Advanced Energy Perspectives

After the comment period closed on December 1, EPA received more than 1.6 million comments on the Clean Power Plan from individuals, organizations, and state regulatory bodies. By one estimate it would take 71 people working eight hours a day from now until June to read them all. But don't worry—our Carbon Policy Analysts identified the top comments and plowed through them. This is the first of five blog posts presenting AEE’s summary of and take on comments from a few key stakeholders: federal and state regulatory organizations, states, ISO/RTOs, utilities, and industry and environmental groups. First up, State and Federal Regulator associations.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) released a report in early November calling for an analysis by regulators and power companies to determine whether the Clean Power Plan’s initial 2020 deadline can be met without threatening reliability. NERC’s report questioned whether there would be enough time to build natural gas pipelines and high voltage transmission lines for gas and renewables to replace coal generation. While NERC did not submit its own comments, the NERC report was cited by many organizations in their comments on the Clean Power Plan. AEE’s supplemental comments address this issue by demonstrating the ways that advanced energy technologies can enhance grid reliability while states shift generation to comply with the Proposed Rule.

To wrap up the year, we are taking a look back at 2014. Make sure you didn’t miss the other Year In Review pieces published this week: Top 10 Utility Commission Actions of 2014 and Top Trends in State Energy Legislation.

2014 was a big year for advanced energy. Prices for advanced energy generation technologies kept dropping, employment kept growing, and the industry opened new avenues of expansion. Plus, several key policy changes contributed to the rapid growth an already-expansive sector. Here we present the top 10 news developments of this past year, and Advanced Energy Perspectives’ coverage of them.

1)    EPA Writes the Rules on Carbon Regulation

In January we reported that the Environmental Protection Agency was gearing up to release its first-ever greenhouse gas performance standards for existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. By May we had a clearer picture of what the standards would look like, and how they could increase opportunities for both supply- and demand-side advanced energy technologies, and AEE released a report detailing 40 technologies that have the capacity to reduce greenhouse gas while simultaneously growing the economy. When the standards were officially released in June, politicians and pundits scrambled to make their voices heard on what soon became known as the Clean Power Plan. By September, we were starting to see how states would respond to the proposed regulations. In November, AEE submitted its comments on the draft proposal, stating that advanced energy can contribute much more to emission reduction than the draft of the Clean Power Plan contemplates, and provide economic benefits at the same time. AEE filed additional comments just before the December 1 deadline. 

This has been a bit of a roller-coaster year for advanced energy in state legislation, with high profile rollbacks in Ohio and Indiana, but big steps forward in Minnesota and Connecticut. South Carolina became the latest state to adopt a renewable energy goal, setting the stage for solar growth there. New financial incentives for advanced energy investments were passed in a host of states. And more states started to look at ways for electric and natural gas vehicles to contribute to road and highway maintenance, as they are not subject to gasoline taxes.

Note: some links in this post reference documents in BillBoard, an application in AEE's new energy policy software platform, PowerSuite. Click here and sign up for a free 14-day trial of PowerSuite.

In 2014, state public utility commissions grappled with issues ranging from grid modernization to energy efficiency rollbacks, with some of the proceedings continuing into next year. In this year-end post, we look back at the top 10 issues on commission dockets this year - and get ready for a busy 2015. Note: some links in this post reference documents in DocketDash, BillBoard or PowerPortal, applications in AEE's new energy policy software platform, PowerSuite. Click here and sign up for a free 14-day trial of PowerSuite.

1. New York Boldly Undertakes Comprehensive Utility Reform

The New York Public Service Commission opened a groundbreaking proceeding, Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) in April 2014, which aims to address key barriers to the deployment of distributed energy resources through a significant redesign of utility planning processes, electricity market structures, and rate design. The rest of the country is watching closely, as the outcome of REV could help define the future of utility business models in many states.

AEE and its state and regional partners, Alliance for Clean Energy New York and the New England Clean Energy Council, have filed formal comments in the REV proceeding and, via the AEE Institute, published a report outlining a comprehensive approach to benefit-cost analysis for distributed energy resources needed to make REV successful.

This week we saw a couple of big deals announced for solar involving AEE member companies. First Solar, the world’s largest solar company, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Clean Energy Collective (subscription required) to get into the largest potential market for residential solar in the United States – residents who can’t put solar installations on their own roofs. And for those who can, SolarCity has teamed up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch on a $400 million fund to help them do it.