Opinion
The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders
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Demand response works: It's time to 'shimmy' over and unleash Flexiwatts
California needs to focus on implementing policies that will unlock innovation in the market and provide financial incentives to deploy flexible devices equitably and at scale to enable the future of load management, the author writes.
Lillian Mirviss • Oct. 13, 2020 -
Getty Images
A resolution to LCOE is not the metric you think it is
After one of the authors questioned the usefulness of the widely-used levelized cost of energy metric, two NREL analysts worked with him to find the metric is reliable — but only if used in real time.
James Loewen, Pieter Gagnon, and Trieu Mai • Oct. 07, 2020 -
Courtesy of Pabst Blue Ribbon
PBR for utilities: Is it better than the beer?
A poorly designed and executed performance-based regulation mechanism can harm utility customers when the intent is to benefit them, the author writes.
Kenneth W. Costello • Oct. 05, 2020 -
APS
6 practical steps to improve community safety near lithium-ion energy storage systems
Research and curricula for first responders on lithium-ion battery storage system fires is insufficient, leading to situations where the fire service must piece together limited information to address incidents, the author writes.
Steve Kerber • Sept. 28, 2020 -
Julia von Alexander, former Southwestern University student
P3s hold the key to a clean energy future post-COVID
Making progress on climate is still within our grasp, but the critical first step is to recognize the benefits of collaboration, and then to reach across the aisle.
Bill Prindle • Sept. 25, 2020 -
Elizabeth Regan, Industry Dive
FERC's carbon pricing dialogue may be worth the price of admission
A productive dialogue may heal other wounds by taking steps toward aligning state and FERC policies with their mutual interests, the authors write.
Devin Hartman and Jason Stanek • Sept. 24, 2020 -
Utilities aren't rewarded for saving money. FERC now has a chance to fix this
Current federal incentives for improving transmission all point the wrong way: rewarding utilities for building expensive, inefficient boondoggles, rather than making the most of what they already have, the authors write.
Jigar Shah and Rob Gramlich • Sept. 23, 2020 -
Photo illustration by Brian Tucker/Utility Dive; photograph by thinkreaction via Getty Images
Clean energy should prioritize creating equitable partnerships
It has remained an uncomfortable industry fact that racism and a history of exclusion have produced the unequal distribution of benefits we see today, the author writes.
Lavannya Pulluveetil Barrera • Sept. 22, 2020 -
In deploying electrified urban transport, look to university campuses
Recognizing universities as urban innovation hubs, particularly for electrified transportation, can aid the transition to a new, better "normal" post-coronavirus.
Rod Keller • Sept. 17, 2020 -
Big changes may be ahead for natural gas pipelines, if FERC does its job
Pipelines risk becoming costly stranded assets if they are built without a serious look at how they fit with decarbonization goals. But FERC refuses to grapple with these issues, the author writes.
Jessica Bell • Sept. 16, 2020 -
Avoiding blackouts in California through load flexibility
With load flexibility, everyone wins since demand is being controlled voluntarily only during those hours when supply shortages exist, virtually eliminating the need for involuntarily cutting off power, the authors write.
Ryan Hledik and Ahmad Faruqui • Sept. 14, 2020 -
Permission granted by 8minute Solar Energy
Adding it all up: Counting the capacity contribution of variable and duration-limited resources
The failure to properly count the quantity of capacity available to meet load during extreme weather events, like wildfires, can lead to inadequate power supplies and rotating blackouts, the authors write.
Nick Schlag, Zachary Ming and Arne Olson • Sept. 10, 2020 -
What do regulators want most from grid modernization proposals? A compelling business case
Regulators should, at a minimum, review utility requests to pre-approve broad grid mod projects like prudent potential business investors, not like innovators, writes Rhode Island Public Utilities Commissioner Abigail Anthony.
Abigail Anthony • Sept. 09, 2020 -
Electric vehicle battery sustainability is a must to meet climate ambitions
Better governance of the extraction of EV minerals is essential to the future of mineral-producing countries, the electric vehicle industry and transportation globally, the authors write.
Ethan N. Elkind and Patrick R. P. Heller • Sept. 08, 2020 -
Tackling the biggest obstacle to new transmission — power providers' commitment phobia
The current business model that rests everything on a unit of measure — the kilowatt-hour — disincentivizes investments in transmission infrastructure because the surety of repayment is in question, the author writes.
Mark A. Gabriel • Sept. 03, 2020 -
No kowtowing to utilities: setting the record straight on Colorado Consumer Counsel's COVID actions
A former Colorado utility commissioner's claims that consumer advocates "treat as a foregone conclusion" the idea that consumers will be on the hook for the consequences of the pandemic is not true, the author writes.
Cindy Schonhaut • Sept. 02, 2020 -
Going beyond Order 841 to more meaningful FERC storage policy
Despite the landmark order, other FERC proceedings are erecting new barriers to energy storage participation within energy, capacity and ancillary services markets, the author writes.
Sean Baur • Sept. 01, 2020 -
California's blackouts highlight need for electric reliability insurance market
Oxford researchers address California's power supply crunch in a way that would guide investment for reliability provisions based on consumer preference.
Rahmat Poudineh & Michael Hochberg • Aug. 31, 2020 -
Fotolia
FERC's capacity markets limit clean energy and cost billions; it's time for Congress to act
If successful, pending litigation could lift some of the unwarranted federal burdens on state clean energy programs in PJM and other places, but a legislative fix would do more, the authors write.
Scott Strauss, Jeffrey Schwarz and Peter Hopkins • Aug. 27, 2020 -
What caused California's recent blackouts?
The causes of the rolling blackouts on August 14 and 15 may be numerous and complex, but few of those reasons have anything to do with California's shift to more renewable generation, writes attorney Seth Hilton.
Seth Hilton • Aug. 25, 2020 -
Utilities response to the pandemic — heads - shareholders win; tails - consumers lose
Colorado is a case study where even consumer advocates treat it as a foregone conclusion that consumers will be on the hook for the consequences of an economic downturn, and utilities will be allowed to pocket the savings.
Frances Koncilja • Aug. 24, 2020 -
Photo illustration by Brian Tucker/Utility Dive; photograph by thinkreaction via Getty Images
States have options in the new MOPR world
The MOPR has unleashed a panoply of ideas on how FERC and the states can use their respective regulatory tools to promote clean energy policies; states should consider all alternatives — not just divorce, the author writes.
David Boyd • Aug. 21, 2020 -
SDG&E
A pivotal moment for microgrid policy – What California is getting right and where it's heading from here
The California Public Utilities Commission's microgrid regulatory proceedings could be a bellwether for microgrid development across the country, the author writes.
Jonathan Kevles • Aug. 20, 2020 -
California power outages underscore challenge of maintaining reliability during climate change, the energy transition
An in-depth review of the proximate and structural causes of California's issues is needed to chart a new path forward, the authors write.
Alex Gilbert and Morgan Bazilian • Aug. 19, 2020 -
Pipeline infrastructure planning in the era of Black Lives Matter
Scrutiny of the siting of infrastructure projects is already increasing, and attention paid to disproportionate, adverse effects on communities of color likely will intensify, the authors write.
Emily P. Mallen and J. Simone Jones • Aug. 18, 2020
