Advanced Energy Perspectives

Every year, on the first Wednesday of October, we celebrate the low-profile powerhouse of the advanced energy sector: energy efficiency. The annual Energy Efficiency Day (#EEDay2022 on social media) serves as a reminder that efficiency upgrades – however big or small – work year-round to lower bills, improve grid efficiency, enhance the resilience of our communities, reduce reliance on fossil fuel energy, and create local jobs. Energy efficiency touches everyone in their homes, at their jobs, and in their schools, and will become ever more important as we upgrade our transportation and buildings to high-performing, clean technologies like electric cars and heat pumps. Efficiency is also key for keeping us cool during extreme heat and warm during severe cold without straining the grid or our pocketbooks. Now, there’s more reason than ever to cash in on the value of energy efficiency, thanks to landmark legislation passed by Congress.

The growth of renewable energy has been accompanied by a worrisome trend: rising delays and wait times for projects asking for connection to the grid. These holdups lead to canceled projects, lost jobs, and wasted effort. Without changes to interconnection, this trend will only worsen, as the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and rising fuel costs for conventional generation accelerate advanced energy adoption. Earlier this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) took the first step toward streamlining the interconnection process, but there is a long way to go.

Extreme weather. Spiking natural gas prices. Peak levels of electricity use that push the grid to its limit. Our energy system faces a growing set of challenges, and our utilities and their regulators have to make big infrastructure and investment decisions today to solve those challenges. But even with a growing number of advanced energy technologies and solutions available – including those on the demand-side – many electric utilities just want to build more natural gas-fired power plants. We think there is a better way. Here’s how utilities – and one utility in particular – can use rates, incentives, and technology to manage energy use and save customers money.

AEE’s Leah Rubin Shen, Nat Kreamer, and Jeff Dennis on the White House South Lawn.

Yesterday, the White House held a celebration of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest clean energy and climate investment in U.S. history. The bill marks a turning point in the transition away from fossil fuels to the clean energy technologies that will replace them and will pack a tangible boost for America’s economy. That gives our industry a lot to celebrate, and on this day, AEE made the most of it.

Less than a week after the legislature concluded its 2022 session, California was back in the news for record-breaking heat waves and emergency energy conservation efforts that staved off power outages. This combination of extreme weather and grid strain underscored the central theme driving energy legislation at the State Capitol this year: reliability. Throughout budget and bill deliberations, policymakers grappled with the core question of how to keep the lights on under increasingly challenging conditions without compromising California’s world-renowned climate leadership or spiking consumer energy bills. What came out of the session that ended August 31 was lawmakers’ current answer, but the question is not going away.