IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2014 - 4

from the editor

Mel Olken

natural gas & electricity
a necessary interdependence

By 2050, the world's popula- henderson and Mohammad shahidetion is expected to reach 9 billion, up hepour, our issue's guest editors, have
from around 7 billion today. Com- undertaken to investigate and report
bined with rising standards of living, on. the feature articles of this issue,
this may double energy demand. at introduced and described in the "Guest
the same time, Co2 emissions must editorial" column by Mike and Mohambe cut significantly to avoid the serious mad, cover activities in New england
(united states), south america, the
effects of climate change.
Cleaner-burning natural
gas is among the cheapest and fastest solutions for
many areas of the world to
meet their growing need for
energy while curbing Co2.
Natural gas is perhaps the
cleanest-burning fossil fuel
and will be a vital part of the
sustainable global energy
mix. New natural gas plants
are usually cheaper and
quicker to build than most
other sources of electricity.
Natural gas plants built in
image licensed by ingram publishing
the recent past have been
as a result of relatively low
gas prices, displacement of
old, less efficient, coal and oil burning european union, turkey, south Korea,
units, and the addition of combined- and the u.s. eastern Interconnection. In
totality, they offer a global picture of stacycle natural gas units.
as a result, it has become necessary tus of the interdependence of these two
for the natural gas and the electric power now vitally linked industries.
industries to become more dependent on
each other. how this is accomplished, A Personal View
and what that interdependent relation- the issue's "In My View" column,
ship may be in different parts of our "Flexibility and availability: Can the
world and what problems have been Natural Gas supply support these
encountered, is the subject that Michael Needs?" by ross Baldick, offers a fitting conclusion to the issue as well as a
personal view of the natural gas-electric
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2014.2347692
Date of publication: 20 October 2014
power industries interdependence. his

ieee power & energy magazine

personal view is a result of decadeslong experiences with combined-cycle
plants at the university of texas campus at austin. ross's column offers an
in-depth view of many of the factors
associated with the production and utilization of natural gas. he also advocates
a need for the natural gas industry to
adapt to the 24/7 operation of
the electric power industry,
which will become its largest single customer, rather
than continuing to operate in
a traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
trading day.

An Outstanding
Year
as this is the year's final issue,
I want to express my gratitude
to the power & energy Magazine editorial Board and
to power & energy society
president Miroslav Begovic
for unwavering support. we
have had an outstanding editorial year, and for that I want to recognize
this year's guest editors who made it possible: Michael henderson, Nouredine hadjsaid, hugh rudnick, ralph Masiello, and
Mohammad shahidehepour. I can never
express enough thanks to my friend and
associate editor, Carl sulzberger, for the
outstanding "history" columns that grace
our pages time and time again. and to Geri
Krolin-taylor and Janet dudar, who are the
ultimate Ieee publishing professionals, my
everlasting gratitude.
p&e

november/december 2014

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