Advanced Energy Perspectives

For the past 20 years, states across the country have been working to re-orient our electric utilities around 21st-century goals, including greenhouse gas reductions, distributed resource integration, peak load management, resilience from emerging weather threats, energy burden alleviation, and more. These efforts have led to a plethora of new policies, programs, and processes that span from demand response and time varying rates to non-wires alternatives, performance incentive mechanisms to distribution system planning and hosting capacity analysis. Many of these reforms seek to mitigate the inherent bias in the electric utility world towards capital expenditures and large utility-owned resources, to varying degrees of success.

California has long been thought of as a pioneer in the clean energy movement, often first among states to seize new opportunities and try bold ideas to ensure a sustainable future for its residents—both environmentally and economically.  

In May 2023, Xcel Energy Colorado filed its inaugural Gas Infrastructure Plan (GIP). Not only was this a first for Colorado, but in a national regulatory landscape light on gas utility oversight, it was also among the first of its kind nationwide. With the gas industry facing unprecedented headwinds – and in light of changing policy, technology, and market conditions – states are looking for new tools to understand and evaluate gas infrastructure investments. Colorado is at the forefront of that change, with state, city, and county emissions reduction policies and programs layered on top of generous state and federal rebates and incentives for clean appliances. In addition, gas commodity and infrastructure costs are rising, and innovation and scale are happening in the cold-climate heating solutions marketplace. All of these beg the question: how do we align long-lived, ratepayer-funded utility infrastructure investments with these long-term trends while still providing for our energy needs in the near term?

Everyone deserves access to home heating that doesn’t burn a hole in their pockets. Yet, a recent study by Strategen conducted for Advanced Energy United sounds the alarm for Consumers Energy customers in Michigan. Monthly home heating bills, an already significant burden for many, are forecasted to rise — from an average of $75 in 2021 to between $114 and $131 in 2030.

In recent years, Maryland has emerged as a frontrunner in clean energy leadership nationally, fueled by ambitious goals for clean energy and clean transportation. Policies like the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) Rule, the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) Rule, and the Maryland Building Energy Transition Plan prioritize electric vehicles (EVs), clean energy, and building electrification. However, while these policies are vital and the goals in them need to be met, their full implementation is going to require an electric system that we don’t yet have—and now there is groundbreaking legislation being considered in Annapolis that would address this aspect of the clean energy transition as well.