On July 23, the U.S. government issued a cybersecurity alert to operators of critical infrastructure, including electric utilities, outlining “immediate actions” that they should take during what it defines as a “time of...
The New England Ratepayers Association has lost its bid to have the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) mandate utilities to pay wholesale prices to homeowners who practice net metering using solar panels and other...
As more sophisticated devices in the home generate their own data streams, a unique market is also emerging for that information. According to a recent report from the research firm Guidehouse Insights, revenue for that data...
Recently, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which provides electricity for local power companies and business customers while serving almost 10 million people in parts of seven southeastern states, gave the green light to...
While utility customers have been on the renewables bandwagon for about a decade and continue aggressively on that path, utilities themselves have also been keeping pace by finding that renewables are not only environmentally...
A new report, “Determining Utility System Value of Demand Flexibility from Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings,” provides information for utilities on how to interact with these facilities to provide power in the most...
A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found in 2018 (the most recent data available), U.S. electric utility power interruptions totaled an average of 5.8 hours per customer. The EIA came to this figure...
Know the tools for finding underground utilities Much of the nation’s underground contains a maze of pipes, cables and cables inside buried conduits. This network is at risk anytime new utilities are buried or when new...
PG&E, California’s largest utility, is buckling under the pressure from its role in multiple deadly wildfires. As it strives to emerge from the protection of bankruptcy, filed for in the aftermath of the fires, the utility...
California has long been a leader in the field of renewable energy. Its pioneering role has not come without controversy. Recently, energy regulators approved a solar program in the state’s capitol city that endured some...
Sadly, combating wildfires has become as much a part of the fight against global warming as tapping into renewable power. Utilities in California have become painfully familiar with this new reality. On Feb. 7, the state’s...
In early January, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an association for investor-owned utilities, handed out its annual Emergency Recovery Awards to three electric utilities for their impressive responses to weather...
The FBI is investigating a series of cyberattacks that occurred in August 2019 on more than a dozen U.S. utilities recently identified by the Wall Street Journal. The attacks were first discovered by researchers at Silicon...
Following the unprecedented power blackout by PG&E during the week of Oct. 7 that affected almost 800,000 homes and businesses, up to a total of 2 million people in the state, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)...
Technology company Itron, Inc., Liberty Lake, Wash., released Disaster Preparedness: Itron Resourcefulness Insight Report that details the results of a survey of 300 utility executives and 500 consumer utility ratepayers. The...
On the heels of a recent announcement by the North American Electric Reliability Corporate, providing details of a cyber event in March that adversely impacted a utility in the western United States, Proofpoint, a security...
Last week, Duke Energy, Charlotte, N.C., announced that it plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, which is an updated climate strategy for the utility. The company is also accelerating its near-term goal by...
While regulators and those in the utility industry have been talking for over a decade, the first actual hacking of a utility by an outsider occurred on March 5, 2019, and was officially reported by the North American...
Events in California can unfold in the most unexpected fashion. Two years ago, the state suffered billions of dollars in damage and loss of life from multiple raging wildfires. Crumbling under the weight of liabilities from...
The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) released its "2019 Utility Energy Storage Market Snapshot" report this month. SEPA is an educational nonprofit that works to facilitate the electric power industry's transition to a...
