Advanced Energy Perspectives

Sometimes the news isn’t exactly new. Faithful readers of Advanced Energy Perspectives will recognize much of what is in this week’s news: From Schneider Electric’s new microgrid system to GE’s first-ever storage-plus-natural-gas system to Salesforce making good on its advanced energy commitments, AEE members are, as always, leading the way to an energy system that is ever more secure, clean, and affordable.

Pennsylvania’s landmark energy efficiency law – known as Act 129 – continues to deliver huge electricity savings for the Commonwealth’s residents and businesses. In its most recent report on Act 129, the Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Statewide Evaluator found that residential, commercial, and industrial consumers saved $2.2 billion in the last three years alone. So why the repeated – and so far failed – attempts to jam through legislation that would cripple the Keystone State’s energy efficiency efforts?

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Coca-Cola is just one of many companies committing to advanced energy goals. 

As a growing number of companies turn to advanced energy to meet their electricity needs, corporate procurement has emerged as a significant driver of deployment. After a record year in 2015, when corporate purchasers and other non-utility buyers signed contracts for more than 3.7 GW of solar and wind power – surpassing utility purchases – corporate pro-curement maintained a steady clip in 2016, reaching 2.5 GW by the end of the year. These numbers do not count onsite generation, another important market segment led by companies like Walmart, Apple, and Coca-Cola.

A solar array on the roof of a Southern California Sam's Club.

Advanced energy is becoming a part of our everyday lives. Whether we know it or not, every time we turn on the lights, drive on a road, or go shopping we are interacting with technologies that are helping the world run on energy that is secure, clean, and affordable. This week the news was full of just those stories: From Portland and Chicago we have stories of cities choosing advanced energy, and from Ford and Walmart stories of advanced energy integrating into our everyday lives.

The electricity sector is changing. New technologies are being integrated into the grid and installed behind customer meters, including a range of smart grid technologies, distributed generation, demand response, and energy efficiency. These same technologies are putting pressure on the traditional utility business model, which is focused on providing a regulated rate of return on capital investment. As a result, both utilities and regulators are looking for ways to modernize the regulatory framework to better align utility financial incentives with the changes taking place on the grid and with public policy goals. One way to do that is performance-based regulation (PBR). A new paper from AEE Institute explores the potential for Pennsylvania to benefit from PBR to deliver better service (and more options) for customers and greater economic development for the state.