Advanced Energy Perspectives

The past two months have been a whirlwind for energy efficiency policy in Pennsylvania. This period was marked by the high point of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) issuing a strong final rule for Phase III of Act 129, the next stage of the state’s energy efficiency mandate, and a low from the state legislature with the introduction of SB 805, which would exempt large industrial and commercial users, reducing funding for energy efficiency improvements by all customers and making efficiency gains subject to corporate whim.

This week we saw news that for the first time natural gas nudged past coal to  lead as an electricity generation source in the U.S., Iberdrola Renewables announced a historic wind installation in the Southeast, and the Tennessee Valley Authority beefed up its targets for a range of advanced energy sources in its latest IRP. All in a week’s work for advanced energy.

North Carolina has built a strong foundation of clean energy policies that date back almost 10 years, but they’ve been under attack during this year’s legislative session. Things came to a head with a controversial vote regarding the state’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) that was taken right before the Memorial Day weekend. Sen. Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg), one of the three co-chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee, declared a bill freezing the REPS at the current level (HB332) passed on a voice vote, despite a loud chorus of “no’s,” after refusing to allow an individual tally of committee members’ votes.

When EPA releases its much-anticipated final version of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) this summer, regulators and affected industry will shift into high gear as they consider implementation options. While there are many ways to comply, here’s one underlying reality: Given the opportunity, markets will respond. That’s the takeaway from a new report prepared by AEE Institute, based on a review of prior EPA regulations that allowed for market-based compliance. The report predicts that the CPP will spark a robust industry response and unlock a wide array of cost-competitive options – facilitating timely compliance and lowering cost.

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 2015 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research. 

The rise of distributed generation (DG) is one of the most important trends in the energy industry today. Traditional utility business models, which rely mainly on volumetric electricity sales to provide the revenue needed to cover the costs of the grid, are challenged by the dramatic growth in the deployment of technologies that generate electricity “behind the meter,” which reduce the need to purchase power from central utility-scale generation facilities. Leading distributed generation technologies, including solar photovoltaics (PV), small and medium wind, fuel cells, and natural gas generator sets, combined in 2014 for $6.3 billion in revenue from installations in the United States, and $35 billion globally.