We need integrated resilient smart grids that can accommodate the rapid growth of intermittent renewables as well as the rise of “prosumers” who both buy and sell electricity into the grid. This is the focus of three online discussion sessions on February 8th, 9th and 10th organised and hosted by power management company Eaton. The proliferation of multiple generation sources (solar, wind, batteries and other clean, flexible technologies) means … [Read more...]
Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings: how to start saving from day one
Edie Taylor, Rebecca Esau and John Matson at Rocky Mountain Institute explain how their report “Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Made Easy” identifies simple, low-cost steps that produce immediate cost, energy, and carbon savings. As utilities evolve their pricing structures to encourage users to avoid peak times, building managers must ready themselves with the controls that will allow them to buy electricity when it is cheapest. Demand … [Read more...]
When Electrification is cheaper than maintaining Gas infrastructure
The gas sector continuously faces major expenses to maintain and replace aging distribution systems. Non-Pipeline Alternatives (NPAs) are solutions that avoid the scale of these infrastructure costs by judiciously spending money on cutting future gas use instead. Given gas’s limited long-term future in a net-zero world, this makes sense. It’s not just about efficiency wins, explains Max Dupuy at RAP who summarises their research. Gas utilities … [Read more...]
CEPP incentives and penalties: current design could undermine U.S. clean energy growth
The Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) is a key part of President Biden’s energy and climate plans. It will steer utilities towards clean energy with incentives and penalties, and is still being designed. Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell at the Energy Institute at Haas, Steve Cicala at Tufts University and Ryan Kellogg at the University of Chicago warn that current proposals will allow utilities to game the system, resulting in … [Read more...]
Gas crunch: market and policy causes, and lessons learned
Andrei Belyi at the University of Eastern Finland says there are three main causes behind the huge rise in European gas prices. Everyone already understands that the reversal of the previous gas glut that gave us such low prices has been caused by a decline in European gas production, LNG imports and Russian gas deliveries. Added to that is the utilities’ reliance on spot contracts rather than termed contracts – great when prices were low – that … [Read more...]
DoE study: 45% of U.S. power from Solar by 2050. How?
This month, the White House released a U.S. Department of Energy report, the Solar Futures Study, on how solar power could generate up to 45% of the U.S. electricity supply by 2050. It’s less than 4% today. Joshua Rhodes at the University of Texas at Austin looks at what obstacles must be overcome. The good news is that the technology and engineering is already available. And solar’s advantage is that the sun shines nationwide. Other region and … [Read more...]
California: Designing electricity rates that are fair and encourage EV and Heat Pump take-up
Electricity prices in California are not fair and not good for incentivising electrification, says James Sallee at the Energy Institute at Haas, because of the way people are being billed. There is no doubt that electrification (grid upgrades, etc.) and climate mitigation (including controlling California’s wildfires caused by power cable failures) must add to the cost of transition. But Californians can now find themselves paying up to twice the … [Read more...]
Are EV owners driving less than we thought?
Research from California, the EV leader in the U.S., suggests that EV owners drive their vehicles half as much as the average gasoline car owner. Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business explains that their research project reveals mileage data is so hard to gather that it’s difficult to know what’s actually going on. Is the data wrong (they don’t think so), or are EVs only being bought by drivers who don't use a car much? If so, the … [Read more...]
The Road Transport Transition: a policy toolkit for electrification
For the electrification of road transport, planning, incentives, the removal of barriers, and the right regulatory framework are all needed. But different regions with different rural and urban lifestyles will each need their own solution. Camille Kadoch at RAP summarises their RAP EV Roadmap for the U.S. which provides a toolkit for assembling your unique solution. It includes targets, funding sources, policy coordination, incentives (including … [Read more...]
How ready is the switchgear industry to abandon SF₆, the worst greenhouse gas?
Are firms in the switchgear industry - power utilities, industrial sites, and related service and infrastructure sectors - happy to switch from using the gas SF6 and use alternatives that are less harmful to the climate? This is the question Marie-Charlotte Guetlein and Carine Sebi at the Grenoble École de Management asked over 400 switchgear customers to find out what’s needed to make the change. SF6 has 23,500 times the impact of CO2  and an … [Read more...]
Dutch-Spanish startup navigates coronavirus fallout while also guiding utilities into the digital age
In late summer 2015 at a research university in Belgium, an Italian graduate student new to campus attended a welcome event hosted by engineering department faculty. Sampling beer brewed by an electrical engineering student association, Simone Accornero mingled with a dozen other new classmates in his program at KU Leuven. Accornero began chatting with an engineering master’s student who had just arrived from Poland. “We hit it off,” Accornero … [Read more...]
Sales down, but cash preserved too: Regulators take note when setting new Utility rates
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...]
Utilities can help their central banks, “loaning” electricity during the slump
The coronavirus slump is forcing governments around the world to inject large amounts of cash into the hands of consumers and businesses, until this is all over. In the U.S. it’s $2tn. Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business suggests a way to cut that bill, easing the pressure on central bankers. Utilities (electricity, water, gas) should allow customers to defer payment (instead of using valuable bailout money to pay the utilities). The … [Read more...]
Electric utilities: pathway to a costs and pricing revolution
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...]
EV Charging Infrastructure: “hidden” soft costs are slowing take up
You don’t buy an EV if you’ve nowhere to charge it. So the take up of EVs depends on the availability – and therefore the costs - of charging infrastructure. Rocky Mountain Institute’s Chris Nelder describes the surprising conclusion of their recent report “Reducing EV Charging Infrastructure Costs”, that it’s the soft costs that are stubbornly refusing to go down in the U.S. That means things like permitting delays, complex utility … [Read more...]
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