News

Canary Media examines the newest approval of reforms by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to improve the efficiency of interconnection projects, quoting Caitlin Marquis on the anticipated positive and negative impacts of the commission's ruling.

The U.S. has far more clean energy projects seeking to connect to the grid than utilities and grid operators can handle. It’s a crisis that has been decades in the making, but one that must be resolved in the next few years if the country is to meet its climate goals.

Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a sweeping set of reforms to address one facet of that crisis: the need to streamline and modernize the rules and processes that govern how power projects interconnect to the nation’s transmission grids.

Canary Media reports on the outcome of the recently concluded Texas legislative session, quoting Matthew Boms on how the legislature avoided passing bills that would have derailed the state's clean energy industry's efforts.

The best thing that Doug Lewin, president of Texas-based energy consultancy Stoic Energy, can say about the just-concluded Texas legislative session is that it could have been much, much worse. 

Lawmakers failed to pass bills that would have helped stabilize and clean up the Texas grid, but at least they also, at the last minute, avoided passing bills that would have crushed the state’s clean energy industry.

Canary Media detailed the need to strengthen the country’s electricity system, quoting Amisha Rai on how the US can build out its energy infrastructure. Read snippets below and the full article here. 

The grid may be the weakest link in the chain connecting the U.S. to a clean energy future. 

Canary Media detailed how funding from the IRA would be allocated, quoting AEE's Harry Godfrey on the massive impact the bill will have on US clean energy technologies. Read snippets below and the full article here.

Senator Joe Manchin has agreed to work with Democratic Senate colleagues to quickly pass a climate and health bill that could direct nearly $370 billion over 10 years toward clean energy, electric vehicles, pollution reduction and energy security — potentially the largest-ever single federal investment in fighting climate change. 

Canary Media profiled FERC's transmission policy, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis on how modern infrastructure can better capture the benefits of clean energy. Read snippets below and the full story here.

Over the past nine months, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been working on a major reform to U.S. transmission-grid policy, one that clean-energy advocates say could determine whether or not the country will be able to build the vast amount of solar and wind power needed to combat climate change.

Canary Media detailed how U.S. grid operators are planning to open up their energy markets to distributed energy, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis on FERC Order 2222 and initial implementation plans and Caitlin Marquis on baseline erosion. Read snippets below and the full article here. 

The future of the power grid lies in tapping the gigawatts of capacity coming from distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, home batteries, electric vehicles and energy-smart devices — DERs for short. Ultimately, this will radically reconfigure how the U.S. electricity grid works. But getting there will be a long and complicated process...

Canary Media outlined tax credits and direct pay for clean energy, storage, and transmission in the House reconciliation bill, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis on ITC details. Read snippets below and the full story here.

Tax credits and direct-pay provisions for a panoply of clean energy and carbon-reduction technologies. Incentives to expand and strengthen the nation’s power grids, encourage adoption of electric vehicles and electrify buildings. And a program to push U.S. utilities to make use of these technologies to reach an 80 percent carbon-free electricity supply by 2030.

Canary Media summarized the possibility for RTO expansion in the West, citing AEE’s Sarah Steinberg and Amisha Rai. Read snippets below and the full article here.

The Western U.S. is a hotbed for renewable power development. What it lacks are the regional regulatory and economic structures to build the transmission lines needed to move that clean power to far-off population centers and share it across a region facing increasing grid-reliability challenges driven by climate change.

Greentech Media profiled Southwest Power Pool’s Western Energy Imbalance Service Market, quoting AEE’s Amisha Rai on market integration. Read excerpts below and the full story here.

Interstate grid operator Southwest Power Pool has expanded its wholesale energy market, the latest step in a series of nationwide moves aimed at bringing more efficiency to parts of the country rich in renewable energy potential but lacking in the energy trading regimes to make the best use of it.

Greentech Media outlined President Biden’s executive climate actions, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis on what federal purchasing power means for job growth. Read excerpts below and the full story here. 

President Joe Biden signed a sprawling set of executive orders on Wednesday ordering federal agencies to procure carbon-free energy and electric vehicles, spur commercialization of clean energy technologies, accelerate clean energy generation and transmission projects and ensure that disadvantaged communities get a fair share of the ensuing economic and environmental benefits.