LOCKHEED MARTIN SPONSORS FREE ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT.

Vienna, Va.: Public Utilities Fortnightly magazine launched a new twice-monthly online resource today. Fortnightly’s Green Utility (http://greenutility.fortnightly.com) features content developed by Fortnightly’s editorial staff, focusing on renewable power generation technology, finance and regulatory policies in the United States and Canada. The new editorial resource is made possible with sponsorship support from Lockheed Martin.

Fortnightly’s Green Utility will feature exclusive articles, webcasts, intelligence and commentary, as well as special access to related articles from the archives of other publications at Public Utilities Reports Inc. — including Public Utilities Fortnightly, Fortnightly’s Spark and Utility Regulatory News.

“Green Utility will focus Fortnightly’s editorial analysis on the challenges and opportunities of building out North America’s renewable energy infrastructure,” said Michael T. Burr, Fortnightly’s Editor-in-Chief. “Fortnightly brings the world-class editorial expertise to look beyond the news and hype, and analyze renewable energy issues in a way no other publication does. Lockheed Martin’s support allows us to make this unique and objective analysis freely accessible online.”

Fortnightly’s Green Utility is part of Fortnightly.com’s growing inventory of online resources. In the past two years, Fortnightly.com launched two financial databases — the Utility ROE Database and the Transactions Database — providing data about utility ratemaking decisions and financial transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions and debt issues.

The March 1, 2011, installment of Fortnightly’s Green Utility, with a webcast and article developed by Fortnightly Contributing Editor Steven Andersen, features a conversation with tax-credit guru Keith Martin of Chadbourne & Parke. The second installment is scheduled for release on March 15.

PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY (www.fortnightly.com), published by Public Utilities Reports Inc., in Vienna, Va., is the journal of record for the U.S. utility industry, providing authoritative, in-depth analysis of trends in generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and natural gas. For more than 80 years, Public Utilities Fortnightly has delivered exclusive interviews and expert analysis to help utility-industry executives and regulators decide where to invest, how the industry will be regulated and what the future holds. Subscription rate: $287/year.

Posted: March 1st, 2011 under IGCC, R&D, biomass, carbon regulation, climate change, efficiency, electric vehicles, geoengineering, green energy, offshore wind, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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National Grid to pay 18.7 cents/kWh with 3.5% annual escalation.

Courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3997: The long-planned and highly controversial Cape Wind project took a major step forward when the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities signed off on a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between the developer, Cape Wind Associates, and an electric utility, National Grid.

The contract covers 50% of the output of the facility, which is located offshore from Massachusetts in federal waters in Nantucket Sound. The initial price in the PPA, effective in 2013, is 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, inclusive of electricity, capacity, and renewable energy attributes. The price is subject to an annual 3.5% escalation clause.

In approving the contract, the department noted that National Grid had demonstrated a need for additional sources of supply and that the Cape Wind project was the best choice to satisfy that need given the project’s size, proximity, capacity factor, renewable energy benefits, and advanced stage of permitting. The department estimated that the PPA would have no more than a 1% to 2% billing impact on National Grid ratepayers. Moreover, the department found that the Cape Wind facility would moderate peak load requirements in the region. The department said it was impressed by wind data that showed that Cape Wind’s capacity factor would have averaged 76% during the area’s top ten historic peak hours. Nevertheless, the department declined to approve a second PPA for the remainder of the wind farm’s output, observing that the second contract was subject to assignment, which could include assignment to a non-jurisdictional party. For the full story, subscribe to URN.

Posted: December 23rd, 2010 under green energy, offshore wind, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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