Welcome to Nikita Rao, Author on the Electric Power Industry

I’m delighted to announce that a razor-sharp graduate student at USC, Nikita Rao, will be joining us at 2GreenEnergy as an intern.  Her master’s program focused on the electric power industry, a topic that I know we’d all like to understand better, and she’ll be researching and writing on a variety of related topics.

I was just about to write her a note, offering some suggestions, when I realized there is nothing private about these ideas.  Why not use this note to Nikita as a means to introduce her, and share what I’m thinking?   Here goes:

Nikita:

Again, we’re thrilled to have you on board.  Per our talk on the phone just now, here are a few ideas for your research and writing:

• In addition to the generation of the power itself, there are numerous issues related to the subject:  smart grid, energy storage, high-voltage transmission, etc.  And each of these is good for all constituencies: generation, transmission, distribution, and rate-payers.  Given that, how do we determine who should pay it?

• In what sense is the electric power industry “broken?”  The common American still wants cheap, reliable power, just like he did 100 years ago.  Why do so few people understand and care about this?  There is even push-back on smart meters.  What can be done to bring about change?

• Why isn’t there a federal RPS?  Granted, different regions of the country have varying amounts of renewable resources, but can’t (and shouldn’t) this be mandated at the federal level?

• 30 of our 50 states mine coal.  I.e., 60 of our 100 senators represent the coal industry.  How, if at all, does this influence policy-making in Washington?

• Opponents to electric transportation say that, in most cases, additional load on the grid at night is met with an increase in the consumption of coal, and that this is far worse for the environment than the gasoline it replaced.  In what cases is this true?  What are the trends here?

• Outside of the grid-mix, what are the other relationships between electric transportation and the power grid? What about providing ancillary service with V2G?  What about facilitating the integration of more off-peak wind energy?

• What about utility scale energy storage?  Please comment on:  http://2greenenergy.com/2014/01/17/bill-gates-and-energy-storage/ and other promising technologies, e.g., Eos Energy Storage.

• What inspired CBS’s “60 Minutes” to produce this outrageously unfair attack on cleantech: http://2greenenergy.com/2014/01/06/60-minutes-cleantech/

• The politics here is nasty.  Ron Binz (whom I favored) withdrew his name as a potential nominee to run FERC, under pushback from Koch Industries and other supporters of coal-fired energy.   Can you explore this for us, please? http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/ron-binz-ferc-nominee-withdraws-name-97623.html

• What are your projections for flavors of renewable energy from our oceans about which we hear relatively little?  Tidal, ocean current, wave, and OTEC?

• What’s happening with nuclear?  What are your projects for SMNRs? http://energy.gov/ne/nuclear-reactor-technologies/small-modular-nuclear-reactors?

• We all hear that the utilities are in trouble, given the trends that militate against them, chiefly distributed generation.  What’s your take on this?

• Where does the most job growth in the energy sector appear to be happening?  How will this change as the costs of solar and wind continue to fall?

• We hear that there has been an uptick in the number of Americans who disbelieve in climate change.  What’s behind this?  Why is this so different from the attitudes and beliefs, of say, the Europeans?

• Why does it matter what the U.S. does vis-à-vis cleantech when China is building a new coal-fired power plant at the rate of one a week?

Again, we’re very pleased to have you on board.  Speaking for all of us, welcome; we eagerly look forward to reading your work.