Off Peak
July 1, 2003
Booked Up This Summer?
Surfside reading for the energy workaholic.
The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation
Utility deregulation is the biggest consumer rip-off since the S&L debacle, activist Harvey Wasserman argues. He says electric competition has wider and more deadly implications: costs running to trillions of dollars, environmental threats, and the further delay of renewables like wind and solar energy.
Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power
Ed Smeloff and Peter Asmus consider the challenges for citizens and the utility industry in this new era of competition. Through an in-depth case study of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), a once-troubled utility that is now widely regarded as a model for energy efficiency and renewable energy development, they explore the changes that have occurred in the utility industry, and the implications of those changes for the future. The SMUD portrait is complemented by regional case studies of Portland General Electric and the Washington Public Power Supply System, the New England Electric Service, Northern States Power, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, and others that highlight the efforts of citizen groups and utilities to eliminate unproductive and environmentally damaging sources of power and to promote the use of new, cleaner energy technologies.
Least-Cost Electric Utility Planning
Harry G. Stoll in seven sections addresses economics, finance, and regulation; industrial power economics; load demand and management; reliability of the generation system; cost of production in the generation system; capacity planning; and transmission planning. Each section treats power system theory and principles, and applies them to realistic utility examples. Results from solved examples are expanded to illustrate the sensitivity and direction of key parameters.
Reaping the Wind: How Mechanical Wizards, Visionaries, and Profiteers Helped Shape Our Energy Future
Journalist Peter Asmus tells the fascinating and convoluted history of commercial wind power in the United States. He introduces readers to maverick scientists and technologists who labored in obscurity, to entrepreneurs and visionary capitalists who believed that a centuries-old idea could be made feasible in the modern world, and to enterprising financial advisers and investors who sought to exploit the last great tax shelter in federal history.
Source: Amazon.com
Public
Utilities Fortnightly & Spark
