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DR & Conservation

$9 Billion at Risk

If PJM markets should lose demand response as a capacity resource.

The AEMA sees the self-help DR revolution as a key to America’s recent industrial renaissance: “If demand response is removed from wholesale markets,” the group says, then “the electric grid is back to the rotary phone.”
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Unleashing Energy Efficiency

The Best Way to Comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan

A framework for measuring the resource value of energy efficiency – touted as the best way for states to comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
Byline: 

Tim Woolf, Erin Malone, Chris Neme, and Robin LeBaron

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Working at the Edge of the Grid

How to find value in distributed energy resources.

Distributed resources create a new multi-directional power grid, achieving the sort of scale-driven cost levels and ease of installation that portend of future mass deployment.
Byline: 

Rick Fioravanti and Nicholas Abi-Samra

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The End of an Age

Survival in the new market requires embracing new technologies and practices.

New technologies are opening the utility domain to innovation and competition. Traditional utilities will shrink as outsourcing providers and competitors grow. Survival in this new market requires embracing new technologies and practices.
Byline: 

Charles E. Bayless

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Customer First

Is the current regulatory compact in anyone’s best interests?

Serving customers’ needs should be a top priority for power companies, irrespective of the regulatory construct and business model. Transformation doesn’t change this basic fact, but how do we break the model without breaking the system?
Byline: 

Charles Dickerson, Darren Brady, and Jamie Wimberly

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Reinventing the Grid

How to find a future that works.

The traditional central-station grid is evolving toward a more distributed architecture, accommodating a variety of resources spread out across the network. An open and thoughtful planning approach will allow an orderly transition to an integrated system – while fostering innovation among a wider range of industry players.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Don't Get Netflixed

The tide is turning. Are we planning for it – or hoping to stop it?

The central station system is the most cost-effective way to provide utility service, but that's beside the point. Customers don't care about 'utility service.'
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr, Editor-in-Chief

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Energy Efficiency Unmasked

Regulatory formulas for rewarding efficiency investments.

Effective conservation incentives would send appropriate price signals to consumers. The more common approach, unfortunately, involves arbitrary standards that introduce market inefficiencies and ultimately harm consumers.
Byline: 

Richard G. Stevie and Raiford L. Smith

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The Innovator's Dilemma

Assessing the risks and rewards of distributed energy strategies.

To embrace change or fight it? The choice to either act or wait and see is fraught with complexity.
Byline: 

Hugo van Nispen

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