News

E&E News connected Presidential nominee Joe Biden's proposed clean energy plan to FERC's role in power markets, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.).  

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's goal of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 could hinge on an independent agency that's not part of the presidential Cabinet: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Biden, speaking to a digital audience last week at the Democratic National Convention, promised to tackle climate change if elected, calling it one of the major crises facing the country. "It's not only a crisis, it's an enormous opportunity," he said. "An opportunity for America to lead the world in clean energy and create millions of new good-paying jobs..."

E&E News reported Illinois Gov. Pritzker announced a proposal to increase clean energy while improving utility accountability and customer rates, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E News piece here (sub. req.). 

Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out an ambitious energy proposal Friday aimed at tackling climate change while also improving utility affordability and accountability. One pillar of Pritzker's sweeping plan would put Illinois on a trajectory to power the state with 100% renewable energy by midcentury and phase out polluting power plants by adding a price on carbon emissions. The 13-page statement of principles builds on the governor's call earlier this year for legislators to pass clean energy legislation this spring — an agenda derailed by the novel coronavirus pandemic...

NBC News (Ct.) presented an explainer on utility rate increases in Connecticut in context of concerns about recent power outages caused by storms, quoting AEE's Ryan Katofsky. Read excerpts below and the entire NBC-CT piece here. 

The power has gone back on, but some Connecticut residents have been lacking confidence in the electric utilities serving most of the state. This, after a tropical storm caused outages lasting a week or more in some cases, right after sizeable rate hikes went into effect. For Marsha and Jerry Tomlinson of Bristol, losing electricity is no laughing matter due to their medical issues. The Eversource customers said they experience outages often enough that they got a generator...

Huffington Post reports top American Corporations are weighing in on policy as they seek to meet sustainability goals, noting AEE's role in clean energy policy work. Read excerpts below and the entire Huffington Post piece here. 

RICHMOND, August 17, 2020 — Today, Harry Godfrey, Managing Director, Virginia Advanced Energy Economy participated in Governor Northam's ceremonial signing of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) in Richmond. His comments follow below:

Microgrid Knowledge reviewed utility and regulatory changes across the nation that could accelerate solar nanogrids across the U.S., noting AEE's arguments for DERs. Read excerpts below and the entire Microgrid Knowledge piece here.

In spite of the many challenges that nanogrids address, their growth is limited by regulatory and utility hurdles that prevent nanogrid owners from realizing their many benefits. Utilities, regulators and stakeholders are beginning to identify some of these hurdles and the advantages of overcoming them. Utilities now face a whole new world, with the influx of renewable energy and other distributed energy resources, the rapid adoption of electric vehicles and the pressures to decarbonize the grid...

New Project Media reviews the recent rapid increase of solar development in Texas, quoting TAEBA's Suzanne Bertin. Read excerpts below and the entire New Project Media piece here (sub. req.). 

Duke Energy Renewables is on a tear in Texas, bringing both the Rambler Solar Project and Holstein Solar Project online in July, helping to add 400 MW of solar to its rapidly expanding solar portfolio in the state. This move isn't an anomaly; according to Duke Energy Renewables President Chris Fallon it's just the beginning of a targeted solar expansion for the company in the Lone Star State...

RTO Insider presented a comprehensive summary of the Aug. 4 ISO-NE Future Grid Study stakeholder meeting noting AEE's recommendations. Read excerpts below and the entire RTO Insider piece here (sub. req.). 

The New England States Committee on Electricity suggested ISO-NE build on the Pathway Scenario developed by the Northeastern States for Coordinated Air Use Management for achieving economy-wide carbon reductions. ISO-NE CEO Gordon van Welie announced the initiative in March, saying it will give stakeholders information needed to plan transmission and market designs to achieve decarbonization goals. Representatives of each stakeholder group gave brief descriptions of their proposals and answered questions during a joint meeting of the NEPOOL Markets and Reliability committees...

E&E News covered recent IURC filings by parties, including AEE, concerned that Duke Energy charges Indiana customers millions more to operate coal plants than renewable alternatives, quoting AEE's Dylan Reed. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E News piece here. (sub. req.) 

Duke Energy Corp. is charging Indiana customers millions of dollars more than it should to dispatch Indiana coal plants and bypassing cheaper, cleaner alternatives, according to environmental groups. The groups, including the Citizens Action Coalition, the Sierra Club and Advanced Energy Economy, submitted testimony from analysts and economists last week in a closely watched case before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission involving Duke and how it runs its coal plants as part of the broader Midwest power grid...

Industry group files testimony calling for Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to end “self-committing” practice that allows utilities to pass extra costs for running uneconomic coal-fired power plants on to consumers 

INDIANAPOLIS, August 3, 2020 – Last Friday, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) filed its initial testimony* before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) calling for the Commission to no longer allow Duke Energy Indiana to pass along costs of operating uneconomic coal-fired power plants in the state to consumers.

“Hoosiers should not have to pay more so the state’s utilities can continue to run power plants that are dirty and uneconomic,” said Dylan Reed, Director of Advanced Energy Economy. “Because of a regulatory loophole that lets utilities decide when to run their plants, regardless of cost, Duke was able to overcharge consumers by more than $20 million in just three months in 2019. That has to stop.”

Houston Chronicle covered the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance's 2020 jobs fact sheet. Read excerpts below and the entire Houston Chronicle piece here (sub. req.). 

Jobs in renewable energy, battery storage and energy efficiency grew 4 percent last year in Texas, nearly twice as fast as the overall employment rate, according to a new study.

GTM Squared covered the recent Illinois ICC cloud-computing decision and regulatory challenges utilities face with IT investments, quoting AEE's Danny Waggoner and AEE member Oracle Utilities. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM Squared piece here (sub. req.).

Utilities are facing a future that will require massive investment in software. So why are they lagging behind many other industries in tapping the cost, speed, flexibility and scalability benefits of switching from utility-owned and managed servers and software to software-as-a-service and cloud computing alternatives? One reason is the cost-of-service regulatory model that allows utilities to earn a guaranteed rate of return on capital expenditures, or capex, while relegating operating expenditures, or opex, to being a mere cost of doing business...