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...
Utilities have taken on climate change in a number of different ways. In Sacramento, Calif., the local utility has gone all electric. Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) All-Electric Smart Home project is part of...
Utilities are used to facing opposition from environmental and consumer groups when they present a new rate-case proposal to their state regulators. However, Dominion Energy in Virginia has been challenged from an unexpected...
Technological innovation can be a blessing and a curse. For example, the increased penetration of renewable energy has created new challenges for grid operators. At the same time, big data can provide insight to help address...
Legislatures in two states—Hawaii, and now Nevada—have determined, if the states impose mandates for utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources, the states should also allow utilities to implement alternative...
According to the 2019 Summer Reliability Assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), projected electric grid resources are at or above the levels needed to satisfy summer peak demand until anticipated...
Changes in California’s utility regulations are coming about because of last year’s devastating wildfires. Some regulations, including enhancements to utilities’ mitigation plans, are expected, and some, such as...
Some big-name utilities, including PG&E, Dominion Energy and DTE Energy and other Fortune 500 companies, plan to lobby for some type of “economy-wide” price on carbon, perhaps deciding to get involved with policy-making of...
The U.S. utility industry may have just experienced its first malicious “cyber event”—or at least the first such event to be reported. In March, an anonymous utility in the Western region of the country filed an “ Electric...
In recent years, California has been hit with a number of massively destructive wildfires, some of which utility infrastructure has triggered, and the resulting liabilities have created financial stress for these utilities....
When it comes to transmission and distribution grid improvements, headlines tend to use the word smart. However, following a range of natural disasters, from hurricanes to floods to wildfires, many utilities also are pursuing...
According to a new report from Navigant Research , while the growth of distributed energy resources (DER) poses some significant challenges for electric utilities, it also provides a number of opportunities. "The...
For almost a century, electric meters served a single purpose: telling utilities how much power their customers had consumed. Over the last two decades, however, electric meters have transformed. The newest generation of...
Updated on 4/16/19: Gov. Ricardo Rosselló signed the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act into law on April 18, 2019. While the mainland United States debates the Green New Deal, Puerto Rico last month committed to 100...
