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Grid-scale modelling of Distributed Energy Resources and dynamic pricing for all customers

February 7, 2022 by James Conca

Smart grids can solve multiple problems now and throughout the lifetime of the energy transition. The supply from hundreds (existing + new wind, solar, etc.) and ultimately millions (rooftop solar, EV batteries) of power sources can be matched in real time with demand from all major customer devices (air conditioners, water heaters, batteries, EVs). Dynamic pricing keeps the peaks low and the troughs high. It takes the pressure off total load, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: AI, batteries, dynamic, ERCOT, EVs, grids, HVAC, modelling, PNNL, pricing, rooftop, Shanghai, smart, solar, Spokane, Stem, storage, Texas, US, wind

The new era of electricity needs modern ways to charge customers

July 15, 2020 by Jim Lazar and Mark LeBel

Today’s technologies – wind, solar, storage - have widely differing cost and operating characteristics to fossil fuels. So the way customers are made to cover those costs – assigning different rates to different customer classes – should change. Jim Lazar and Mark LeBel at RAP explain why and how, referencing their comprehensive manual “Electric Cost Allocation for a New Era”. They describe how the full range of technologies now establishing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: Distribution, electricity, grids, markets, networks, pricing, SmartMeters, solar, storage, Transmission, wind

Sales down, but cash preserved too: Regulators take note when setting new Utility rates

June 2, 2020 by Jim Lazar

Utilities are suffering financial impacts because of the current pandemic, and regulators will be asked to address them when they set new electricity rates. The intention will be to help the utilities recover while keeping bills affordable for their customers. But not all the impacts on the utilities are bad news, explains Jim Lazar at RAP looking at the U.S. Though revenues have dropped and some labour costs risen, there is a list of things that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Grids Tagged With: Covid, electricity, gas, grids, infrastructure, pricing, rates, regulation, utilities

Don’t blame Wind, Solar for Coal cycling. It’s everyday variable demand

March 10, 2020 by Joseph Daniel

Joseph Daniel at the Union of Concerned Scientists explains why variable renewables like wind and solar are not forcing coal plants to cycle (ramp up and down). He presents data from the U.S. that clearly shows it’s straightforward variable demand that’s doing it, because demand has always varied considerably throughout the day. So stop blaming the arrival and growth of wind and solar for this “inefficiency”, he says. These renewables have plenty … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Oil, Gas & Coal, Renewables Tagged With: coal, cycling, electricity, gas, markets, pricing, solar, storage, VAR, wind

Electric utilities: pathway to a costs and pricing revolution

January 24, 2020 by Jim Lazar, Paul Chernick, William Marcus and Mark LeBel

The 20th century method of setting electric utility rates are being made redundant by the new technologies of the modern age. It’s currently a three-step process - determining the revenue requirement, deciding how to divide costs among ratepayers, then designing the rates themselves. It uses traditional categories: generation, transmission and distribution; cost classifications (energy-related, demand-related, customer-related); customer/rate … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: DistributedEnergy, electricity, investment, pricing, renewables, SmartMeters, utilities

The Six Energy Paradoxes that slow the sector’s progress

January 21, 2020 by Gerard Reid

Gerard Reid at Alexa Capital takes a high level look at what he sees as six systemic problems faced throughout the energy sector. They can be found at every level, across all technologies and markets. He calls them the Six Energy Paradoxes. All of them are acting as a serious drag on progress, Transition or not. Take the Market Efficiency Paradox. Utilities should adjust their prices to meet changes in energy supply and demand. Higher supply or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: electricity, Europe, gas, Government, policies, pricing, renewables, US, utilities

Nuclear in 2020: a global look ahead at policy, financing, politics, by country

January 8, 2020 by Dan Yurman

Dan Yurman presents his worldwide review of nuclear’s prospects. 19 nations are covered. He explains while some countries are planning to scale down nuclear, like South Korea and France, some are increasing investment, like China. Others remain stuck over policy, pricing, financing and politics (e.g. Japan, the U.S.). Exporters of plants, led by Russia, are making moves – not always easily - in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. R&D … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Nuclear Tagged With: Canada, China, electricity, France, India, investment, Japan, Nuclear, Poland, policy, Politics, pricing, Russia, SMR, SouthKorea, turkey, UK, US

Electricity pricing: shifting costs on to households that can afford it

November 13, 2019 by Maximilian Auffhammer

Utilities need to invest in the future, and the Transition needs to be paid for by their customers. The less painful that is to each customer, the more publicly acceptable it will be. Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas explains how electricity pricing usually combines a fixed monthly charge with a block rate price (the charge for each additional unit of energy). Here he reviews a new report that scrutinises how different firms … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: electricity, Gini, inequality, pricing, USA

Calculating the effect of $50/tonne CO2 on energy prices

October 4, 2019 by Severin Borenstein

Despite much debate, governments are hesitant to raise – or even impose – carbon pricing, worried about the direct impact it will have on businesses and consumers.To help understand its effect Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas has crunched the numbers of a $50/tonne CO2 price, very expensive by today’s standards. He’s calculated the actual price increases on a gallon of petrol/gasoline, gas- and coal-fired generation, and natural … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: CarbonPricing, carbontax, CO2, coal, electricity, emissions, gas, oil, pricing

Grid balancing: Electric Cars are a lot like water heaters, so relax

September 16, 2019 by Jim Lazar

Electric water heaters consume as much power as electric cars, drawing on the grid in much the same way: everyone’s doing it at roughly the same time of day. The U.S. already has 60m such heaters and manages to balance the grid with no problem. So adding tens of millions of electric cars should be very manageable even without direct control of when the cars charge, says Jim Lazar at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP). It only takes two to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Transport and energy Tagged With: charging, ChevyBolt, EV, gridbalancing, grids, markets, NissanLeaf, pricing, smartgrids, Tesla3, transport

Can other technologies replicate Solar PV price reductions?

