Our Blog
Barrons – Baby Bonds
The latest issue of Barron's had an article discussing "Baby Bonds". These bonds typically have a $25 par value, and most trade just like stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. (See article here.) Two electric utility bonds were actually mentioned in the article, one by the Tennessee Valley Auth
Wildfires
Investors in California utilities, particularly PCG, have been thinking about wildfires a lot lately. People keep discussing the increase in fires over the last few decades, and that utilities could be at risk for some of the costs of the fires if their equipment is involved in the start of the
Natural Gas Storage August 2018
With the shale revolution, natural gas has become the biggest generating fuel for electricity in the US. This winter's high natural gas usage brought storage levels this winter to their lowest levels since the polar vortex winter of 2014. Since the end of winter, storage levels have increased, b
GenOn power plant review published
This week I finished a review of GenOn's power plant fleet. All of their plants with over 200MW of capacity were reviewed. Click here for more information about ordering a copy of this report. The company has been in the bankruptcy process for over a year now. It is not clear when this ca
Barron’s – Why Utility Stocks Are Worth a Second Look
This weekend’s Barron’s had a large article on utility stocks and their current attractiveness. (see article here) A lot of the article discussed utilities and their relationship to bond yields. Yields have not moved up as much as investors expected over recent times, which has helped utili
Electricity usage during the Super Bowl
After a great Super Bowl game my thoughts turn, of course, to what was happening with our infrastructure during the game. Last week ISO New England put out an article analyzing New England usage during last year's Super Bowl. (Article can be found here.) The article showed this nice chart showin
Barron’s – Don’t Chase Utility Yields
The latest Barron's had an article on the utility sector, and the threat it faces from rising interest rates. (See article here.) The article included a chart showing the XLU's performance vs. the 10-year treasury for the last five years. I've expanded that chart to go back 15 years. Source: Fa
Energy Transitions
Page 10 of the January 2018 issue of Power Magazine had some nice charts showing the generating mix of the five largest electricity generation regions in the world. (Charts can be found here) All of the charts are done as a % of total generation. To compare the size of the different markets, h
Barron’s – Pacific Gas and Electric
The latest issue of Barron's recommended the purchase of Pacific Gas and Electric (PCG). (See article here) The stock has been pummeled since October as wildfires in the state put the company at risk for some liabilities from the blaze. An additional drop came when the company decided to suspend
New England natural gas generation
RBN Energy's blog post this morning discussed the situation in New England for electrical generation this winter. (See post here. It is only free for non-subscribers for a few days, so check it out soon) The basic problem is that New England keeps adding natural gas fired generation and closing