Officials said they could be forced to issue a second voltage reduction or brief rolling blackouts if conservation efforts and imports fail to make up any shortfalls this evening.  “We do not expect to take that [load shed] action,” Executive Vice President for Operations Mike Kormos said during a media call today.

PJM and state regulators urged consumers to reduce energy use during the emergency. “Every little bit helps,” Kormos said. “There’s 60 million people in our footprint. If everyone does their part, that could easily add up to one nuclear plant, which is 1,000 MWs.”

“We’re very close [to generation limits],” Kormos added. “The last couple hundred megawatts could allow us to not have to take any forced interruptions.”

Sam Brownback, Republican Kanas Governor, and lawmakers in a dozen other US states who fought off cynical attacks to repeal state Renewable Portfolio Standards, which have catalysed thousands of wind and solar projects across the country and generated hundreds of thousands of jobs.

hero |ˈhi(ə)rō|
noun (pl. heroes)
1 a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities: a war hero.

The recent disclosure of the manipulation of scientific evidence by climate researchers is exactly the kind of important information that needs to be brought to light. The emails and documents recently disclosed paint an alarming picture of the state of climate research. In the emails that have been disclosed we’ve seen evidence of manipulation, efforts to avoid freedom of act information requests, abuse of the peer review process and a research process that that is driven more by a political agenda than a quest for truth. [Brownback, DeMint, Ensign, Isakson, Vitter, and Wicker, 12/8/09]

Due to an exceptional amount of pressing business, the KCC inadvertently failed to notice the subject proceeding until after the date for timely intervention had passed.

...the KCC’s failure to file a timely intervention was based upon factors outside of its control.

[KCC] is the regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over the wholesale and retail rates that will be impacted by the proposed formula rate and incentive rate adders filed for approval in this docket.

FirstEnergy and other utilities began to slide in May after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the central bank could begin go to pull back on its stimulus measures.

FirstEnergy, which serves 6 million customers across the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, also got hit after the company posted a nearly 50% drop in earnings for the third quarter due to cooler than usual summer temperatures cutting the need for air conditioning. Shares have recently been trading at their lowest levels in a decade.

Mr. Akins said he wants to avoid the bruising battles that delayed or doomed big projects in the past, like the 275-mile Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline project from West Virginia to Maryland. AEP and partner FirstEnergy Corp. dropped development plans for the complex project in 2011.

"Sometimes, we were just dreaming" that the companies could get enormous power lines built across multiple states, Mr. Akins said. He said AEP now is focusing on shorter projects blessed by federal regulators that eliminate grid bottlenecks. "It's where you want to put your money," he said.

This includes traditional tactics, such as upgrading power poles and trimming trees near power lines. But it also encompasses newer approaches, such as microgrids and energy storage, which allow operators to quickly reconfigure the system when portions of the grid go down. Implicit to such plans is the need to ensure uninterrupted power to critical sites such as oil and gas refineries, water-treatment plants, and telecommunication networks, as well as gasoline stations, hospitals, and pharmacies.

Some of the nation’s leaders seem receptive to such approaches.

Citizens also are concerned about their power bills, as the state Public Service Commission investigates allegations that Potomac Edison has not been reading residential meters in accordance with state law. The case follows customer complaints that the company cut back on its staff of professional readers and replaced them with a band of turbaned gypsies who gaze into the meters and estimate power usage.

Citizens tell the PSC they became suspicious when a bill came with a note predicting that the customer would “find an apple tree with seven apples and after eating one would grow three stag horns and find his flesh separated from his bones.”

...a transformation of the company’s structure and a shifting notion of what AEP needs to do to remain relevant in a changing energy landscape.

In doing so, the company is de-emphasizing what was once a crown jewel, the fleet of Ohio power plants, and putting a greater focus on developing an interstate network of power lines.

“The less we have to spend on centralized generation, the better off we are,” he said in a recent interview.

When he says “centralized generation,” he means big power plants. AEP will be closing more plants than it is building.

The company is shifting resources so it can expand its transmission system, made up of the high-voltage power lines that carry electricity across state lines and between metro areas.

...NRG is installing solar panels on rooftops of homes and businesses and in the future will offer natural gas-fired generators to customers to kick in when the sun goes down, Chief Executive Officer David Crane said in an interview.

AEP, which was reluctant to split its Ohio operations, has responded by focusing on the delivery business.

Meanwhile, the Ohio power plants are a shrinking asset. Because of environmental rules and the age of some of the plants, the company has announced a series of shutdowns that will occur over the next few years.

Also, AEP is in the process of transferring two plants away from Ohio regulation. The plants, both of which are in West Virginia near the Ohio line, will be regulated in nearby states that allow a utility to sell electricity directly to consumers.

Once the moves are complete, AEP will have 8,668 megawatts of power-plant capacity in the new Ohio power-plant subsidiary, which will be down from 11,652 megawatts today.

Akins says the company is responding to an economic climate in which there is little reason to build power plants in Ohio. The state’s electricity demand has been flat, and the regulatory structure provides no clear way to pay for plant construction.

Akins says he’s having fun and is eager to see the work of the past two years come to fruition.

“We are now at a point where we can start defining our success,” he said. “Before, we had a huge anvil we were dragging around, whether it be environmental expense or whether it be other things we were dealing with that were reactionary. We’re finally at a point where we can map out the strategy of this company going forward. It is exhilarating.”

When FirstEnergy selects gifts for its Board members at Christmas, they have one very firm requirement: They must be handmade in America.

"Not only are we supporting American artists, but we are also giving a unique, not mass-produced, American made gift to each of our board members. I urge all American businesses to look towards supporting American artists," says Tony Alexander, President & CEO.

Before filing the lawsuit, Skinner sent a letter to Potomac Edison, asking the company to correct its billing inaccuracies as required by the Consumer Credit and Protection Act. Potomac Edison representatives failed to respond.