Opinion
The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders
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Demand response is dead. Long live Flexiwatts!
Load-shifting demand response is available to help with California's renewable integration, and can effectively mitigate the Duck Curve, but first it needs to be rebranded.
Lillian Mirviss • July 10, 2019 -
Utility post-merger savings: Data can enable or impede them
The benefits of scale and standardization exist for those companies that intend to grow through acquisition, but they must be ready to adopt a less collegiate approach to the integration of their targets.
David Price • July 09, 2019 -
Market transformation: Moving beyond traditional energy efficiency programs to cement change
Energy efficiency programs have been operating in various markets for more than 30 years, but their energy savings potential is shrinking, Navigant's Jan Harris writes.
Jan Harris • July 03, 2019 -
Comparing America's grid operators on clean energy progress: PJM is headed for a climate disaster
The nation's largest grid operator is fueling a continued gas boom, despite growing data that such generation is perilous for the climate and unnecessary to serve customers, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Miles Farmer and Amanda Levin • July 02, 2019 -
Breaking through the hype – Neural networks and AI in the utility world
With more digital industrial companies leveraging an expanding, integrated AI/machine learning platform to drive network level optimization, we can now look to the future and ask new questions, the author writes.
Peter Kirk • June 28, 2019 -
APPA opinion on electric rates misses mark, retail choice better for customers: Academics
Falling prices from deregulation are good for consumers, but competitive electricity markets have also dramatically increased the number and type of products consumers can choose from, the authors write.
Michael Giberson and Arthur R. Wardle • June 14, 2019 -
Energy innovation of the future cannot rely on retail choice as its delivery vehicle
"Compounding the problem of consumers' monetary losses on competitive supply is the practice of many suppliers of engaging in ... flagrantly illegal ... sales practices," writes Connecticut's Consumer Counsel.
Elin Swanson Katz & Andrew W. Minikowski • June 10, 2019 -
No more swivel chairs: Utility customer service goes modern
Customer relationship management vendors are embracing an "App Store approach" that allows utilities to consolidate customer data and integrate third-party solutions on a single platform.
Brian Bowen • June 05, 2019 -
Utility networking options are growing, but with uncertainty and complexity for long-term planners
Utilities today face a complex array of possible strategies thanks to a variety of new networking technologies, purchasing models, and spectrum options combined with the legacy networks currently under management.
Richelle Elberg • June 03, 2019 -
UK RIIO sets out to demonstrate how a performance-based regulatory model can deliver value
The problems that RIIO is trying to solve — changing market conditions, capital bias and a focus on inputs instead of performance — are equally relevant to the U.S., while the solutions are also applicable.
Coley Girouard • May 30, 2019 -
Thriving in a low carbon future: M&A and the new energy economy
"One particular trend we are witnessing in this sector is traditional oil and gas and utilities companies moving into new areas, principally renewable energy, electric vehicles and storage," the authors write.
Mary Anne Sullivan, Sarah Shaw and Alex Harrison • May 29, 2019 -
APPA: Deregulation has not achieved intended results
According to APPA's annual review of retail rates since 1997, customers in deregulated and regulated states have seen almost the exact amount of average rate increases.
Paul Zummo • May 28, 2019 -
Renewable energy ownership: A game plan for utilities
Utilities are pursuing models to compete with independent power producers for renewable ownership versus simply buying from them via power purchase agreements.
Brian R. Murphy • May 22, 2019 -
When cooperative federalism becomes compulsory: FERC overreaches for storage
If FERC is empowered to do anything as broad as Order No. 841, so long as it’s a practice "affecting wholesale rates," then there are no bumpers on federal jurisdiction, because everything affects wholesale rates in some way.
Tony Clark and Ray Gifford • May 20, 2019 -
BVLOS drones improve power line inspections amid increasing fire and storm risks for utilities
We saw the devastating effect of vegetation encroachment in the recent California fires, which in part have been blamed on failure to maintain properly cleared transmission lines.
Geoff Zeiss • May 17, 2019 -
How arcane accounting rules could help save coal-heavy utilities
How fast utilities can refinance or securitize their coal assets (already underway in multiple states), and how much customers pay, depends heavily on depreciation.
Ron Lehr • May 15, 2019 -
Allowing DERs to participate in wholesale markets does not trample state and local authority
What's needed is a framework of shared authority that puts the electricity industry on a path to ensuring that all resources can fairly compete to provide service on the basis of price and performance.
Ted Thomas and Jeff Dennis • May 14, 2019 -
How to protect California ratepayers, expand clean local energy and avoid bailing out PG&E
Divesting the utilities of their transmission assets to make them Distribution System Operators will benefit ratepayers and utilities.
Craig Lewis • May 13, 2019 -
Averting disasters with innovation: Utilities' pressing need for predictive technology
Predictive technologies are available to identify growing risks and dramatically reduce the rate and consequence of incidents, yet the uptake by the utility industry has been sluggish. State regulators bear some responsibility.
Brien J. Sheahan, Jimmie Zhang and Corey Capasso • May 10, 2019 -
Time to open 'time-sensitive' transmission projects to Order 1000 competition
While competition is intended to encourage transmission developers to drive down consumer costs, shift risks to private investors and achieve greater efficiencies, New England consumers are not realizing those benefits.
Jason Marshall • May 09, 2019 -
The looming threat to state renewable goals in wholesale electricity markets
States are on a dangerous collision course with organized wholesale markets as they encounter obstacles to their clean energy goals that undermine their efforts and put more costs onto ratepayers.
Jessica Bell • May 08, 2019 -
The end of investment-grade utilities in California?
As California wildfires become increasingly frequent and severe, other electric utilities could follow PG&E into bankruptcy without regulatory reform, according to S&P Global Ratings' director.
Gabe Grosberg • May 06, 2019 -
Valuing the energy resilience contributions of distributed energy
Grid hardening initiatives and innovations take the spotlight in the wake of blackouts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Wilson Rickerson • May 03, 2019 -
Rejecting the 'new normal,' California eyes technology solutions to wildfire risks
The threat of deadly wildfires needs to be addressed through technology and innovation, according to the deputy executive director for safety and enforcement at the California Public Utilities Commission.
Elizaveta Malashenko • May 02, 2019 -
It's the 'largest brake' on greenhouse gases, but we're not pushing hard enough
The numbers show that in the United States, and across much of the world, we’ve made big progress on energy efficiency in the past few decades, proving that we can do more with less.
Jason Hartke • May 01, 2019
