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16 January 2007 -- A new energy consulting company has targeted the growing interest in low-cost coal-fired power generation by predicting trends in the market to help utilities mitigate risk. Environmental regulations influence choices about coal and Greenmont Energy Consulting, LLC, hopes to help electricity providers make the right decisions.
Regardless of which set of proposed environmental regulations are implemented, the coal supply patterns of the past are destined to shift significantly, according to Lloyd Kelly, the founder of Greenmont Energy Consulting.
"Obviously, some proposed environmental rules will cause more shifting than others, but the face of the coal industry and therefore the electric generating industry will never look the same," Kelly said.
The company, based in Parkersburg, West Virginia, will forecast coal and electricity supply, demand and prices using a new model developed by the company. The model is based upon Kelly's more than 25 years in the coal industry projecting markets and their impacts on electric utilities.
The company's model works on a coal-fired unit level basis instead of at the plant level, or even, for many models, at the level of groups of plants as the smallest unit of analysis. The new model addresses the problem of needing to continually re-estimate individual coal transportation costs from coal source to the electric plant. All electricity generation sources, both coal-fired and non-coal, are dispatched in competition with each other in the new model.
Greenmont Energy Consulting offers reports based on its modeling of future environmental rules that are available on a subscription basis. The company also does proprietary consulting for energy companies, governmental agencies, investment bankers and others interested in the future of the coal and electricity industries.
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