Remember the quaint old days of cellphone advertising when all we wanted was to be heard, and a corporate mascot became ubiquitous with his repeated query, “Can you hear me now?” Today, we stream movies and bank on mobile...
The last decade has seen enormous change in how we generate electricity. In 2011, for example, U.S. solar photovoltaic capacity totaled 3.95 gigawatts (GW), including residential, commercial and utility-scale projects. As of...
It would be hard to make the case that electric transmission systems aren’t infrastructure in today’s highly electrified society. That’s why the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden in November...
It’s not a secret that local electrical distribution systems must evolve quickly, and utilities are thinking about residential customers in new ways. For example, while homeowners were once simply electricity buyers, now they...
Funding for improved electricity transmission figured highly in every iteration of the infrastructure legislation, with good reason. Regional transmission organizations and independent system operators (ISOs) managing...
To protect and meet the energy needs of its 16 million customers, and also enhance its own energy systems, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is proposing a series of safety, resiliency and clean energy investments in...
U.S. electricity use is expected to increase by 2.1% this year, over last year’s pandemic-related 3.8% drop in demand, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This rise, however, will mostly reflect a return...
The Energy Act of 2020 included provisions that could impact the bottom lines of electric utilities and energy developers for several years. Among the most important terms are extensions of solar and wind tax incentives that...
With this new year comes a new presidential administration with vastly different environmental and economic priorities. For electric utilities, this could result in a significant ratcheting up of environmental regulations and...
U.S. utilities’ carbon dioxide (CO2) Emissions—or, rather, the lack, thereof—are becoming an increasingly valuable commodity along the East Coast. A regional cap-and-trade program covering 10 New England and Mid-Atlantic...
Couldn’t we use some good news right now? Here’s a data point that might help. After a tick upward in 2018, generation-related greenhouse gas emissions fell last year, even as the economy continued to expand. According to a...
U.S. electric utilities in 2020 saw customer demand drop by percentages not experienced since the Great Depression thanks to the economic shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. And, according several recent reports...
Last year saw U.S. coal-fired generating capacity drop by an estimated 13.7 gigawatts (GW), and the first five days of 2020 suggested the fuel’s fortunes will only continue to shrink. By Jan. 5, 2020, two of the four...
For more than a century, utilities have relied on human eyesight to identify specific trees that pose a danger to conductors, but the results often fall short. Now, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) offer the...
We’ve been hearing for several years now that electrical utilities are approaching a time of transformation. It’s been predicted that distributed energy resources (DERs), such as rooftop solar systems and battery-based energy...
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 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...
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...
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...
The California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 29, raising some immediate, and financially critical, questions for its customers, suppliers and investors. Answers to those...
