On December 18, 2015, Congress passed a multi-year extension of the 30% investment tax credit (ITC) for solar and a 2.3 cent production tax credit (PTC) for wind. The tax credit extensions were included in a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill, which included the removal of the ban to export oil.
The developing field of “natural infrastructure” restoration provides the opportunity for utilities to better protect critical infrastructure assets from storms.
In its recently released 2015 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (2015 LTRA), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) finds that the significant and accelerating transformation of the North American electric power system will require new approaches to system planning and operation to maintain adequate levels of reliability during the transition.
Each year, many utility management teams and boards prepare for strategy retreats where they will work to set priorities for the business. With decades of experience in the industry, ScottMadden reminds public power companies of four keys to making strategic planning successful.
A primary objective of U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative is to reduce the price of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies by approximately 75% from between 2010 and 2020. With 2020 target just over the horizon, ScottMadden reviewed progress in solar PV price reductions to date. The analysis shows the prices of utility-scale solar PV systems in the United States have fallen more sharply than residential solar system prices from 2010 to 2015. A primary reason for the difference is declining module costs have had a greater impact on utility-scale system prices given their larger share of total project costs. Consequently, utility-scale systems can offer electric utilities economic and operational advantages over residential systems.
Community solar is a rapidly emerging model that combines the value of direct customer “ownership” of rooftop solar with the flexibility and economic advantages of utility-scale solar. Development of a community solar program by an electric utility is not simple and requires a coordinated approach to successfully enter the market.
The first portion of this article provides a definition of community solar, overview of the community solar market, overview of advantages community solar, and outline of community solar models. The second portion of this article uses question and answer format to discuss community solar implementation issues. Questions focus on program design, customer motivations, and financial implications.
Additional Contributing Authors: John Sterling
Public Utilities Fortnightly – December 2015 Magazine
In September 2015, ScottMadden supported the Solar Electric Power Association’s (SEPA) fact-finding mission to Hawaii. The purpose of the mission was to explore impacts of high-penetration renewables and how lessons learned can be transferred to other utilities around the country.
On October 15, 2015, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) Staff issued proposed guidance to the New York utilities for the structure and content of their Distributed System Implementation Plans (DSIPs). The DSIPs are the plans through which each utility will establish a Distributed System Platform (DSP), a foundational element of the Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) proceeding (14-M-0101). Per the Track 1 Order, the DSP is envisioned as
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Leveraging our 30 years of energy expertise, this report examines the differences between public power and cooperatives, the process for gaining coherence and alignment, and the four keys to success.
The 2015 Platts Appalachian Oil and Gas Conference offered tremendous insight into the key challenges facing the natural gas industry today. The major presentation categories can be summed up in three categories: economic environment, infrastructure challenges, and markets for production.
At present, few state public utility commissions show Clean Power Plan-related (CPP) online actions or information, despite the September 2016 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deadline for state implementation plans and deadline extension requests.
ScottMadden and RTI International assisted Bruce Power in streamlining and automating its environmental monitoring programs (radiological, conventional, and groundwater). The result was a significant reduction in the amount of time and effort it takes staff to collect routine environmental data from the field, analyze the data in the laboratory, and report on adverse trends.
Sussex Economic Advisors is now part of ScottMadden. We invite you to learn more about our expanded firm. Please use the Contact Us form to request additional information.
