News

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. 

Greentech Media covered Richard Glick’s appointment as chair to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the full story here.

President Joe Biden has named Richard Glick to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, giving leadership and agenda-setting authority to the agency’s longest-running Democratic member, a key opponent to some of FERC’s most clean-energy-unfriendly decisions under the Trump administration. 

GTM Squared reported on how the changing role of distributed-level solar will help Arizona reach its climate targets, referencing AEE. Read excerpts below and the full piece here (sub. req.).

A state known for utility fights against rooftop solar is now taking steps to enlist customers in balancing a clean-powered grid. Arizona is one of the most solar-saturated states in the country, ranking fifth in overall solar capacity and third for residential rooftop solar. It’s also one of the hottest states in the country, with climate change pushing that heat to record levels this summer. This combination is pushing the Republican-dominated state’s energy policies in increasing alignment with its Democratic-controlled, solar-rich and climate-change-wracked neighbor to the west.

Greentech Media covered the recent FERC order requiring wholesale markets to embrace DERs, noting AEE's approval. Read excerpts below and the entire Greentech Media piece here.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has passed a long-awaited order to open up the country’s wholesale energy markets to distributed energy resources (DERs) like rooftop solar, behind-the-meter batteries and electric vehicles. Now comes the hard part: creating market rules that allow these DERs to play in bulk energy markets while retaining the role of state regulators and utilities to maintain the soundness of their distribution grid operations and retail DER programs. 

Greentech Media covered FERCs rejection of the latest proposal from New York's grid operator to allow renewable energy and battery resources to compete against fossil fuels in its wholesale capacity market, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM piece here. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected the latest proposal from New York's grid operator to allow renewable energy and batteries to compete against fossil fuels in its wholesale capacity market. That may give the state's regulators and policymakers more reason to consider alternatives to federally regulated energy markets. In a Friday order, FERC’s Republican majority denied grid operator NYISO’s proposal to restructure what it terms its “buyer-side market power mitigation rules” to allow wind, solar, batteries and other carbon-free resources to compete against fossil-fueled power plants in its Installed Capacity Market...

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...

Greentech Media covered the federal appeals court decision upholding FERC's Order 841, a win for the energy storage market, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire Greentech Media piece here.

In a victory for the energy storage industry, a federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 841, clearing the way for transmission grid operators across the country to open their markets to energy storage, including aggregated batteries connected at the distribution grid or behind customers’ meters...

GTM2 covered the challenges of incorporating DERs into the grid in the context of FERC Order 841 under consideration by U.S. Appeals Court, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM2 piece here (sub. req.). 

Back in 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued Order 841, a groundbreaking effort to open interstate transmission grid markets to energy storage systems. Part of FERC’s mandate to the country’s regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) included finding ways to allow aggregated, distribution-grid-connected storage — and eventually, a whole panoply of DERs — to be included in their new market structures...

Greentech Media covered how PG&E could recover from bankruptcy, quoting AEE's Amisha Rai. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM piece here.

PG&E faces a long and difficult road ahead. The San Francisco-based utility is emerging from bankruptcy with a massive debt load that could make it harder to raise the tens of billions of dollars of investment needed to prevent its power grid from causing more devastating wildfires. It’s struggling to find cost-effective ways to protect millions of customers from fire-prevention blackouts that may need to continue for years...

GTM Squared covered the state of demand-side management during the covid-19 pandemic, quoting AEE's Lisa Frantzis. Read excerpts below and the entire GTM2 piece here (sub. req.). 

Of all the U.S. clean energy industries, demand-side management — the utility term of art for energy efficiency and other programs that manage energy use behind the customer's meter — has been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. More than two-thirds of the nearly 600,000 U.S. clean energy jobs lost in March and April were in the energy efficiency sector, according to BW Research. Most of those job losses came at the small businesses that do about 80 percent of the country’s efficiency work, but they’ve also struck nationwide efficiency contractors and utility program administrators...