Advanced Energy Perspectives

Hollywood has the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Emmys, and more, but the advanced energy industry has its own stars to celebrate, too! With awards season in full swing, last week, we recognized Representative Ryan Costello (R — PA, 6th District) with AEE’s Advanced Energy Leadership Award during Energy Forward: Driving Advanced Energy Growth, our annual gathering of AEE members and state and regional partners, Feb. 27-28. A theme that emerged throughout the two days was the need to more effectively share our stories. Just as the film industry looks to tell stories that make characters relatable, we need to tell stories that connect our industry — and the individuals within it — to the broader economy. We need to boost our ratings by making advanced energy hyper-local, highly relatable and personal.

Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a long-awaited final order on its storage and distributed energy resource (DER) docket. This is a big step toward opening up the wholesale electricity markets under FERC jurisdiction to advanced energy technologies that have not been allowed to compete. Energy storage gets an immediate boost, as regional grid operators will now have to implement market rules to let energy storage participate. Aggregated DERs, which FERC considered in this proceeding at the urging of AEE, will be on a slower path, starting with a technical conference, but are also headed toward market participation. AEE and our member companies will stay engaged until these markets are truly open to all advanced energy technologies.

As the nation’s top per capita manufacturing state – the No. 1 steel producer and No. 3 for cars – Indiana is an energy-intensive state, so saving energy means saving money here as much as anywhere. But cost is driven especially by turning on those last, most expensive power plants – or building new ones – to meet demand at its peak. Meeting peak demand is expensive; not only are wholesale electricity prices higher during those times, but about 10% of our state’s electric power infrastructure investments focus on serving load during just 1% of the hours of the year. If Indiana can shave or eliminate these expensive peaks it could reduce costs and improve reliability, because times of peak demand are also typically when the grid is most stressed. Our new report shows three ways that Indiana can reduce peak demand.

Cybersecurity is a growing issue for the U.S. economy, especially for the critical infrastructure that keeps the nation’s energy system operating — the interconnected and interdependent systems of natural gas, water, communications, and fuel distribution, and especially the highly dynamic electric power sector, which is seeing the widespread introduction of advanced and intelligent energy technologies. But that doesn’t mean the intelligent and distributed grid of the future need be more vulnerable to cyberattack than the closed and centralized electric power system it is in the process of replacing.

Back in July, Advanced Energy Economy published a list of the top utility regulation trends of 2017 – so far. With 2017 almost in the rearview mirror, we check in on the top public utility commission actions of the year. Not surprisingly, the challenges PUCs are grappling with are wide-ranging and diverse: utility business model reforms, distribution system planning, grid modernization, rate design changes, large investments in renewables, transportation electrification, energy storage, wholesale market changes, and data access, to name a few. Here is a roundup of the top 10 matters before PUCs in 2017.