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NEWS & TRENDS
 NEW LOW-COST LEADER
In 1999, production costs (outlays for fuel and operations and maintenance) at nuclear power plants averaged 1.83 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh), lower than costs at coal-fired plants (2.07 cents/kwh) and still far lower than costs at oil-fired plants (3.18 cents/kwh) and natural gas plants (3.52 cents/kwh).
In 1998, average production costs for coal-fired plants were 2.07 cents/kwh, with nuclear energy plants at 2.13 cents/kwh, oil-fired units at 3.24 cents/kwh, and natural gas plants at 3.30 cents/kwh, according to UDI.
Data were taken directly from the Form 1 filings that utilities are required to make annually with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The past year's spikes in oil and natural gas prices are not yet reflected in the full-year data.
Average production costs at nuclear powerplants have not been lower than those for coal-fired plants since the mid-1980s, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), when industry-wide safety improvements caused the nuclear industry to lose the production-cost advantage that it had held.
HOOKING UP FROM HOME
In its effort to go digital, Cinergy recently announced that it would provide its U.S. employees a computer and subsidized internet access for use at home.
In the program, Cinergy is partnering with an as yet unnamed information services company to provide both computers and unlimited home internet access, along with full 24-hour technical support, at a nominal fee. Employees will own the computer, which will be for their own personal and family use, and the company will partially subsidize the internet connection. Cinergy is offering this program to full-time, active employees, including approximately 3,800 in Ohio, 3,100 in Indiana, and 600 in Kentucky.
"Technology is impacting every part of our business, and this is a way we can use it to have our employees and their families become more comfortable with the digital age," said James E. Rogers, Cinergy's chairman, president, and CEO. "It also gives us an interactive channel for exchanging information to deepen our relationships with our employees wherever they may live."
According to the company, Cinergy is in the process of converting to a digital utility, allowing employees and customers to access the company over the internet to perform most of their normal business functions. Electric commodity functions were web-enabled last year, and the distribution system should be completed in late 2001. This project will provide leading-edge technology to integrate energy delivery information systems and standardize work processes. It also provides web-enabled self-service options to regulated customers for billing, scheduling, enrollment in utility-sponsored programs, outage information, and account maintenance.
JOBS WELL DONE I: EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Three utility companies garnered 2000 Emergency Response and Assistance Awards from Edison Electric Institute in January.
Carolina Power & Light (CP&L) was awarded for its response to a snowstorm of historic proportions that hit in January 2000, affecting 20 percent of the company's service area and leaving more than 173,000 customers without power. Company crews battled two feet of snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures—and within 24 hours of activating its emergency preparedness plan, the utility had restored power to nearly half its affected customers. Due to recent investments in technology, customer service representatives were able to provide accurate power restoration predictions to customers who called. The utility also used innovative techniques in its efforts, including storm modeling to identify necessary resources, a centralized damage assessment system, and centralized staging and logistical support.
CP&L also won awards in 2000 for its response to Hurricane Floyd and in 1999 for its response to Hurricane Bonnie.
Georgia Power was honored for its recovery efforts following Ice Storm 2000, which hit the Atlanta metropolitan and northern areas of Georgia in two waves in January, five days apart. With more than 2,100 line and support personnel, the company succeeded, within the first 24 hours after the first storm, in restoring service to over half the 325,000 customers who suffered outages. As the company wrapped up these recovery efforts, a second storm hit the same areas. In preparation for the second wave, the company called upon its Mutual Assistance partners—neighboring utilities—to supply additional crews. A constant focus on safety in every aspect of the restoration resulted in complete power recovery with no significant injuries.
A key factor in Georgia Power's success was its Storm Evaluation Restoration Procedures, a protocol that covered five functional areas of responsibility—storm director, manpower, intelligence, logistics, and communications. The company had added several new and innovative techniques to this protocol.
Entergy won the Emergency Assistance Award stemming from its aid to Florida Power & Light Company (FPL, now Entergy's merger partner) as it responded to Hurricane Irene in October 1999. Entergy's swift action came on the heels of a major recovery effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd, during which it sent crews to assist five other utilities (for which Entergy won an earlier Emergency Assistance Award, made last year, and the same assistance award in 1999, for its help with Hurricane Georges). Hurricane Irene resulted in service interruptions to 1.7 million customers, requiring a massive workforce to repair line damage caused by fallen tree limbs. At FPL's request, Entergy sent 200 line and support personnel to southeastern Florida. Entergy has extensive experience moving large storm teams over great distances and, as a result, was highly effective in lining up mechanics, caterers, transportation and supply chain specialists, safety coordinators, and logistics personnel.
JOBS WELL DONE II: NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
The energy managers at national chains perform a unique art: managing energy in multiple locations throughout the country or regions of it. Edison Electric Institute (EEI) recognized the accomplishments of several national accounts customers with four awards, all made during last September's annual National Accounts Energy Management Awards program, which was conceived and developed by multisite companies and EEI members.
"The program encourages new energy-management practices, innovative technology use, and the noncompetitive transfer of information among the chains," said Steve Kiesner, director of EEI's national accounts program. "The practices and technologies put in use by the winners will affect hundreds of multisite facilities, benefiting the economy, environment, and the consumer."
Winning the Partnership Award was Staples (the office supply chain) and three of its energy partners. National Grid worked with Staples to reconfigure a store in Massachusetts to conform to new American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers standards. The energy company provided monitoring and analysis equipment, as well as a team of air quality experts to run tests at the site, and Staples was able to quantify and qualify its efforts in meeting the new standards. The partnership also led to the discovery of potential problems, such as the possibility of energy management systems being overridden by store personnel.
