News

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...

Public News Service covered New York's push for EV charging infrastructure across the state to meet EV deployment goals by 2025, quoting AEE's Matt Stanberry. Read excerpts below and the entire Public News Service piece here. 

In a push to meet ambitious clean-energy goals, New York is giving a major boost to the expansion of charging stations for electric cars and trucks. The Empire State is committed to having 850,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025. But the state ranks 30th in the nation for the number of electric-vehicle charging stations by population. 

Comments submitted for SCC inquiry on energy storage deployment highlight market opportunities while meeting VCEA implementation targets

RICHMOND, July 29, 2020 — Today, business group Virginia Advanced Energy Economy (Virginia AEE) submitted comments to the State Corporation Commission related to its docket on energy storage deployment* [Case PUR-2020-00120]. The filing responded to a series of questions posed by the SCC. As Virginia AEE's filing highlights, energy storage has a critical role to play in Virginia's energy transition, driven by the recently enacted Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA).

E&E Daily covered President Trump's paired FERC nominees, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire E&E Daily piece here. 

President Trump's unexpected nomination of a Democratic and Republican pair to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has eased fears about the agency's ability to function and could ensure a Republican majority on the panel through June 2021. The White House decision to nominate its Republican choice and also someone Democrats have been pushing for months will likely ease the confirmation process... 

Indianapolis Monthly covered the decline of the coal industry in Indiana as renewable energy has begun to increase across the state, quoting Indiana AEE's Caryl Auslander. Read excerpts below and the entire Indianapolis Monthly piece here. 

When Tim Abrams is up at night, sitting at the kitchen table of his rural Sullivan County home fretting about the future of Indiana’s coal industry, he’s not worried so much about his own job... Abrams is concerned because, as president of the County Council, he knows the life-sustaining power coal has given the region, both literally and figuratively through employment. And, like everyone else in the area, he sees the industry dying right before his eyes...

Utility Dive covered Illinois Commerce Commission's rejection of changing regulatory accounting rules to allow partial recovery cloud-based computing costs through customer rates, quoting AEE's Danny Waggoner. Read excerpts below and the entire UD piece here. 

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has rejected a change in regulatory accounting rules proposed by its staff and the state’s utilities, which would have allowed the partial recovery of contracting costs for cloud-based data processing through higher customer rates. The proposal would have allowed utilities to treat at least part of the cost of cloud-based computing services as infrastructure investments just as if they had purchased computer hardware and software and hired staff...

Energy News Network covered the push to repeal Ohio's nuclear bailout bill in light of criminal complaints of bribery and conspiracy that led to passage of the bill in 2019, quoting AEE's JR Tolbert. Read excerpts below and the entire Energy News Network piece here. 

Both Republican and Democratic Ohio lawmakers are pushing to repeal the state’s nuclear bailout bill after this week’s release of a federal criminal complaint against House Speaker Larry Householder and others. Clean energy advocates say that would be a start, but more is needed to address eight years of lawmakers’ actions to slow the growth of renewables in the state. The complaint alleges a $60 million bribery and conspiracy scheme that led to the passage of House Bill 6 last summer, followed by the defeat of a referendum effort to give voters a say on the bill...

Charlotte Business Journal covered the possibility of an energy imbalance market exchange between Duke Energy and other Southeastern energy companies that could span 10 states and 32 million customers, quoting AEE's Jeff Dennis. Read excerpts below and the entire Charlotte Business Journal piece here. 

The market contemplated by Duke Energy Corp. and other Southeastern power companies could create a massive energy exchange across parts of 10 states with more than 32 million customers from eastern Oklahoma to south Georgia... Skeptics say the devil is in the details. And the power companies say there aren’t enough details yet to share much with regulators, state governments, energy advocates, consumer groups and other interested parties...