Perspective

“The program can scale up to $250 billion of lending up to 30 years, depending on life of the asset, at a rate as low as U.S. Treasuries plus three eighths of a point. Those benefits have to flow through to regulated customers. An unregulated project, say a merchant coal plant being replaced with solar and storage, that low-cost financing benefit can accrue to the developer.”

“As a way forward, regulators and policymakers need to modernize the way they support the development, planning and operation of the bulk power system, which is beyond the certainty of resource capacity.”

Exelon subsidiary ComEd began its Community of the Future program in 2016 with the Bronzeville Community Microgrid in Chicago. PUF journeyed there to see firsthand how ComEd is taking Chicago into the future with the first utility operated microgrid cluster.

“As we gather for the 139th time this month in Savannah, AEIC is still very much guided by our forebearers’ vision to work collaboratively, gather information, and exchange ideas to benefit all members.”

“Artificial intelligence (AI), advances in computational speed, and algorithms can help support the clean energy transition. Our industry is moving toward a greater understanding and utilization of these new technological capabilities that are already impacting our clean energy pathways.”

“Advanced conductors make it possible to deploy big upgrades within existing rights of way, even reusing existing towers for reconductoring projects that can be accomplished with relative lightning speed and for lower total costs that make ratepayers, consumer advocates, and public utility commissions happy.”

“Power TakeOff has mastered measuring energy savings relative to a quantified, measured historical baseline based on AMI data.”

“There was a lot of focus post-Storm Uri on generation performance, and ERCOT made some improvements through some higher technical standards, although we must see how it performs. But no one has addressed the demand side at all. That’s one of the problems.”

“Innovative regulatory frameworks may be needed to enable targeted electrification at a scale meaningful enough to impact gas network planning.”

“With the energy transition and accompanying rise of distributed energy resources like solar, wind, and renewables, the grid and the data architecture behind it is becoming more and more distributed. But distributed data is a difficult problem to solve.”