The blackout of 2003 illuminated just how dependent America is on electricity. It was not just that some 50 million people in eight states and Ontario were cut off from their televisions, microwaves, ATMs, and email. Without the electrical juice to keep their sockets alive, factory managers were forced to close production lines, city managers shut down water deliveries, grocery store clerks watched their frozen inventory slowly melt away. Economists estimated that the blackout cost Americans $5 billion even as energy analysts were predicting that a similar blackout could happen again. The catastrophe forced us to marvel at the unusual ability of sub-microscopic particles to move like waves inside a wire and cause bulbs to glow. It highlighted the complex requirements for managing the massive generators, transformers, transmission lines, and switch boxes needed to tap and deliver flowing electrons. It encouraged us to recognize the profound impact of electricity on all aspects of commerce and culture. Such events as the blackout, the Enron debacle, and the California "brownouts" also reveal the cracks in a 100-year-old industry structure that have been building ever since Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their contemporaries first managed to harness electricity and make it available to the masses, and tycoons, such as Sam Insull and George Norris, began to concentrate financial control and political influence. From Edison to Enron traces the controversial history of this $210 billion industry--the nation's largest--showcasing the key individuals, technological innovations, corporate machinations, and political battles that have been waged over its domination. Munson maintains thattoday's technological and regulatory infrastructure, as a function of its history, is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness; he points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost, that Americans pay roughly $100 billion too much each year for heat and power, and that environmentally unfriendly generators are the nation's largest polluters. Meanwhile, innovations in technology and business models are being blocked by entrenched monopolies. Ultimately, Munson argues that current policies and practices, including those favored by the Bush Administration, are preventing entrepreneurs from producing more efficient, healthy, and sustainable power supplies. Moreover, he presents an agenda for business and policy reforms that will stimulate economic development in the United States and around the world.

Jackups, semisubmersibles and drillships are the marine vessels used to drill offshore wells and are referred to collectively as mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs). MODUs are supplied through newbuild construction and operate throughout the world in highly competitive regional markets. The Offshore Drilling Industry and Rig Construction Market in the Gulf of Mexico examines the global MODU service and construction industry and describes the economic impacts of rig construction in the United States. The industrial organization and major players in the contract drilling and construction markets are described and categorized. Dayrates in the contract drilling market are evaluated and hypotheses regarding dayrate factors are tested. Models of contractor decision-making are developed, including a net-present value model of newbuilding investment and stacking decisions, and market capitalization models are derived. Jackup construction shipyards and processes are reviewed along with estimates of labor, equipment, and material cost in U.S. construction. Derivation of newbuild and replacement cost functions completes the treatise. The comprehensive and authoritative coverage of The Offshore Drilling Industry and Rig Construction Market in the Gulf of Mexico makes it an ideal reference for engineers, industry professionals, policy analysts, government regulators, academics and other readers wanting to learn more about this important and fascinating industry.

This book provides a comprehensive discussion of the public policy and management issues that are encountered in the regulation of infrastructure and utilities. Drawing from theoretical arguments and several case studies, the book is divided into three parts, namely devising regulation, installing regulation, and making regulation work. The first part covers theories of regulation, regulatory policies, strategies and tools, and regulatory reforms. The second part deals with the politics of regulation and regulatory capacity. The third part discusses regulatory commitment and investments, the performance of regulated industries, and the design of regulatory systems. Case studies pay attention to various sectors (including water, electricity, telecommunications, highways, railways, district heating, and airports) from countries in every region of the world. ; ;

From Oil to Gas and Beyond chronicles the history of the petroleum industry in Trinidad and Tobago and appraises major policy decisions impacting its economy. The book details the macroeconomic, commercial, and technical challenges faced by Trinidad and Tobago in the monetization of its oil and gas resources over the past one hundred years. The contributors cover several topics including local content, national participation, sustainability, communication, leadership, energy diplomacy, environmental law and macroeconomic policy.

"International Energy Forum 1999" was held in Washington D.C. during November 5-6, 1999 in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Crystal City. Once again the main topic was Nuclear Energy. Various papers presented contained pros and cons of Nuclear Energy for generating electricity. We were aiming to clarify the often discussed subject matter of the virtues of Nuclear Energy with regard to Global Warming as compared to using fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. The latter is also currently the only way to operate our means of transportation like automobiles, planes etc. Therefore emission into the atmosphere of greenhouse gases constitutes the main source of Global Warming, which is absent in the case of Nuclear Energy. These arguments are often put forward to promote the use of Nuclear Energy. However not all is well with the Nuclear Energy. There are the questions of the waste problem so far unsolved, safety of Nuclear Reactors is not guaranteed to the extent that they are inherently safe. If we aim to construct inherently safe reactors, then the economics of a Nuclear Reactor makes it unacceptable.

