Advanced Energy United Reports

By allowing companies in Missouri to contract directly with third-party suppliers of renewable energy, as they are able to do in many other states, and raising the state’s unusually low cap on the size of installations that qualify for net metering, Missouri can unleash its renewable energy potential and drive private investment, job creation, and economic growth. That is the primary finding of this policy brief, based on analysis by Meister Consultants Group for AEE.

"Modeling Low Cost Approaches to Clean Power Plan Compliance for Pennsylvania" shows that implementing EPA's Clean Power Plan need not raise electricity costs in Pennsylvania but rather may provide savings for ratepayers compared to projected energy costs in 2030. Those are the findings of multiple scenarios run through STEER, a new analytic tool developed for the Advanced Energy Economy Institute and applied to Pennsylvania-specific data.

Demand for electricity can spike during just a few hours a year, and typically 10 percent of our electric system capacity is built to meet demand in just 1 percent of hours during the year. This comes at a significant cost to consumers.

This report, prepared for AEE by Navigant Consulting, evaluates the benefits and costs of reducing peak demand in two states, Illinois and Massachusetts, and the feasibility of utilities to procure the resources to meet demand reduction goals over 10 years.

On February 25, 2015, Advanced Energy Economy Institute hosted a meeting of senior executives from advanced energy companies and California’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs).

The California 21st Century Electricity System CEO Forum was an opportunity for energy industry leaders to discuss the drivers of industry change and to start to examine utility business models and regulatory concepts that can adapt to and thrive in the emerging energy market environment. Out of that meeting came a desire by the participants to advance the ideas and concepts discussed.

In July, 2015, AEE submitted comments to the Legislature and Governor's office on proposed changes to the use of Cap & Trade auction revenues that would leverage private sector funds to further expand investments in GHG-reducing technologies and programs.

In March 2015, AEE sent a letter to the CPUC regarding pending decisions applications from the IOUs to own and operate various parts of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure in which we encouraged the Commissioners and ALJs to consider the potential precedent they might set for future applications by utilities to own or operate other distributed energy resources.

When EPA releases the final Clean Power Plan this summer, regulators and industry will move to consider compliance options in earnest. While opponents contend that these options will be limited and costly, the track record of EPA regulations allowing for market-based compliance suggests otherwise.

The AEE Institute contracted with ICF International to perform an assessment of the potential impacts of the EPA Clean Power Plan (CPP) on required gas pipeline capacity. This report responds to concerns raised by some stakeholders, including the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), that states might rely heavily on natural gas generation for compliance with the CPP, creating stress on gas pipeline capacity and ultimately impacting electric system reliability. These parties have suggested that addressing the concerns might require expensive expansion of natural gas infrastructure over a challenging timeframe.