Blog

Industrial Demand Charges Explained: How Peak Kilowatts Determine Your Bill

Why can similar monthly energy use produce different bills? Industrial demand charges reflect the highest average power draw during a billing interval.

Pumped Storage Hydropower: Why New Plants Are Rarely Built in Deregulated Markets

Why do pumped storage plants struggle in deregulated markets? Civil construction costs, uncertain price spreads, and rate-base recovery shape the case.

A Simple Guide to Carbon Markets: Cap-and-Trade, Offsets, and Carbon Taxes

How do carbon taxes, cap-and-trade allowances, and offsets differ? This guide explains who pays, which decision changes, and where each instrument applies.

Why Are Electricity Prices Negative? When Too Much Generation Becomes a Market Problem

Why are electricity prices negative? Wind and solar surpluses, grid congestion, inflexible plants, and limited storage can push wholesale prices below zero.

How Grid-Scale Batteries Make Money: The Markets from Regulation to Black Start

How do batteries make money beyond arbitrage? This guide explains regulation, reserve, voltage support and black-start revenue, plus duration limits.

Overcoming the Barriers to Cross-Border Power Trading: Tariffs, Regulation, and Infrastructure

Why do power trades stall across borders? The LTMS-PIP shows how stacked tariffs, grid capacity, licences and national rules shape delivery.

The Physical Layer: Submarine Cables and Cross-Border Interconnectors in Southeast Asia

Why do ASEAN cross-border power interconnectors often require HVDC? This article examines seabed conditions, repair-vessel constraints, and market rules.

The Lao PDR–Thailand–Malaysia–Singapore Power Integration Project: Regional Trade’s Pathfinder

The LTMS power integration project routes up to 100 MW across four ASEAN systems. Here’s how transit, losses, scheduling and settlement work.

Toward a Multilateral ASEAN Electricity Market: Lessons from European Market Coupling

How can ASEAN move beyond bilateral power deals? This article examines European market coupling, shared grid data and capacity calculation.

Harmonizing Grid Codes in ASEAN: The Technical Key to Regional Power Integration

How can ASEAN interconnectors operate reliably across national rules? Protection coordination, telemetry, scheduling, and interface standards are key.

ASEAN Power Grid Benefits: The Economic and Reliability Case for Connecting Southeast Asia

How can ASEAN interconnection cut fuel exposure and improve reliability? This analysis examines Laos hydro, reserve sharing and bilateral trade barriers.

How Utilities Forecast Data Center Load Growth

How do utilities forecast data center load? This article explains project milestones, probability-weighted demand, peak impacts, and planning horizons.