Due to the characteristics of electricity, power markets rank among the most complex markets operated at present. The requirements of an environmentally sustainable, economically efficient, and secure energy supply have resulted in the emergence of several interrelated markets that have to be carefully engineered in order to ensure efficient market outcomes.

This book presents an agent-based simulation model that facilitates electricity market research. Simulation outcomes from this model are validated against price data from German power markets. The results significantly contribute to existing research in agent-based simulation and electricity market modeling, and provide insights into the impact of the market structure and market design on electricity prices.

The book addresses researchers, lecturers and students who are interested in applying agent-based simulation to power markets. It provides a thorough discussion of the methodology and helpful details for model implementation.

This work is the only economic history of Venezuela written in English. In it, Salazar-Carrillo provides estimates that have not been published previously on the Venezuelan economy in general, and the oil component in particular. Evolution of the oil industry in Venezuela is covered in detail and the concept of the retained value of oil expenditures and tnvestment is developed. Recent government policies and the performance of the Venezuelan economy are evaluated, and export-oriented strategies are considered. The appropriateness of these plans in fostering economic development is discussed.

Today, the optimization of production planning processes by means of IT and quantitative methods is a de-facto standard in the energy industry. Franch et al. inChapter1andIkenouyeinChapter2giveanintroduction, overview, and reasonsforthis. Furthermore, theenergyproblemnowisnotonlyachallenging one but also one of the most important issues in the world from the political and economical points of view. In every country, the government is faced with the problem of how to adopt the system of 'Cap and Trade. ' Especially energy consuming industries, such as steel, power, oil and chemicals, are seriously confronted with this problem. VIII Preface This is also the reason why the German Operations Research Society (GOR) and one of its working groups, held a symposium with the title "Stochastic Optimization in the Energy Industry. " During the 78th meeting of the GOR working group "Praxis der Mathematischen Optimierung/Real World Optimization" in Aachen at Procom GmbH on April 21/22, 2007, the speakers with an application background explained their requirements for stochasticoptimizationsolutionsbasedonpracticalexperiences. Thespeakers from the research side and the software system suppliers examined di?erent aspects of the whole subject - from the integration of wind energy, the chain of errors in nuclear power plants and the scheduling of hydroelectric power stations, and the risk assessment in trading activities to the various software systems which support stochastic optimization methods. The symposium o?ered an interesting overview which re?ected the - quirements, possibilities and restrictions of "Stochastic Optimization in the Energy Industry.

Crude Domination is an innovative and important book about a critical topic - oil. While there have been numerous works about petroleum from 'experience-far' perspectives, there have been relatively few that have turned the 'experience-near' ethnographic gaze of anthropology on the topic. Crude Domination does just this among more peoples and more places than any other volume. Its chapters investigate nuances of culture, politics and economics in Africa, Latin America, and Eurasia as they pertain to petroleum. They wrestle with the key questions vexing scholars and practitioners alike: problems of the economic blight of the resource curse, underdevelopment, democracy, violence and war. Additionally they address topics that may initially appear insignificant - such as child witches and lionmen, fighting for oil when there is no oil, reindeer nomadism, community TV - but which turn out on closer scrutiny to be vital for explaining conflict and transformation in petro-states. Based upon these rich, new worlds of information, the text formulates a novel, domination approach to the social analysis of oil.

Nanotechnology is a rapidly evolving field finding newer and newer areas of application that remained unexplored previously. In the area of civil infrastructure systems such as buildings, roads, and bridges, there is a drive towards understanding the behavior of component materials and their interactions at the molecular or nano-level to manipulate and effect macro-level changes to engineer designer or smart materials. Nano-engineering and nano-modification of concrete and bituminous materials have far-reaching implications allowing the development of cost-effective, high-performance, and long-lasting products and processes for civil infrastructure within the ideals of sustainable development. This book focuses on the latest advances made in the development and characterization of nanotechnology based civil engineering materials, structures, and systems. Specific topics discussed in this book include nanoscience modeling to understand the atomic structure of C-S-H, the effect of nanomaterials on cement hydration and reinforcement, multifunctional concrete and Carbon Nanotube (CNT) reinforced cementitious systems, nano-optimized construction materials by nano-seeding, moisture damage characterization of asphalt materials using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation, nanoclay-modified asphalt binder systems, etc.

