Advanced Energy Perspectives

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.

In a web and mobile application-crazed world, utilities and vendors of energy-related products are finding new ways to engage with customers for energy savings and efficiency. Customers today want more information, and they want this information at their fingertips. Mobile apps have become the latest means of fulfilling that customer desire, and leading utilities and software vendors have targeted their app development at helping customers manage their energy use.

At $200 billion in annual revenue and employing more than 3 million American workers, advanced energy is driving the U.S. economy forward… literally! This week’s news was full of advanced vehicles, the latest in solar roofs, and nuclear power for the next generation.

Distributed energy resources (DERs) are becoming an increasingly important element in the U.S. electricity system, capable of driving us toward a more flexible, reliable, resilient, affordable, and clean grid. However, when any industry goes through a substantial change, there are questions that must be answered. What entities should be allowed to own, operate, and control DERs and DER services? Should a monopoly (i.e., the utility) be allowed to compete against private advanced energy companies given their inherent competitive advantages? In places like Arizona and New York, answers are starting to emerge, but are not yet settled.

This is a guest post from AEE member AES Energy Storage and originally posted here. To learn more about membership in AEE, click here. 

Whether you’re expanding an office or widening a road, gauging how much room – or capacity – you’ll need is a big challenge. You have to predict the future and guess how long your additions will accommodate your needs – whether that’s a growing staff or changing traffic patterns – so you can estimate whether it’s worth it financially.

Grid planners face similar issues when assessing how much new transmission capacity to add, such as transmission lines or substations, with the additional burden of only having a few sizes to choose from. Until recently, there has been no easy way to incrementally add capacity. It was all or nothing.

Battery-based energy storage solutions are now enabling utilities to add the right amount of capacity at a lower cost, and delivering a host of other benefits as well.

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.

The lighting industry is in the midst of two concurrent upheavals. First, light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is gaining market share rapidly over incumbent technologies, and second, lighting controls systems are making it possible to optimize the use of lighting in more sophisticated ways to save energy and money. Everyone from building owners and managers to lighting designers and installers is facing the challenge of this two-pronged transformation. But this transformation is paving the way for a third: the rise of “lighting as a service” (LaaS).