Advanced Energy United Reports

A team of 13 graduate students in Columbia University’s MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program worked to develop for AEE recommendations to accelerate the adoption of electric school buses in some of the country’s most promising markets. Through a series of policy and financial recommendations, the Columbia team identified pathways to adoption in support of AEE’s ongoing work in three fast-growing Sun Belt states – Arizona, Florida, and Texas. The report discusses the current landscape surrounding energy markets and regulation in these states, analyzes political considerations affecting electric school bus adoption, and provides recommendations for accelerating the transition to emissions-free school transportation fleets.

Acceleration of the clean energy transition is dramatically shifting the types of electric generation technologies used to meet electricity demand and reliably operate the grid. Rapid cost declines in advanced energy technologies like wind, solar, and energy storage are making them increasingly competitive choices for new generation additions. While there has been considerable attention devoted to determining the reliability value of these new resource types, the methods used to evaluate the resource adequacy, or capacity value, of conventional thermal generating resources (including coal, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants) have not been formally reexamined or updated in decades.

Information technology (IT) and data solutions are a central focus of modern enterprise in every industry. Many industries have made the transition from traditional, on-premises IT solutions to cloud computing — and those industries have subsequently benefited from the scalability, flexibility, and efficient use of capacity cloud computing offers. However, regulations that have been in place for nearly a century have delayed the ability of utilities to transition from on-premises systems to cloud computing services. This paper, from AEE and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), examines the regulatory reforms needed to modernize the IT systems that utilities depend on to provide safe, reliable, and efficient operations. 

FERC Order 2222 requires exceptional coordination between distribution utilities, RTOs/ISOs, aggregators, and state regulators. This report, from Advanced Energy Economy and GridLab, a non-profit mission-driven electric grid consultancy group, provides a framework for state regulators to navigate key issues as utilities look to improve integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into wholesale markets in the coming years.

With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, funds will be available to state, local, and tribal governments for a variety of advanced energy infrastructure. The bill provides funding to address some of state and local policymakers’ top energy priorities, such as ensuring a reliable electric grid, lowering energy bills, and supporting advanced energy jobs. This document outlines key federal funding streams for supporting these priorities, as well as information about how to access the funds.