This book aims to make the best use of fine-grained smart meter data to process and translate them into actual information and incorporated into consumer behavior modeling and distribution system operations. It begins with an overview of recent developments in smart meter data analytics. Since data management is the basis of further smart meter data analytics and its applications, three issues on data management, i.e., data compression, anomaly detection, and data generation, are subsequently studied. The following works try to model complex consumer behavior. Specific works include load profiling, pattern recognition, personalized price design, socio-demographic information identification, and household behavior coding. On this basis, the book extends consumer behavior in spatial and temporal scale. Works such as consumer aggregation, individual load forecasting, and aggregated load forecasting are introduced. We hope this book can inspire readers to define new problems, apply novel methods, and obtain interesting results with massive smart meter data or even other monitoring data in the power systems.

Jens HETLAND & Teimuraz GOCHITASHVILI In contrast to oil, natural gas is usually routed through pipeline systems stretched from the wellhead to the end-user - although liquefied natural gas (LNG) is gaining increased interest; the commercialisation of natural gas fields is inherently linked to rigid transportation systems that require huge investments in tangible assets fixed to specific locations; the supply of natural gas is constrained by the transportation system, and requires access to appropriate infrastructure for transport and distribution; the trading of natural gas is traditionally associated with long-term contracts, albeit the duration per se of gas transport contracts appears to be less important after the deregulation of the energy markets. As diversification is strategically important to modern societies, the security of energy supplies becomes an inherent issue. In order to avoid situations of shortage, and to keep the price level stable, industrial nations are paying attention to the security of energy supplies. In brief terms this means that having more than one supplier of natural gas and more than one transport route would be strategically important. This also affects political issues and international law and regulations, economics, science and technology. The purpose of this book is to address opportunities extended from science and research pertaining to the exploitation and international trading of natural gas that involves transit countries. This especially relates to the transport and handling of gas from remote regions and pipelines that are

"This book investigates the business strategies chosen by oil and gas service companies operating in China, Singapore and Malaysia. It provides an analytical view of the reliability of strategic theoretical frameworks based on Western business practice but applied in a non-Western business environment like Asia"--Provided by publisher.

This book focuses on the introduction of new and modern maintenance management frameworks of assets in the electricity & gas network sector and more specifically, on electricity networks for distribution. The author describes methodologies for developing and implementing maintenance management maturity models, using case studies to show how these have been applied. These maturity models are discussed as part of an overarching, multi-disciplinary organizational maintenance management professionalization framework. This book adds a new dimension to the well-known Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method, by incorporating failure modes via multiple scenarios into business values, by means of statistical risk calculation methods. The author demonstrates a method called Utility Risk Linked RCM, which uses a statistical tool to develop failure models which can be used to predict future failure behavior of assets in relation to corporate business values. This new method is a practical, structured and comprehensive framework for assessing risk based maintenance policies. The book also proposes a condition monitoring framework that can be used as a guide to assist asset managers in identifying the relationship between failure modes, ageing processes to select amongst condition monitoring regimes.

Despite prices of around $70 a barrel, the world is experiencing the fastest growth in oil demand in more than twenty-five years. The Institute for Management Development organized a research conference entitled "Energy Futures" in November 2005. Eighteen international energy researchers, policy makers and executives discussed specific aspects of today's energy industry and its likely evolution. This volume is based on this conference and brings together energy experts of rather different analytical views, doctrinal convictions and stakeholder affiliation to discuss the implications and growth of the oil industry.

This book provides a novel and holistic perspective on the deployment of prepaid electricity meter technology among energy impoverished (vulnerable) households based in developing or under-developed communities of Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores and reviews the nexus between the technology and socio-economic development, technology acceptance and rejection in low-income households, and ultimately proposes a contextual model to avert or assuage energy poverty in the region using the technology. Science is applied as a convenient, valid, and reliable model to generate bespoke, contextual, and relevant knowledge for policy makers on the development of prepaid meter market in the region. The knowledge shared contributes to extant discourse and debates around the effectiveness of the technology within indigent household settings. The book is intended for energy/electricity utilities, prepaid electricity businesses, policy developers, and other interested parties whose work is related to prepaid electricity meters.