September 13, 2019 by Catherine Wolfram

Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business reviews the new book “How Solar Energy Became Cheap” by Greg Nemet. It traces Solar PV’s history from Bell Labs in 1954 through to the present. The phenomenal price drops mean today’s cost/kWh is 1,000 times lower than in the 1970s. The analysis is split into four epochs when output was dominated by US, Japanese, then German and finally Chinese production. How much were improvements thanks to sheer … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: BellLabs, CCS, Nuclear, policies, pricing, renewables, solar, storage

$400bn in global fossil fuel consumption subsidies, twice that for renewables

June 20, 2019 by Wataru Matsumura and Zakia Adam

At over $400bn in 2018, global fossil fuel consumption subsidies are more than double those for renewables. That makes sense while governments worldwide use energy subsidies to help poor consumers, and clean energy still makes up a smaller proportion of the global energy mix. But it makes the transition harder: cheaper fossil energy means more is consumed, and it’ll take longer for clean energy to compete it away. The IEA’s WEO Energy Analysts … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Oil, Gas & Coal Tagged With: coal, electricity, fossil-fuels, gas, oil, pricing, renewables, subsidies

Energy Efficiency should target inefficient use, not all use

June 12, 2019 by James Bushnell

Energy efficiency should not just be a matter of reducing energy consumption. As renewables grow pricing and profits should encourage renewable consumption. After all, renewables aren’t a problem. And greater renewables consumption means less fossil fuels. Yet consumer pricing models with a low fixed price + high variable rate are designed to discourage all consumption, warns James Bushnell of the Energy Institute at Haas. He says we must … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Energy efficiency Tagged With: efficiency, electricity, grids, pricing, renewables, rooftop solar

India kick-starts wholesale electricity market reforms

February 26, 2019 by Dheer Patel

India’s wholesale electricity market is no longer fit for purpose according to Dheer Patel of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP). Long term procurement contracts are forcing distribution companies (discoms) to buy expensive energy when cheaper alternatives are readily available. So the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) is launching a six-month pilot, starting 1st April, that enables “least-cost dispatch” of all centrally … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Markets Tagged With: electricity, generation, India, markets, policy, pricing, regulators

Most read this week

  • Biofuel is approaching a feedstock crunch. How bad? And what must be done? by IEA | posted on January 23, 2023
  • EU ETS and CBAM: what the big update to emissions trading rules means for Europe’s key sectors by Simon Göss | posted on January 16, 2023
  • Can Aluminium-air batteries outperform Li-ion for EVs? by Helena Uhde | posted on September 8, 2021
  • Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks by Simon Read | posted on July 27, 2022
  • 10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness by Ella Adlen | posted on November 11, 2019
  • Micro-nuclear reactors: up to 20MW, portable, safer by Christina Nunez | posted on April 22, 2021
  • EU Energy Outlook to 2060: how will power prices and revenues develop for wind, solar, gas, hydrogen + more by Alex Schmitt | posted on December 6, 2022
  • Europe needs a Regional Green Bank to fulfil its Green Deal and match the U.S. by Esmeralda Colombo | posted on January 20, 2023
  • Concrete: 8% of global emissions and rising. Which innovations can achieve net zero by 2050? by Ben Skinner | posted on January 24, 2023
  • How to sell Heat Pumps to the public in Europe by Helena Uhde | posted on January 19, 2023
  • Hydrogen production in 2050: how much water will 74EJ need? by Herib Blanco | posted on July 22, 2021
  • Twenty-first century energy wars: how oil and gas are fuelling global conflicts by Michael T. Klare | posted on July 15, 2014
  • What’s stopping even bigger Wind Turbines? Blade speed and flexing? More likely manufacturing and installation capacity by Simon Hogg | posted on January 18, 2023
  • What’s best for Hydrogen transport: ammonia, liquid hydrogen, LOHC or pipelines? by Herib Blanco | posted on May 5, 2022
  • Making Hydrogen will consume 2% of total global renewable capacity growth by 2027 by IEA | posted on January 17, 2023
  • EU energy ministers unable to agree on biofuels policy by Karel Beckman | posted on December 15, 2013
  • Why hydrogen fuel cell cars are not competitive — from a hydrogen fuel cell expert by Zachary Shahan | posted on June 17, 2016
  • Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world by Christoph Gatzen | posted on January 25, 2023
  • The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric by Schalk Cloete | posted on December 6, 2021
  • 2023 lookahead for Sustainable Finance: EU Taxonomy, ESG ratings, corporate disclosure laws, Europe’s “IRA” by Luca Bonaccorsi | posted on January 12, 2023

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Recent Posts

Make Hydrogen in developing nations: share prosperity while meeting our climate goals

Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world

Concrete: 8% of global emissions and rising. Which innovations can achieve net zero by 2050?

Biofuel is approaching a feedstock crunch. How bad? And what must be done?

Europe needs a Regional Green Bank to fulfil its Green Deal and match the U.S.

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