efficiency

Integrated Energy

Distributed energy + distributed controls = distributed benefits.

Utility business models are at risk in a world of distributed energy resources and local intelligent controls, such as microgrids. But the real revolution may lie in customer expectations, where third parties threaten to take ownership.
Byline: 

Sunil Cherian

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Integrated Distribution Planning

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

The next frontier, and the logical extension of integrated resource planning. Self-generation, the connected home, the celebrated internet of things – they all suggest it’s time to focus on the local grid.
Byline: 

Paul Alvarez

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2014 Utility Regulators' Forum

Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.

Interviews with public utility commissioners from key states – New York, California, Maryland, and Georgia – on coal carbon, climate, and the revolution in retail. What they’re thinking. What they’re planning.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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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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EPA's Clean Power Plan: An Unequal Burden

The Clean Power Plan's largest obstacle is how its cost is distributed disproportionately among the states.

How the Clean Power Plan introduced in June by the Environmental Protection Agency will produce widely differing compliance obligations among the states, in terms of emissions targets, likely carbon prices, and effects on wholesale power prices.
Byline: 

David Bellman

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Start the Conversation

The regulator’s role in a world divided by distributed generation.

A state utility commissioner urges her colleagues to begin planning now for distributed generation – before it’s too late.
Byline: 

Hon. Sherina E. Maye

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Rooftop Parity

Solar for Everyone, including Utilities

An independent system operator for the distribution network could open more opportunities for distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar.
Byline: 

James Tong and Jon Wellinghoff

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Hedging Your Bet on Cheap Gas

Portfolio theory points to energy efficiency as invaluable in resource planning.

Overlooked in planning, and undervalued by today’s low natural gas prices, energy efficiency offers a valuable hedge against fuel price volatility.
Byline: 

Hossein Haeri, Aaron Jenniges and Paul Youchak

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From ISO to DSO

Imagining a new construct – an independent system operator for the distribution network.

A new utility industry construct – the Distribution System Operator (DSO) – could help maximize the benefits of distributed energy resources.
Byline: 

Farrokh Rahimi and Sasan Mokhtari

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