Advanced Energy Perspectives

2023 was the year it became obvious – and undeniably so – that the status quo no longer serves us when it comes to heating our homes and businesses. Several trends have come into irreconcilable conflict. In particular, rising gas costs, vulnerabilities in the gas supply chain, and increasing gas infrastructure spending are juxtaposed against new, highly efficient electric appliance options, made ever more accessible by the 2022 federal Inflation Reduction Act as well as continued market growth and innovation. Consumer preferences continue to shift, and, for the second year in a row, electric-powered heat pump sales have surpassed those of gas furnaces.  

The United States electric grid is undergoing a transformation and significant changes need to occur for Americans to fully realize the benefits of these improvements. The key is the transmission system. As the federal agency charged with regulating interstate transmission of electricity, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is uniquely positioned to create new rules that better ensure Americans can achieve equitable, affordable access to energy, secure our grid’s future reliability, and accelerate the transition to clean generation and advanced grid technologies. 

November was quietly one of the most consequential months for transportation policy in New York’s history, and it’s worth looking back on everything that happened in its totality—especially given New York’s leadership role on all things clean energy, and how transforming the transportation sector may be the state’s biggest challenge in hitting its clean energy goals.

On Monday, Advanced Energy United sent a letter to state energy offices in the West offering our perspective on a study commissioned by the Western Markets Exploratory Group (WMEG) that compares the benefits of several proposed Western day-ahead market scenarios. The study has been filed in multiple dockets in states across the West, but it offers an incomplete view of the benefits that can accrue to the West in a day-ahead market.

This week, Governor Whitmer signed into law a suite of clean energy policies that set Michigan on a path to a decarbonized power system. The new laws include some of the most significant energy policy reforms since the establishment of the state’s renewable portfolio standard in 2008 and electric integrated resource planning in 2016.