A Trip to RIIO in Your Future?
Great Britain’s latest innovation in grid regulation.
Great Britain’s electric regulator takes performance-based regulation to a new, more complex level, weighing policy choices against attendant costs.
Energy Policy & Legislation
America’s Energy Future: So Who Are the Good Guys?
Not just ‘all of the above,’ but ‘how much of each?’
For proponents of a clean energy economy, identifying the “good guys” is no easy task.
Energiewende
Nuclear fear and Germany’s headlong plunge into renewable energy.
On a recent trip to Germany to study the country’s energy policy, the phrase “energy transition,” or “energiewende” as the Germans say, was on everyone’s mind.
Walking the Fuzzy Bright Line
The legality of state ROFR laws under FERC Order 1000.
States have passed laws to bypass FERC Order 1000 and its reforms favoring private grid developers. Could those laws themselves fall under attack?
AMI Logjam
Market forces and fickle policies have delayed the smart meter revolution.
Low energy prices have weakened the business case for advanced metering. Regaining momentum might depend on innovation to strengthen the benefits.
FERC vs. Idaho
PURPA and the future of avoided cost rates.
A tussle between Idaho and the feds exemplifies the flood of petitions that QFs have filed during the past several years, asking FERC to enforce or confirm their PURPA-guaranteed rights.
Energy Disconnect
Misguided policies threaten resource adequacy.
Resource planning is grinding to a halt. From EPA regulations to irrational markets, today’s policy missteps threaten tomorrow’s reliability.
Pricing Social Benefits
Calculating and allocating costs for non-traditional utility services.
Alternative ways to calculate utilities’ costs of service allow policy makers to achieve social goals in a way that’s fair and economically efficient.
Valuing Energy Efficiency
The search for a better yardstick.
Policy analysts are right to demand a reform of the total resource cost test. The evidence that it understates the benefits of energy efficiency, the main claim against it, is convincing.
Western Showdown
Renewable portfolio standards bring volatility to Mid-Columbia markets.
Recent price volatility provides a sample of what’s to come, as Western states bring more wind and solar into a hydro-dependent market.