuel comes directly from the electric grid, and thus their extensive employment has significant implications for the electric power system.

This issue of The TransformerThe Transformer is an online publication from the NW Energy Coalition offering in-depth analysis of policy discussions influencing the Northwest power system. considers those implications…

Vol. 5, No. 3 When big money talks, it pays to listen: Financiers cast critical eye on coal plant proposals Background This February, a press release from four of the country’s largest financial institutions caught utilities’ attention. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Chase and Bank of America announced they had endorsed a set of carbon principles to [...]

Points and counterpoints on decoupling Transformer Background Our Nov. 28 Transformer on decoupling, a strategy for overcoming potential revenue losses for utilities that invest in energy efficiency, elicited a flurry of electronic responses. Several writers were complimentary; others sought clarifications of insider terminology (we’ll keep working on that!) or additional information, which we supplied them [...]