Opinion: Page 2
The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders
If you are interested in having your voice heard on Utility Dive's Opinion page, please read our editorial guidelines and fill out the submission form here.
-
Heat pumps could be affordable for most — if rates were fair
Massachusetts is making a good start by offering seasonal discounts for heat pumps. But it could do more, write authors from Green Energy Consumers Alliance and the Acadia Center.
Larry Chretien and Kyle Murray • Sept. 25, 2025 -
Getty Images
GHG Protocol prioritizes looking good over doing good
The focus of the GHG Protocol should not be to back usage claims about what power a company is consuming, but to measure carbon emissions as accurately as possible, writes Lee Taylor, CEO of REsurety.
Lee Taylor • Sept. 24, 2025 -
Getty Images
Carbon markets are incomplete without nuclear
Major carbon standards do not allow nuclear projects to generate credits, distorting the market, writes Guido Núñez-Mujica, director of data science at the Anthropocene Institute.
Guido Núñez-Mujica • Sept. 23, 2025 -
Getty Images
AI’s electricity demand is a challenge utilities can’t ignore, but subsidies aren’t the solution
Utilities need portfolios that balance renewables and natural gas with long-duration storage, writes Stefan Pastine, CEO of semiconductor materials company Thintronics.
Stefan Pastine • Sept. 22, 2025 -
Permission granted by sonnen, Inc.
The future of virtual power plants is technology agnostic
Interoperability is crucial for deploying certain consumer technologies efficiently at scale, writes Molly Podolefsky, a managing director at Clarum Advisors.
Molly Podolefsky • Sept. 19, 2025 -
Getty Images
Keeping America’s lights on: a pragmatic path forward
Policymakers have a vital role in ensuring that a lack of energy does not become America’s Achilles’ heel.
Brigham McCown • Sept. 18, 2025 -
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
Preparing for regulatory audits in an era of affordability scrutiny
For electric utilities, audits are about more than just compliance. They are reputational moments that can influence rate outcomes, regulatory relationships and public trust.
Jim McMahon • Sept. 16, 2025 -
Alamy
The hidden cost of ambiguous energy software terminology
Adapting the electric grid to load growth and DER adoption will require a mutual understanding of software requirements, capabilities and outcomes among stakeholders.
Sneha Vasudevan • Sept. 15, 2025 -
Permission granted by Consumers Energy
DOE’s emergency orders create a moral hazard
The U.S. Department of Energy’s use of Federal Power Act authority to keep retiring fossil fuel plants online could trigger a vicious cycle that ultimately jeopardizes grid reliability.
Jennifer Danis • Sept. 12, 2025 -
Getty Images
As PJM prices rise, flexibility can’t be ignored
Rather than viewing rising capacity costs as simply a burden, energy users should understand them as incentives for more efficient and dynamic loads.
Steve Doremus • Sept. 11, 2025 -
Getty Images
Blaming data centers for PJM supply challenges misses the bigger picture
Reliability will not be secured by focusing on a single industry. PJM and policymakers must take a comprehensive, solutions-oriented approach to grid management.
Todd Snitchler • Sept. 10, 2025 -
Getty Images
Smarter data for a smarter grid: AI-powered lidar is transforming utility infrastructure
With scalable, intelligent data classification, utilities can move beyond reactive maintenance and into predictive decision-making.
James Conlin • Sept. 9, 2025 -
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
Alone we fail: The culture change needed to deliver the energy transition
What would it look like if electric utilities borrowed the digital best practices exemplified by the film, banking and telecom industries?
Alex Thornton • Sept. 8, 2025 -
"Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant". Retrieved from Wikipedia.
Nuclear power is failing, and AI can’t rescue it
Nuclear generation is expensive and slow to develop. Claims that past failures won’t recur have convinced politicians to socialize investments rejected by private capital markets.
Amory B. Lovins • Sept. 5, 2025 -
Robert Nickelsberg via Getty Images
Energy meets urgency: Solving the data center power problem with solar
For years, data center developers built with confidence that the grid would keep up. That’s no longer the case.
Jared Burden • Sept. 4, 2025 -
Getty Images
It’s time for customer-oriented approaches to generator interconnection
The electric power system requires seminal reform. Open access should remain a vital principle of grid regulation.
Travis Kavulla and Eric Blank • Sept. 3, 2025 -
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
Rethinking transmission policy for an energy emergency
While a bidding process is often presumed to deliver consumer benefits, bidding efforts for transmission have not followed that pattern.
Benjamin Dierker • Sept. 2, 2025 -
Getty Images
Unconstitutional: Utilities are funding political speech with captive ratepayer funds
When ratepayers are forced to subsidize utility political activity through state-set rates, utilities and the state compel objecting ratepayers to fund a private company's political speech.
Eliza Martin • Aug. 28, 2025 -
Permission granted by Minnesota Power
Minnesota’s energy future deserves better than BlackRock’s empty promises
What happens in Minnesota will send a signal to other states about whether regulators are willing to put public interest ahead of Wall Street profit, writes Alissa Jean Schafer of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
Alissa Jean Schafer • Aug. 27, 2025 -
Getty Images
Southeast utilities are signing gas capacity contracts that will burden customers for decades
“Adding even one more dekatherm of gas commitment to the Southeast is senseless,” writes SACE senior decarbonization manager Shelley Hudson Robbins.
Shelley Hudson Robbins • Aug. 26, 2025 -
Brandon Bell via Getty Images
The cheapest power plant is in your home
Households can help prevent blackouts and lower energy bills if we plan smarter and reward people for using power at the right time.
Paul Hines • Aug. 25, 2025 -
Getty Images
How grid-enhancing technologies are shaping New York’s planning and protecting ratepayers
New technologies and planning approaches can help speed the energy transition while ensuring power system reliability and affordability.
Schuyler Matteson • Aug. 22, 2025 -
Scott Olson via Getty Images
30 years after Chicago’s deadly heatwave, cooling should be recognized as a right
The 1995 heatwave that killed more than 700 people made clear that access to reliable, affordable energy is not a luxury, the authors write.
Qëndresa Krasniqi, Diana Hernández, Vivek Shastry and Rachel Scheu • Aug. 21, 2025 -
Getty Images
Utilities: Don’t lose out on advanced metering infrastructure with a short-term vision
There is a revolution of grid-connected devices in the making, writes Laura Sherman, president of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council.
Laura Sherman • Aug. 20, 2025 -
To reduce electricity bills, repeal the complexity tax on energy savings
Energy waste can be cut and customer outcomes improved by consolidating and expanding efficiency and housing repair programs, writes L. Michelle Moore, the CEO of Groundswell.
Michelle Moore • Aug. 19, 2025
Previous
