Advanced Energy Perspectives

Solar cells power Apple's data center in Catawba County, North Carolina.

This week, we saw updates in energy storage and behavioral energy efficiency, while some of the biggest names in business weighed in on North Carolina’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). Memo from Apple, Google, and Facebook to Tar Heel State lawmakers: leave REPS alone.

“We haven’t changed the way utilities do business in over a hundred years,” Lisa Frantzis explained in this week’s Energy Gang podcast, which focused on building a 21^st century electricity system. Lisa, senior vice president of strategy at AEE, gave an expert’s perspective on a trend that everyone can see coming. The way we produce and consume energy is changing, and “at such a fast clip that the regulation basically has to catch up,” she said.

On her work convening industry stakeholders in New York, Lisa said, “people know that this is a good market. People know that the current business models aren’t necessarily going to work moving forward as these more innovative technologies come into the marketplace.” On February 26, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) issued its much anticipated order in Track One of the “Reforming the Energy Vision” (REV) proceeding – and set the ball rolling on the most comprehensive reworking of the utility marketplace now under way nationally.

Advanced energy companies, as well as companies that are not focused primarily on energy, are forging partnerships that will fundamentally change the way we are powered. This week we saw important updates from several of our AEE members, as well as some continuing coverage of Hawaii’s race toward total renewable energy and Apple, which seeks to change the game… again.

Ah, Hawaii. The palm trees sway in the tropical breezes, the volcanoes cast long shadows on beautiful white sand beaches, and diesel-fired power plants generate electricity at the highest prices in the country. Big things are afoot for the electricity system of this tiny U.S. state, though. This week, let Advanced Energy Perspectives take you on a Hawaiian vacation… or, well, we’ll discuss the changes in Hawaii’s energy mix and you can pretend you’re on a beach somewhere. Deal?