In this highly anticipated volume, the world-renowned authors take a basic approach to present the principles of petroleum reservoir simulation in an easy-to-use and accessible format. Applicable to any oil and gas recovery method, this book uses a block-centered grid and a point-distributed grid. It treats various boundary conditions as fictitious wells, gives algebraic equations for their flowrates and presents an elaborate treatment of radial grid for single-well simulation to analyze well test results and to create well pseudo-functions necessary in conducting a practical reservoir simulation study. This book is accompanied by companion site that includes a single-phase simulator, a user s manual, data and output files for four solved problems. The easy-to-use simulator allows students, readers and educators to input new problems and get their solutions."

* New chapter specifically on electric vehicles * Increased international focus, with more examples from outside the USA * Pedagogical features including learning objectives at the start of each chapter, in-chapter questions and end-of-chapter suggested online activities * Student companion website material: multiple choice questions and homework exercises * Instructor companion website material: lecture slides, solution files for instructors; suggested questions for discussion forums to increase engagement; and activities to achieve the chapter learning objectives, including quizzes with answers, that instructors can use to assess student attainment

The objectives of nuclear criticality safety are to prevent a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. This Safety Guide provides guidance and recommendations on how to meet the relevant requirements for ensuring subcriticality when dealing with fissile material and for planning the response to criticality accidents. The recommendations address how to ensure subcriticality in systems involving fissile materials during normal operation and during credible abnormal conditions, from initial design through commissioning, operation and decommissioning. This publication also provides recommendations on identification of credible abnormal conditions; performance of criticality safety assessments; verification, benchmarking and validation of calculation methods; safety measures to ensure subcriticality; and management of criticality safety. The guidance and recommendations are applicable to both regulatory bodies and operating organizations.

Most nuclear proliferation literature is focused on states seeking nuclear weapons, conducted in most cases clandestinely. The sharing of nuclear weapons technology between states is as important strategically, if unexpected, because nuclear weapons are such a powerful instrument in international politics. This book proposes to answer why, if nuclear weapons are such good preservers of peace, are states not more willing to see them proliferate? Schofield also examines the underlying phenomenon of the threat of proliferation races, and how nonproliferation bargains between adversaries make nuclear sharing far less common. But sharing is not rare. This book proposes a theory to explain nuclear sharing and surveys its rich history from its beginnings in the Second World War, including the cases of France-Israel, US-NATO, Russia-China, Israel-South Africa, China-Pakistan and Pakistan-Iran, as well as the incidence of soft balancing and permissive nuclear sharing in the cases of the US and Japan, Israel and India.

One of the first books to analyze business and financial aspects of sustainable transport and fuels systems and provides novel insights for researchers, managers, and politicians who work in energy and sustainability related areas.

In this revealing book Nobel Laureate Glenn T. Seaborg tells what it was like to be chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission during the Nixon presidency. He draws extensively from his meticulously kept diary, enabling the reader to be a fly on the wall during meetings with Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and other key policy makers. During the Nixon period, the debate over how to deal with the Soviets on nuclear issues and arms control remained central. On the domestic scene efforts to promote and regulate the growth of a nuclear power industry were complicated by a rising tide of environmental protest. Dr. Seaborg describes how the Atomic Energy Commission, shorn of much of the political immunity of its early years, sought to maintain its programmes and ultimately its very existence, while besieged by competing pressures from the White House, other government agencies, anti-nuclear activists, industry, state governments, and Congress.

This book reviews health hazards associated with wastewater use and water pollutants. Chapters present applications of green materials made of agricultural waste, activated carbon and magnetic materials for wastewater treatment. The removal of toxic metals using algal biomass and the removal of toxic dyes using chitosan composite materials are also discussed. The book includes reviews on the removal of phenols, pesticides, and on the use of ionic liquid-modified activated carbon for the treatment of textile wastewater.

Petrocinema presents a collection of essays concerning the close relationship between the oil industry and modern media-especially film. Since the early 1920s, oil extracting companies such as Standard Oil, Royal Dutch/Shell, ConocoPhillips, or Statoil have been producing and circulating moving images for various purposes including research and training, safety, process observation, or promotion. Such industrial and sponsored films include documentaries, educationals, and commercials that formed part of a larger cultural project to transform the image of oil exploitation, creating media interfaces that would allow corporations to coordinate their goals with broader cultural and societal concerns. Falling outside of the domain of conventional cinema, such films firmly belong to an emerging canon of sponsored and educational film and media that has developed over the past decade. Contributing to this burgeoning field of sponsored and educational film scholarship, chapters in this book bear on the intersecting cultural histories of oil extraction and media history by looking closely at moving image imaginaries of the oil industry, from the earliest origins or "spills" in the 20th century to today's post industrial "petromelancholia."