PPL CEO Interviewed
We went to Allentown and talked with Bill Spence.
What are the most exciting things happening at PPL? What were the biggest challenges in that journey? Were there some tough challenges you had to get through?
Distributed Generation & Microgrids
New Regulatory Paradigm Needed Now
The time is now for establishing concrete rules, roles and responsibilities for utilities and other participants.
Driven by policy directives over which utilities have little control, DERs will remain both a threat and opportunity until regulators agree on a new paradigm to support distributed energy resources.
Microgrids and Battery Storage
In search of enlightened policy to build a solid business case.
A smart grid expert searches for a solid business case – and tells how to create enlightened policy to make it happen.
Got Green? Then Get Smart.
Why it’s the growth of renewable resources that makes the most compelling case for a smarter grid.
To manage the new instability, inherent in many renewable resources, it becomes necessary to introduce more intelligence and automation. That’s what makes the smart grid so compelling.
Microgrids: Where's the Beef?
Integration beats islanding, anyway you slice it.
A microgrid is a throwback. It’s anathema to what we know about economies of scale. Integration is what maximizes the ability of least-cost resources to reach load. By interfering with least-cost dispatch, microgrids can only raise energy costs.
From Grid to Cloud
A network of networks – in search of an orchestrator.
The Energy Cloud will change the way we generate, store, and consume energy by changing from a one-way power flow to a dynamic network of networks supporting two-way energy and information flows.
Getting Smart about the Integrated Grid
In New York it’s where we’re staking our energy future.
Disruptive technologies such as microgrids and battery storage devices are commendable but they are supporting actors and must still work with the centralized grid.
Storage Grows Up
More than just energy, it's becoming part of the grid.
One of the most striking aspects of the state's "Reforming the Energy Vision" initiative is the unique role it assigns to energy storage. Utilities may own distributed storage without concern over competitive implications when it becomes a part of the distribution network.
Distributed Generation
Disruptive Technology or Regulatory Challenge?
Distributed generation marks a set of emerging technologies requiring creativity from utilities and regulators in introducing laws, policies, and economic incentives – to ensure that revenue streams are captured and that cost recovery reflects market reality.
Searching for Equilibrium
How to achieve it in the era of distributed energy
In the emerging era of distributed energy resources, we will find the distribution utility increasingly in the role of an integrator and enabler – more than their longstanding role as energy provider. Accordingly, the regulatory approach must go through its own structural shift to keep pace and restore the system to regulatory equilibrium.