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...
As a result of growing concern over the impacts of more frequent and more powerful storms battering the nation's electric grid infrastructure, as well as the increasing frequency and threat of manmade threats to cripple the...
Currently, over 2,000 of the nation's electric utilities are publicly owned, meaning they are owned and operated by municipalities. There are almost 900 electric cooperatives (co-ops), and less than 200 investor-owned...
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a request for information related to the resilience of the electric grid against severe weather events. In the request, the DOE notes concern among government...
Summer heat waves could lead to major power outages in several major metropolitan areas, including New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Utility officials in the cities told USA Today they were preparing for the extreme...
Utilities have only a few options available to them when it comes to customers who don’t pay their bills. In Arizona, the option of cutting off service has been taken off the table for now. On June 20, Commissioners for the...
