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Darkness Down Under – How a recent blackout has reignited the debate over how renewable generation could impact grid reliability

 December 16, 2016

Beginning on the afternoon of September 28, an extreme weather system struck the state of South Australia (SA), knocking out transmission lines interconnecting SA to neighboring Victoria and forcing a shutdown of wind generation due to sustained high winds. This loss of imported power from Victoria and the loss of significant wind capacity within SA resulted in a blackout at 4:18:16 local time that impacted the entire state of SA and its 1.7 million residents for more than 24 hours.


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FERC Seeks to Open Wholesale Markets to Storage

 December 16, 2016

In November 2016, FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to address barriers in wholesale markets that have thus far limited participation of energy storage and aggregated distributed energy resources.


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New York PSC Staff Issues Report on Value of Distributed Energy Resources, Outlines First Steps beyond Net Metering

 November 18, 2016

On October 27, 2016, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) Staff issued its Report and Recommendations in the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Proceeding. The report defines a proposed compensation methodology for DER, and it lays out how the first phase of that methodology should be applied to various categories of DER in the near term specific to each utility. The recommendations are designed to be a first step in moving beyond retail rate net energy metering (NEM) and toward an accurate valuation of all the benefits DER provides.


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Duke Energy to Kick Tires on Plug-In Electric Pickup Truck

 November 18, 2016

In November 2016, Duke Energy signed a letter of interest to buy up to 500 plug-in electric pickup trucks from the Workhorse Group by 2019. The trucks will run about 80 miles all electric and include a gasoline generator for extended range.


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New Federal Pipeline Safety Law Expands PHMSA’s Responsibilities

 November 8, 2016

In June 2016, President Obama signed into law new pipeline safety legislation that adds responsibility to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The legislation, titled Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2016, extends PHMSA’s authorization through FY 2019, expands the agency’s oversight responsibilities, and requires new safety rules for underground natural gas storage facilities.


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Ontario Pulls Plug on Procurement of Nearly 1,000 MW of Renewable Capacity

 November 8, 2016

In September 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Energy suspended the second round of the Large Renewable Procurement (LRP), a competitive bid process designed to secure large renewable energy resources.


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Use of Creative Financing for Energy Efficiency Improvements Can Greatly Increase Penetration

 October 27, 2016

Public power utilities who are interested in energy efficiency should consider the experience of Ouachita Electric Cooperative. This Arkansas co-op is using the Pay As You Save® (PAYS) tariff-based financing model for energy-efficiency improvements and has seen much greater penetration than with the on-bill debt-financing model. Upon introducing PAYS, Ouachita Electric Cooperative saw a 100% increase in participation during a three-month period with renters, rather than homeowners, accounting for one-third of the new participants.


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New York PSC Issues Clean Energy Standard Order, Sets Requirements to Reach 50% Renewables by 2030

 October 18, 2016

On August 1, 2016, the New York Public Service Commission issued its Clean Energy Standard (CES) Order, which establishes requirements needed to achieve the goals of the State Energy Plan (SEP), to not only achieve 50% of the state’s energy from renewable sources by 2030 but also to protect other existing non-emitting sources by introducing the first-ever clean energy credits.


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Market Conditions, Unseasonably Warm Weather, and Environmental Regulation Drove Coal’s Share of the U.S. Generation Mix Below 25% in March

 September 20, 2016

Coal’s share of the U.S. generation mix fell 9.6% from the prior year to 23.7% in March as the shares of natural gas, nuclear, hydro, and non-hydro renewables grew 3.5%, 1.9%, 1.3%, and 2.7% respectively. This shift was caused by the confluence of coal plant retirements and mothballing resulting from the protracted downturn in power prices due to low gas prices, weather-subdued demand, and the ongoing effects of the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule.


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Court Upholds Legality of Federal Social Cost of Carbon Estimate

 September 6, 2016

In August 2016, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the Department of Energy’s (DOE) use of the social cost of carbon during the development of efficiency standards for commercial refrigeration equipment. The decision follows an industry group challenge of the DOE’s authority to use the estimate to quantify benefits of efficiency standards.


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Managing Regulatory Risks – Rating Agencies Believe It Is Essential for Utilities

 August 30, 2016

Operating a utility, whether it be electric, gas, or water, is one of the most capital-intensive businesses in the world. One of the primary mechanisms used by utilities to raise capital is the issuance of debt. But issuing debt does not come without risk, and in the United States, there are three primary credit-rating agencies (Standard and Poor’s (S&P), Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s) that are responsible for assessing a utility’s ability to service its debts. These agencies issue credit ratings, and in general, the better the utility’s credit rating, the lower the cost the utility must pay for issuing debt, reducing its cost of capital.


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Energy Storage Companies Diversify by Incorporating Energy Storage Management Systems into Offerings

 August 24, 2016

As energy storage deployments continue to increase, a number of storage companies, including Sonnen, Advanced Microgrid, and SolarCity, have announced expanded service offerings, pairing their batteries with energy storage management systems.


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