In December, Utility Dive asked energy industry insiders what to expect this year, and published "Predictions 2015 Part 1: 7 energy insiders envision the year to come" today. One such insider is AEE's own Vice President of Communications, Robert Keough. His prediction?

Business model and regulatory changes converge in 2015

Robert Keough, Vice President for Communications, Advanced Energy Economy: At AEE, we see two issues that until now have been largely separate – challenges to the traditional utility business model and EPA’s Clean Power Plan – converging in 2015 to spur efforts to rethink utility regulation.

Electric utilities have come under pressure from energy efficiency and distributed generation (lower revenue) and the need to modernize grid infrastructure for resiliency and flexibility (higher costs). Those pressures will redouble under EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which will drive states toward greater energy efficiency and more renewable energy. This convergence between the two big drivers of change — technology and policy — will result in more attempts by regulators to bring the utility business model into line with changing realities, like the proceedings under way in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New York (Reforming the Energy Vision).

Read all seven predictions here.