Understanding Today's Electricity Business

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"I teach an annual graduate seminar on energy policy at our university. The class attracts emerging leaders from several local electric utilities and others who have worked in this business for years; it also attracts students who are completely new to the subject. I am constantly searching for the right book to assign at the beginning of the course to ensure that everyone in the class shares a basic understanding of the jargon, history, and emerging issues in this fascinating and important industry.

I have used this book as my lead off text the last two years and have been delighted with the results. The newcomers in my class tell me it gives them the foundation they need to understand and benefit from the presentations my guest speakers and I give on fairly complex topics later in the term. Most of the more seasoned professionals in my class hold on to it as a reference manual; they say it helps to remind them how the particular piece of the electricity industry they work in fits into the broader picture. The book is updated regularly to keep up with this rapidly changing industry. I definitely plan to use it again this year and can recommend it to other teachers and professors or anyone who is curious about this important subject."
Jeffrey Hammarlund
Portland, OR

"I teach an Energy Essentials class that uses this book. Overall, I thought the book was very good. I worked for an electric utility for 23 years and there were several things in the book that I didn't know or cleared up questions that I had. To be honest, it wouldn't hurt for most electric utility employees to go through the book because although they know their little part of the business, there are very few that understand how the entire industry works.

As for our class, we didn't use all of the book because of the time restrictions we had and also because it is a class that looks at the entire range of energy use, not just electricity. We ended up using Sections 1-6 for the spring class and are planning to do the same for the upcoming summer class. The sections we used worked very well to give the students the basic understanding of electricity and electric generation and transmission that they needed.
Tony Hiatt, PE
Salt Lake Community College".

"I work for a utility billing and CIS provider and needed a reference book to enhance my knowledge of our focus industry. This book was great, it covers all relevent topics in good depth from generation to how utilities make money under different business and regulatory models. It is surprisingly easy to read given the dryness of the topic. I highly recommend it."
Kiwi
Denver, CO

"I found that the book gives very good introduction to subject - I should have bought it a year ago, when I just started working for a utility. However, I expected it to be more dense and deep, especially when dealing with rate design issues. Anyway, I would recommend the book to anyone who begins to work in the industry, since it covers a very broad range of themes and therefore helps to level field for "electricity illiterate" person (well, I certainly was!)."
Lena
Toronto, Canada

"Was looking for a book that was current and that provided sufficient details to understand all aspects of power, from generation through transmission to distribution. The book also does a great job explaining how power is bought, sold, traded, and regulated. Energy markets and energy legislation change constantly so it was nice to get a current view into the industry. Fantastic book and highly recommended."
J. Robinson
Seattle, WA

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