Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 31 May 2008 | Tagged as: General, Energy
AP via Yahoo! News:
The utility that owns a steam pipe that exploded in midtown Manhattan last summer sued the city and a company hired to fix leaks in the pipe, saying improperly injected sealant and water from nearby sewer and pipelines contributed to the blast.
Consolidated Edison Corp. has already been named in more than 40 lawsuits following the July 18 explosion near Grand Central Terminal.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 30 May 2008 | Tagged as: General, Electric
Maryland power companies, businesses and labor groups announced yesterday that they are banding together to push for new electricity supplies to prevent rolling brownouts.
The founders of Marylanders for Reliable Power say few consumers are aware that the region’s soaring demand for power, coupled with limited supply, will continue to make the state vulnerable to power shortages that could lead to brownouts in three years.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 May 2008 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
For the second year running, the U.S. ranked 15th among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development in terms of broadband availability. Denmark ranked first again in the annual OECD survey, followed by a host of European and Asian nations. Indeed, while the number of Americans with access to broadband service rose 20% last year, to nearly 70 million people, the most in the OECD, that amounted to just 23 of every 100 residents. By contrast, the top five countries in the OECD ranking all sport per-capita penetration rates of better than 30%.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 May 2008 | Tagged as: General, Electric
Parts of Maryland are still at risk for isolated blackouts as early as 2011 unless new transmission lines are built to get energy to where it’s needed most, regional grid operator PJM Interconnection told state utility regulators yesterday.
The latest assessment comes despite significant progress by power generators and utilities toward addressing the region’s growing energy needs through a combination of power plant upgrades and conservation measures aimed at cutting demand. Though the risk has diminished some since a similar assessment last fall, whether the lights stay on after 2011 may hinge on a critical multistate power line proposed by Allegheny Energy.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 20 May 2008 | Tagged as: General, Electric
POWER plants could be sabotaged by a simple internet attack that shuts down their control systems.
Core Security in Boston, Massachusetts, has discovered a serious vulnerability in a software package called Suitelink that is widely used to automate the operation of power stations, oil refineries and production lines. This could allow attackers to crash Suitelink by sending an outsize data packet to a certain port on the computer running the program. Suitelink’s maker, Wonderware, has since issued a software patch to plug the security gap.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
Traditional land-line phones, once the bedrock of communications in the USA, are quickly going the way of eight-track tapes as consumers go wireless or choose Internet-based phone calling.
According to a report due to be released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly one out of every six homes in the USA — 15.8% — had only wireless telephones during the second half of 2007, up from 6.1% during the same period in 2004.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: Nuclear
York Daily Record (PA):
The U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission will boost its number of inspections at Three Mile Island Unit 1 based on a security-related violation that occurred at the plant last summer.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 16 May 2008 | Tagged as: Water, Wastewater
Faced with a persistent drought and the threat of tighter water supplies, Los Angeles plans to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies, joining a growing number of cities considering similar measures.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 13 May 2008 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Environment
PPL Corp. plans to build and design a rooftop solar system for New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough Corp. that is being billed as the largest in the country.
The company said in a news release Monday the 1.7 megawatt system will be installed on eight buildings at Schering-Plough’s campus in Summit, N.J.
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 13 May 2008 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Environment
Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.
The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.
Such growth would pose a number of major challenges, but is achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs, said the report released yesterday.
Welcome to Utility News, a law blog hosted by Saul Ewing LLP. Utility News is a source of information for individuals interested in public utilities and their regulation.
Edward G. Lanza, Editor
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