Advanced Energy Perspectives

This is a guest post by Scott Hennessey, Vice President of Policy & Electricity Markets and Regulatory Counsel for SolarCity.

In late March, California Independent System Operator (CAISO) approved its 2015-2016 Transmission Plan, which included gratifying news for consumers as well as distributed generation and energy efficiency providers. Thanks to consumer investments in rooftop solar and energy efficiency, CAISO cancelled 12 transmission projects in Pacific Gas & Electric territory, saving all ratepayers $192 million. In this way, CAISO has validated what many of us have known for years: When private homeowners and companies invest their own money in rooftop solar and energy efficiency, it results in all ratepayers not having to pay for new expensive generation and transmission projects.

Anyone who cares about making energy cleaner, cheaper, and safer should celebrate this story. By averting the need for utilities to build more infrastructure and pass along the cost to ratepayers, private investment in local clean energy and energy efficiency benefits everyone. Everyone who supports or sells distributed generation or energy efficiency resources needs to share this story – and move it to the center of our policy and regulatory discussions.

This is a guest post by former Colorado governor Bill Ritter, director of the Center for the New Energy Economy and an AEE Institute board member.

The White House announcement yesterday on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is a welcome solution to a problem that has plagued states since 2010. It will go far toward helping all citizens, but especially those on a low and moderate income, to make efficiency improvements to their homes and lower their energy bills.

This is a guest post from AEE Member Navigant Consulting. 

The energy industry is undergoing significant changes. From the adoption of renewables to energy storage, technology is changing how energy is generated and supplied. Navigant Research estimates that in 2015, global advanced energy markets reached $1.4 trillion in revenue. As AEE put it in the Advanced Energy Now 2016 Market Report, this means the advanced energy industry is as “big as fashion, twice the size of airlines, and close to worldwide spending on media and entertainment.” These numbers are impressive for illustrating the momentum in advanced energy adoption, but what does this mean for commercial buildings? It means it’s time for buildings to get smart.

This post originally appeared on the NECEC blog. 

Energy Policy, Politics and the 2016 Election was the topic of an exciting panel at the annual conference of NECEC’s national partner Advanced Energy Economy this week. The panel, moderated by AEE VP of Communications Bob Keough, featured a conversation with national energy media veterans Amy Harder of the Wall Street Journal, Rod Kuckro of EnergyWire News, Matt Daily of Politico and Mark Drajem of Bloomberg News, who discussed the prospects of the Bipartisan Energy Legislation in Congress, the impact of the recent stay issued by the Supreme Court on the Clean Power Plan, energy issues in the 2016 presidential race and more. 

This guest post was originally posted on EnergySMART, EnerNOC's blog that plugs into the conversation. EnerNOC is on the Leadership Council of AEE. For more information about our members, click here.

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it sided with EnerNOC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the case EPSA v FERC.

The issue at stake was whether or not FERC, the federal body that makes the rules about how both traditional generators and demand response providers participate in our nation’s wholesale electricity markets, has the proper jurisdiction to make those rules.

Opposing FERC was the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), the lobbying arm for the power generator industry. It’s the type of legal argument that can make policy and energy wonks giddy with excitement, while the average person fights to stay awake. But the Supreme Court believed the issue was of such national importance that they decided to take the case.

So why did FERC win—and also, why does it matter?