Northeast Utilities and Staples worked together on a lighting study in the chain's Killingly, CT, distribution center. The standard metal halide system Staples had been using and an innovative fluorescent lighting system were compared—the latter system, providing comparable light levels, produced significant energy savings. Occupancy sensors were also used for the first time in the narrow storage aisles that are used intermittently.
Southern California Edison partnered with Staples on the chain's newly constructed third distribution center. With SCE architects, engineers, and national accounts representatives, Staples implemented a series of efficiency measures, including skylights, light sensors, two-stage exhaust fans, and new control systems. The annual energy savings for these initiatives were around $132,000.
Wal-Mart's Jeff Bowen received the Technology and Innovation Award. Wal-Mart had several lighting issues within their distribution centers: high energy costs, productivity, lighting breakage problems, lamp life concerns (especially near conveyor belts), and maintenance and efficiency concerns. After extensive testing, Bowen installed the latest technology in dimmable ballasts and occupancy controls so that lights would operate at full load only when there was someone in the work area. He also improved lighting to make recognition of materials faster and more efficient and designed a system that redirected light in ways to give it increased uniformity—and after doing so measured productivity and energy efficiency increases.
The Energy Professional of the Year was La Quinta Inns' Jim Ackles, a leader in the energy management field in the lodging industry; and the Industry Mentoring Award went to Larry Fichuk of Blockbuster, for his willingness and eagerness to share positive, productive information with his peers.
 A CENTURY AGO, AT THE END OF THE EARTH
What the air quality was like during the last century? To find some answers, in January a team of university and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists began to search the snowpack for 100-year-old air samples at the South Pole.
The pockets of air trapped in the snowpack will provide scientists with an historical record of gases that were present in the atmosphere during this period. Researchers will then be able to analyze the data for clues to how human activity has influenced atmospheric processes.
In a project supported by the National Science Foundation and NOAA, the six investigators (from Bowdoin College, NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, the University of Wisconsin, and Princeton University) drew air from the snowpack at incremental depths, stopping at about 120 meters, at which point the snow turns to ice. They then collected the air samples and returned them for initial analyses to government and university labs in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
"It is important that we get these air samples now," said Jim Butler of NOAA. "Each year we delay, we lose a year of history, as the snow turns to ice at the bottom of the hole. Just a few years from now, we will not be able to obtain air samples that span the entire 20th century, a time of rapid population, agricultural, and industrial growth."
Studies by the same research team published in Nature in 1996 and 1999 indicated that the composition of the atmosphere has changed dramatically over the past 100 years, presumably because of human activities. The studies demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining representative atmospheric histories from air trapped in the snowpack that sits atop the polar ice sheets.
Although longer histories of some gases can be obtained from ice cores, the gas samples are tiny, and current analytical techniques do not allow for accurate measurement of trace gases in these minute amounts. In the snowpack, however, the amount of air is essentially unlimited. This allows for high-precision measurement of gases that occur in very low concentrations in the atmosphere.
Due to the scientific requirements of the project, the field team camped near the South Pole while they drilled, instead of residing inside the permanent facility at the South Pole. Temperatures at the South Pole in January ranged from -11 to -40 degrees and wind speeds average about 11 miles per hour.
VOTE FOR AMERICA'S NATIONAL TREE
The United States has a national emblem (the bald eagle), a national anthem (the "Star Spangled Banner"), a national motto ("In God We Trust"), a national flower (the rose), and even a national march ("Stars and Stripes Forever").
But it doesn't have a national tree. Now the American public has the opportunity to remedy that. When you visit the National Arbor Day Foundation website (www.arborday.org), you can vote for one of 21 different trees. Maybe the redwood seems uniquely American to you, or maybe you like the New England-y maple, or the magnolia or palm if you're from the south, or Douglas fir if you're from the north. The site contains educational material on the tree candidates—you can also write in your own selection. Online voting will take place from January 1, 2001, through midnight before National Arbor Day (traditionally the last Friday in April), April 27, 2001.
People may also mail their vote to America's National Tree, National Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, NE 68410, by April 1, 2001.
Arbor Day is an observance that encourages tree planting and tree care. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska in 1872, in response to a state proclamation urging settlers and homesteaders in that prairie state to plant trees that would provide shade, shelter, fruit, fuel, and beauty for residents of the largely treeless plains. On that day, more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska.
Electric utilities have traditionally supported Arbor Day—after all, trees and power lines are integral components of every community and need to co-exist. And more than 30 shareholder-owned utilities are members of the National Arbor Day Foundation's Tree Line USA program, which promotes the dual goals of dependable utility service and healthy trees in America's communities.
IN THE CAN
Scientists have been unable to produce fusion energy—created when the nuclei of light elements fuse to form heavier elements, and a potentially unlimited fuel source—on a small, controllable basis. But researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are investigating a new route. In the magnetized target fusion (MTF) process, a heated gas plasma is injected into a soda-can-sized aluminum cylinder, and the cylinder and its contents are then quickly compressed by an electrical current driven through the cylinder wall. As the fuel compresses at extreme thermonuclear pressure, it burns in a few millionths of a second.
Within this mass of high-density plasma, researchers hope to produce tiny amounts of fusion energy. The process' rather compact size could mean that fusion testing facilities could cost millions of dollars rather than billions.
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