Advanced Energy Perspectives

This update is cross-posted from CPS Energy's blog Energized and is written by Tracy Idell Hamilton, a project manager with CPS Energy.

For more than a century, utilities have operated with one overarching goal: to provide reliable power to their customers.

That mission, by its very nature, has meant taking a conservative approach to innovation and technology.

But the energy industry is changing rapidly, and the old way of doing things — building centralized fossil fuel power plants that send power along a grid largely unchanged from Thomas Edison’s day — are no longer sufficient.

Guest Post by David Gilford, Assistant Director of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, leading the City’s programs to support the growth of the clean technology and advanced energy industries. Follow him on Twitter @dgilford.

In an advanced energy economy, what does innovation look like? Solar panels and electric vehicles may capture attention, but New York City is demonstrating another form of innovation, based on software, data and design.

With Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe’s signature on Monday, April 15, 2013, Senate Bill 640, the Property Assessed Clean Energy Act, became law to enable local option clean energy financing in the Natural State for the first time. The new law authorizes government entities to voluntarily form energy improvement districts with the power to issue tax-exempt bonds to fund low-interest, long-term loans to interested property owners for energy efficiency improvements, water conservation improvements and renewable energy projects.  

Today's guest post comes to us from Tim Healy, CEO of EnerNOC, an AEE member compnay. For more information on how you can become a member of AEE, click here.

When asked to submit a guest post for Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance Summit, I was delighted, particularly given the relevance of the theme – the new energy ROI:  Resilience, Optionality, and Intelligence – to EnerNOC’s focus and future.  It couldn’t be more fitting.  

A guest opinion post from IBM. Connect with Matt Futch on Twitter: @energyfox.

The Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit has two key words; “new” and “finance.”  These words help define the dilemma which U.S. energy regulators find themselves in now.  From its inception, the legal foundation for energy regulation has been focused on reliability and low cost.  However, new energy resources, policy demands, and industry dynamics are placing increasing stress on the financial model that supports our century-old regulatory charters.  Addressing these stresses requires innovation in business models, technology, and – perhaps most importantly – regulation.