Connecticut

Solar Consumer Education and Protection

Consumers should embrace clean energy alternatives only after educating themselves on the technologies and necessary commitments

Consumer Counts: It is critical that stakeholders in the energy space maintain an open dialogue with consumers and create and uphold good, consistent standards, education and protections.

Response to Cicchetti/Wellinghoff Re: Net Metering

Letters to the Editor: A response to the article by Charles Cicchetti and Jon Wellinghoff in our December 2015 issue

A major mistake is the claim, under net metering, customers who generate power with rooftop solar simply “bank” or “park” their extra electricity with their utility, retaining ownership rights.

Constellation and Bloom Energy to Develop 40 MW of Fuel Cell Projects

Constellation and Bloom Energy plan to develop 40 MW of Bloom Energy fuel cell projects for commercial and public sector customers in California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Under the agreement, Constellation will provide equity financing and own a majority equity interest in Bloom Energy Servers at more than 170 sites for customers, including AT&T, the City of Hartford, Conn., and Walmart among others. Constellation and Bloom Energy plan to complete the installations in phases by the end of 2016.

Digest (April 2015)

PG&E asked state regulators for permission to build ~ 25,000 EV chargers across its service area in Northern and Central California - if approved, it would mark the largest deployment of EV charging stations in the country; Lockheed Martin and Dominion Resources have co-developed a new smart grid technology called VirtuGrid to enable remote detection of power outages for faster mapping and response; Panda Power Funds and Sunbury Generation LP will develop, finance, construct and operate a 1,000-MW gas-fired, combined-cycle power project in Pennsylvania; Siemens secured an order of 157 wind turbines in South Africa from Mainstream Renewable Power; PSE&G recently put two new landfill solar farms in service as part of its Solar 4 All program; Exelon Generation will add 195-MW of electric generation capacity at the Medway (Mass.) facility; ABB won a $35 million order for gas-insulated switchgear and shunt reactors from Belgian electricity transmission system operator Elia; Iberdrola USA agreed to acquire UIL Holdings and create a newly listed publicly traded company; Chesapeake Utilities agreed to merge Gatherco into Aspire Energy of Ohio, a wholly-owned subsidiary; and others...

Exelon Buys 21 MW of Fuel Cells from Bloom Energy

Exelon agreed to buy fuel-cell power plants with 21 MW of capacity that Bloom Energy plans to install at 75 corporate sites in four states. Commercial customers including AT&T will purchase the electricity for each plant’s ability to provide power locally with less pollution and more reliability than the grid. Fuel cell generators produce electricity where it’s consumed from natural gas through a chemical reaction that produces fewer carbon emissions than plants that burn fuel.

Putting a Price on Carbon

How EPA can establish a U.S. GHG Program for the Electricity Sector.

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards expected in June 2014, many states are considering their own approaches to provide flexibility in meeting compliance requirements. Experience in North America to date provides policy guidance.

Modernizing with Trackers

Time-tested cost recovery mechanisms provide stable funding for infrastructure replacement.

Automatic tracker surcharges provide timely cost recovery for multi-year utility system improvement programs.

Mobile Mindset

Meeting customers’ service expectations in the smart phone era.

Mobile data services play a vital role for utilities to better engage customers and provide vital information during outage situations.

Category Error

The trouble with treating grid projects as market players in New York’s capacity auction.

Transmission is not generation. Yet New York ISO makes grid projects qualify as competitive, like gen plants, to get to play in its capacity market.