Like the space program, the drive to decarbonize is encountering many unsolved problems. Each has the potential to prevent a smooth landing.

The challenge is to modernize these systems without imposing undue costs on consumers, balancing fiscal responsibility with the imperative for technological advancement.

A dialogue with TENTIL award winner Nino Ficca and EEI CEO Dan Brouillette.

The ambitious goals and timelines of the energy transition cannot be achieved without broadening and deepening consumer action.

While these revenue stabilization mechanisms mitigate specific risks, they also require monitoring and calibration – they are not to be set and forgotten.

"We ask our project managers to first understand why business diversity is important, then to understand that we will need to subcontract our typical engineering services that we provide. Those are two new ways of thinking for our employee-owners."

FERC Order 881 was the subject of discussion at a recent IEEE Power & Energy Society T&D Conference, which was attended by POWER Engineers’ Lisa Deppa. She explains here the latest on Order 881 and why it is important to the decarbonization journey.

In part three, we consider institutional consequences if indifference to ratepayer impacts takes root in FERC and federal agencies or in state legislatures and with regulators. How these play out could affect policy sustainability and effectiveness as net-zero goals for 2050 grow nearer.