generation fleet

Today we would like to remember and pay tribute to a BTLS Expert who has recently passed away. Professor Lester Lave of Carnegie Mellon University was a renowned economist and humanitarian. One of his most important legacies remains his research—the critically important research which first established a direct link between air pollution and its health impacts on humans. Lester's findings would eventually become the basis for early federal and state regulations to improve air quality in the U.S.

Lester earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University and served eight years as head of CMU's Department of Economics. Lester was also Director of the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute and Co-Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. Lester first caught the attention of BTLS producers because of his integral role in energy and efficiency related research—but it was his outspoken nature and unwavering dedication to the truth that really make his presence in the documentary a standout. Interviewing Lester was truly an honor.

Lester is survived by his wife of 46 years, Judith, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and their two children; Jonathan M. Lave of Washington, D.C., and Tamara R. Lave of Miami; and two grandsons. His family has asked that memorial contributions be made to charity.

Click here to read the New York Times’ tribute to Mr. Lave, or hit 'Read more' below to read a thoughtful account of Lester’s professional history, written for the Environmental Science and Technology journal by a few of Lester’s friends and fellow Carnegie Mellon professors; Jay Apt, Chris T. Hendrickson and M. Granger Morgan.......

Reports continued to come in Monday night detailing the third explosion to hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the past 4 days.The plant, located in northeastern Japan, was first ravaged by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that hit northern Japan last week. Soon after, two hydrogen explosions caused fires that have since been contained. News of the first two explosions only worsened the public's fear of a catastrophic release of radiation into the atmosphere. According to one report, the third explosion "was heard at 6:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Nuclear Safety Agency said at a news conference. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect."

Not good news. And while leaking radiation is a major fear, early reports still vary when it comes to just how bad the situation is. According to the TIME NewsFeed: "In a televised address to the nation at 11 a.m., Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke of the high-pressure situation. Kan advised people within 19 miles of the affected power plant to stay indoors. According to the Associated Press, some 180,000 people within a 12-mile radius had already been evacuated. "There is a very high risk of further radioactive leaks," he said."I ask you to stay calm." Still, it has been confirmed that "radiation leaks are now severe enough to pose a significant threat to people's health"...and that's a statement from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety spokesman.

The massive earthquake, which has shifted the entire island of Japan by an estimated eight feet, is truly a disaster on a global scale. It's also a disaster that has very suddenly thrust nuclear power back into the limelight...and to say the exposure has been unflattering would obviously be a gross understatement. This is the kind of disaster, on the scale of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, that will take people—both in Japan, and elsewhere—a very long time to forget...or forgive.

Right now, the hope is that the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will avoid a full meltdown. CBS News defines a meltdown as "when the nuclear fuel inside the reactor gets so hot, it literally melts. Uranium pellets are inside the long fuel rods. If the reactor is not cooled properly, the tubes can fall apart, with the radioactive material falling to the bottom." A description that sounds scarily like the preface to a China Syndrome-esque scenario, but CBS News has also reported that the situation at Fukushima Dai-ichi is not yet as bad as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and nowhere near the Chernobly tragedy: "Even with the two [update: three] Fukushima explosions, so far this is nothing like Chernobyl. In 1986, the control rods malfunctioned and the fuel rods melted down. A subsequent explosion catapulted tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere."

California's largest electric utility is desperate to slow down a new program that's going to revolutionize the way small businesses pay for their power. The company claims customers need more time to understand 'dynamic' pricing, but higher "time-of-use" rates will mean a new way of doing business for many of California's small business owners.

Consumer advocate groups and The California Small Business Association have come out against the new pricing for electricity, but state regulators have already approved the program. According to the San Francisco Chronicle "PG&E in November will start charging its roughly 500,000 small-business customers different rates for electricity at different times of day. Businesses will also face significantly higher rates on a handful of days each year when power supplies are strained, either by hot weather or problems with the electricity grid."

It should be noted that business owners will be able to "opt out" of the program —for the time being, anyway. According to The Chronicle, "the California Small Business Association has now asked the California Public Utilities Commission, which approved PG&E's program, to slow down the timetable for the changes. And PG&E, to an extent, agrees, arguing that the utility needs more time to educate its customers."

What utilities like PG&E want to "educate" all of us about is the transition to "time-of-use" rates. So what does all of this actually mean? Wikipedia breaks down the different categories of time-based pricing in relation to electricity industry like this:

• time-of-use pricing (TOU pricing)—whereby electricity prices are set for a specific time period on an advance or forward basis, typically not changing more often than twice a year. Prices paid for energy consumed during these periods are pre-established and known to consumers in advance, allowing them to vary their usage in response to such prices and manage their energy costs by shifting usage to a lower cost period or reducing their consumption overall;
• critical peak pricing—whereby time-of-use prices are in effect except for certain peak days, when prices may reflect the costs of generating and/or purchasing electricity at the wholesale level
• real-time pricing (also: dynamic pricing)—whereby electricity prices may change as often as hourly (exceptionally more often). Price signal is provided to the user on an advanced or forward basis, reflecting the utility’s cost of generating and/or purchasing electricity at the wholesale level; and
• peak load reduction credits—for consumers with large loads who enter into pre-established peak load reduction agreements that reduce a utility’s planned capacity obligations.

The Wiki-editors go on to recommend dynamic pricing, saying that "time-based pricing will reflect the price variations on the market. Such variations include both regular oscillations due to the demand pattern of users, supply issues (such as availability of intermittent natural resources: water flow, wind), and occasional exceptional price peaks." The general idea is that dynamic pricing begets consumer response—once people are paying more for electricity depending on when they use it, they tend to pay more attention to their usage. While it may be true that Americans have long enjoyed cheap electric rates in comparison to other countries, but the days of power that's "too cheap to meter" are decidedly coming to an end...