Advanced Energy Perspectives

A little less than a year ago, Virginia made history by passing the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) and becoming the first Southern state to establish a 100% clean energy standard. Today, the VCEA faces one of its first critical tests, as the State Corporation Commission (SCC) considers Dominion’s 2020 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) filing – the utility’s first under the law’s new binding standard. Will the Commission find in favor of the utility, ruling only on the basis of the projects Dominion proposes to build and contract for? Or will the Commission consider the utility’s proposal within the broader context of the law, which pushes utilities to meet their RPS requirements through a variety of means to ensure lowest cost, as AEE and a number of other intervenors propose? It is our hope that the Commission will look at the forest, not just the trees – and set Dominion on the right clean-energy course for Virginia’s families and businesses.

Texas is in the midst of a severe and historic winter weather event, which has led to the worst outages the state has experienced in decades. With over 4 million Texans losing power, all eyes are on the state’s grid manager and market operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and market participants like power plant owners and operators, demand side resources, and other grid assets as they work around the clock to restore the grid to normal operating conditions. Defenders of the energy status quo are also using the occasion to cast doubt on advanced energy technologies – especially wind power, on which Texas is a national leader. But they’ve got it exactly backwards. The troubles in Texas point to the need for more advanced energy, not less. 

This post was updated Feb. 17, 2021 at 6:31 PM to reflect updated action on another bill, HB2737, that intends to add duplicative ACC oversight. See last section.

Arizona Legislators have the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) in the crosshairs this legislative session with a series of bills aimed directly at stripping commission  authority. HB2248 and SB1175 revoke the authority of the ACC to adopt or enforce policy related to electrical generation resources made after June 30, 2020. The bills purport to clarify the constitutional authority of the commission to regulate utilities, in the process stripping the commission of its  authority to create and enforce energy policy. Indeed the real purpose of these bills seems to be squashing the 100% clean energy rules the ACC gave initial approval to last fall and are now in the process of finalizing.

It’s no secret that Fortune 500 companies want more advanced energy. Over the past five years, these companies have signed contracts for more than 24 GW of large-scale renewable energy, pursued thousands of onsite solar installations, and embraced newer technologies like battery storage. The role of organized competitive wholesale markets as enablers of advanced energy procurement by large buyers is, however, a bit of a trade secret. Which is too bad, because policymakers could meet the needs of businesses and accelerate the transition to a cleaner economy all at once by expanding and reforming these markets. Here’s how.

The substantial growth in renewable energy in the U.S. comes from two sources: purchases made by utilities and retail suppliers to comply with mandatory targets such as state Renewable Portfolio Standards (compliance purchases), and purchases from customers that go beyond these targets (voluntary purchases), usually in pursuit of sustainability goals. These two types of purchases in combination drive renewable energy development in the U.S., but how they interact gets tricky, especially as states ramp up their clean energy targets to 100%. How do voluntary purchasers get what they pay for – and states reach their ambitious targets – in a way that’s fair for both? It’s all about “additionality,” and to date, states have taken different approaches.