Energy Information Administration

Amid Solar Storm, EIA Defends Itself

Energy Dept.’s EIA shines light on accusations its numbers are anti-solar.

This storm has been brewing for awhile. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, EIA, is supposedly anti-solar. Indeed, it's anti-renewables. 

Even though EIA is chartered to be - and has been - consistently unbiased, as the energy policy debates of the day have swirled around. Even though EIA is an agency of the Obama administration, not known to be anti-renewables. 

From Coal to Gas

Regulatory and environmental challenges for power plant conversions under the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

Converting a power plant from coal to natural gas triggers a host of environmental challenges and regulatory issues. Operators could be trading one set of regulatory obligations, liabilities, and costs for another, equally problematic, set of liabilities and costs.

Future Shock

ERCOT load growth: patterns, possibilities, and second thoughts.

Data from ERCOT indicates that energy intensity is falling markedly, as measured in terms of kWh usage per number of nonfarm jobs. That suggests much less future load growth, yet EIA data based on nationwide scenarios do not seem to agree.

Reducing Rate Shocks

Original-cost ratemaking doesn’t suit the challenges facing utilities today.

Levelized rates can serve customers’ interests, while also accelerating capital investment and providing an economic stimulus to the economy.

Profit and the New Normal

Delivering value in a zero-growth market.

Disruptive technologies and resource shifts are changing the utility business model. Market factors are driving companies toward four possible paths.

Transmission Policy in Flux

More planning, fewer incentives, and a black swan on the horizon.

The transmission superhighway still needs major investments. Rate incentives were working -- until FERC started backing away from them. FERC should assert its authority more aggressively to promote the vision of a robust interstate grid.

Energy Efficiency's False Hope

Only behavioral change will reduce energy consumption.

Standards and technology don't reduce energy consumption, despite the claims of efficiency zealots. Real energy savings only come through behavioral change.

No Fuel, No Power

Lessons from New England on electric-gas market coordination.

Despite the hype about cheap gas, pipeline constraints are creating new risks. New England’s wholesale power prices ran three times as high this past February compared to the same month in 2012.

DSM in the Rate Case

A regulatory model for resource parity between supply and demand.

Integrated resource planning must level the field for both supply- and demand-side resources. Commissions in several states are showing the way.

Demand Growth and the New Normal

Five forces are putting the squeeze on electricity consumption.

It’s tempting to attribute the recent slowdown in electricity demand growth entirely to the Great Recession, but consumption growth rates have been declining for at least 50 years. The new normal rate of demand growth likely will be about half of its historic value, with demand rising by less than 1 percent per year. This market plateau calls for a new utility strategy.