Electricity
Black Friday: Thankfully Does Not Refer to Electrical Blackouts
21 DECEMBER, 2017 Many Americans every year set their clocks to go off in the wee hours of the morning, or don’t get any sleep at all, on the Friday after Thanksgiving in order to participate in America’s unofficial national holiday: Black Friday. The story goes that...
The Cost of Electric Sex
7 NOVEMBER, 2017 Last week’s blog came about due to a discussion in my office about the best holiday movies of all time. We had a rousing debate about the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles and whether it qualifies as a holiday movie, which led us to calculate the...
What Does Cooking a Thanksgiving Meal Cost You Besides Your Sanity?
21 NOVEMBER, 2017 If you have ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at your home, you know how hard it can be to coordinate all those hot dishes at once. Also, you must well make sure the turkey isn’t dry, and that your house is spotless because your mother-in-law will...
Ameren Microgrid
22 AUGUST, 2017 mi·cro·grid (mīkrōˌɡrid) noun A small network of electricity users with a local source of supply that is usually attached to a centralized national grid but can function independently. For the last 100 years in the electric...
Does AC/DC leave you Thunderstruck?
11 MAY, 2017 Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after struggling financially. If George Westinghouse was still alive today, he would be longing for the days when the AC/DC War left his company Back in Black. If you are not a fan of the band AC/DC,...
The Black Box
2 MAY, 2017 Sixty-four years ago this month, the black box was invented. The black box is the nickname for the flight data recorder that is on every commercial airliner to help investigators understand what occurred leading up to a plane crash. It records instrument...
Why I Voted “NO” on Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
27 APRIL, 2017 Last week the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC), on a vote of 4-1, promulgated an order stating that electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) will not be regulated in the state of Missouri. There was one dissenting vote, and I cast it. I feel...
The Power of Pot
20 APRIL, 2017 The legalization of marijuana has been increasing rapidly across the United States, and with that, it has increased demand for other products, such as Cheetos and surprisingly, electricity. Many farmers prefer to grow indoors to maximize the growing...
SimplifyingEnergy.com’s Ranking of the Top Energy Movies of All Time
5 APRIL, 2017 Recently, Adam Mckinnie (Chief Regulatory Economist for the PSC), Alex Antal (my newly-hired personal advisor), and I were having a “discussion” on the best energy movies of all time. We couldn’t come to an agreement. It was the beginning of March and...
