Advanced Energy United Reports

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. 

Throughout the economy, companies are finding efficiencies and operational benefits through services provided by third parties instead of physical assets that they own and manage.

However, under prevailing cost-of-service regulation, electric utilities may be discouraged from using such services, since they do not generate profits the way that investments in capital assets do.

The U.S. utility sector has entered a period of foundational change, not seen since the restructuring of the late 1990s. Change is being driven by new technologies, evolving customer needs and desires, environmental imperatives and an increased focus on grid resiliency.

With these developments come challenges, but also new opportunities to create an energy system that meets the changing expectations of consumers and society for the coming decades. We call this the 21st Century Electricity System: a high-performing, customer-focused electricity system that is efficient, flexible, resilient, reliable, affordable, safe, secure and clean.

Voluntary renewable energy tariffs are quickly emerging as one of the key tools to meet growing corporate renewable energy demand in vertically integrated markets.

Participation in renewable energy tariffs has grown steadily over the past five years, and improvements in program design have continued apace. A report from Advanced Energy Economy Institute and a companion policy brief from AEE provide guidance for the design of successful renewable energy programs in regulated markets.