News

Utility Dive reports on the Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner’s vision for Xcel Energy to roll out a 50MW Virtual Power Plant this fall to improve grid reliability. The article quotes Brian Turner on what a viable VPP program would look like and the time it would take to implement. 

Xcel Energy would roll out a 50-MW virtual power plant, or VPP, utilizing a new “prosumer tariff” by the end of this year under a vision laid out by a Colorado Public Utilities Commission regulator. While the utility has some concerns about the timeline, it said in a Jan. 25 filing that aspects of the VPP could be included in an upcoming request for proposals in the first quarter. 

Canary Media reports on the California lawmakers’ efforts to overturn the California Public Utilities Commission’s plan to propose income-graduated fixed fees with Assembly Bill 1999. The article quotes Edson Perez and Brian Turner on how ratepayers will be affected by this and the consequences of this fixed charge.

 

Of all the ways California regulators are proposing to rein in fast-rising electric utility rates, few are as controversial as the plan to charge customers for electricity service based on how much money they make.

 

PV Magazine  reports on the recently released report, "Implementing “30% by 2030” Renewable Energy Policy Would Generate $13 Billion for PA" , by Advanced Energy United and a coalition of partners.  The article quotes United's Nick Bibby, who relays the report's findings that increasing Pennsylvania's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards would benefit the Commonwealth.

 

Utility Dive  highlights some of the major developments and trends expected in nine critical areas of the energy transition this year, including the expansion of virtual power plants (VPPs). The article quotes United's Ryan Katofsky, who speaks to the increasing role VPPs can play in ensuring grid reliability and addressing the general need for more flexibility on the demand side.

 

The Statehouse News Service reports on proposed legislation in Massachusetts, which would require utilities to consider grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) and other technologies before moving toward new construction. The article quotes  United's Kat Burnham, who testified at a recent legislative hearing in support of the legislation and underlined the vital role GETs can play in making the state's power grid more reliable, flexible, and efficient.

 

The Nevada Current reports on NV Energy's request for a fifth amendment to its Integrated Resource Plan, quoting United's Brian Turner on the importance of competitive procurement and commission oversight.

 

NV Energy is failing to get the best deals for its customers, resulting in higher than necessary rates, according to experts who say compared with other electric utilities in the west, the company is lagging in leveraging the lowest-cost, and most environmentally friendly options.

In September, an NV Energy executive told Clark County commissioners that fulfilling a legislative mandate to ensure half of its energy is from renewable sources by 2030 “is going to be a challenge.”  

Heatmap reports on the Inflation Reduction Act's 45X tax credit, quoting United's Harry Godfrey on how this pillar program within the law directly supports advanced energy technologies and benefits U.S. manufacturers producing components up and down their supply chains.

 

This year may forever be remembered as the start of the American clean energy manufacturing boom.

Since the beginning of 2023, companies have announced more than 150 separate investments in new and expanded factories to manufacture solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and other clean energy technologies in the U.S., for a total pledged outlay of nearly $60 billion, according to tracking by the nonpartisan group E2. And these factories won’t just be assembling the final products. Entire supply chains have arrived on shore.

Utility Dive reports on the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act, a bill introduced to spur transmission development, quoting United's Mike Haugh on how the bill's passage would improve our transmission system and push the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) to take action on its pending transmission planning and cost allocation rulemaking.

 

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a bill to spur transmission development, with a focus on interregional and offshore wind lines.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Sean Casten, D-Ill., and Mike Levin, D-Cal., plus 74 co-sponsors, directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue rules to improve interregional transmission planning; provides a 30% transmission investment tax credit; incentivizes renewable energy development in priority areas on federal land; and expands consultation with disadvantaged groups and communities in the permitting process.

In a letter to the editor of Crain's Business Chicago, United's Samarth Medakkar advocates that the Illinois Commerce Commission's decision to suspend the Peoples Gas' pipe replacement program was in the best interest of Illinois consumers, responding to an op-ed published in support of the program.

 

Late last month, the Illinois Commerce Commission suspended Peoples Gas' pipe replacement and ordered an investigation into this program, which is responsible for an increase in rates since work began in 2011. The call to restart the program in the op-ed "The ICC needs to restart Peoples Gas' pipeline replacement immediately" (Nov. 29) is shortsighted, and doesn't factor in the surge in market trends toward home electrification technologies, driven by consumer choice.

In a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal, United's Trish Demeter writes that the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission should consider the more reliable, cleaner, and more affordable advanced energy alternatives to coal for the best interest of Indiana consumers.

 

We have the technologies today to deliver reliable, clean, homegrown energy for Indiana while saving Hoosiers billions of dollars. The “solutions” proposed by Mr. Robert Turner in his Viewpoint on Nov. 24 [“As winter nears, state must protect reliable coal energy”] would be a barrier to truly reliable, affordable energy in Indiana.