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Distributed Energy Resources to Dominate at Gathering of Nationwide Utility Regulators

By Diane Munns / Published: November 10, 2016

On November 13, 2016, the nation’s state and federal utility regulators – also known as the National Association of Utility Regulators Association (NARUC) – will meet for their 128^th annual meeting in La Quinta, CA and host over 1000 participants. As a former NARUC president and seasoned observer of these meetings, I study the issues that rise to the top for the limited amount of meeting time available. The topics making the cut offer a snapshot of what is trending nationally in the various regulated sectors.

Distributed resources – like residential solar, storage, and electric cars – not long ago nascent technology, are now mainstream. At this year’s NARUC meeting, issues related to the impact of distributed resources on business models and regulation dominate the electricity agenda as states strive to capture their benefits.

The conversation will tackle next-level questions of grid modernization, interconnection, valuation, business models, and rate design. Utility planners aim to correctly set conditions for continued growth in the transforming electricity sector. The meeting topics reveal changed thinking, from fixing “problems” caused by these technologies to maximizing their potential benefits. Read More »

8 Benefits of Distributed Solar that Prove it’s Worth More than Dollars and Cents

By Guest Author / Published: October 21, 2016

By Bret Fanshaw, Solar Program Coordinator, Environment America

This week, Environment America Research & Policy Center is showcasing Shining Rewards, a new review of 16 value-of-solar studies from around the country. The report shows what we already know intuitively: Solar panels provide pollution-free energy that delivers far reaching benefits to people, the environment, the economy, and the electric grid.

Powering homes and businesses with rooftop solar can help communities avoid greenhouse gas emissions, reduce air pollution that’s harmful to public health, and avoid the cost of increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

In our report, we found at least 8 key benefits of rooftop solar, all of which have real value that can be measured by regulators, policymakers, and utilities as the conversation around the future of distributed energy – solutions like rooftop and community solar – evolves. Read More »

Also posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, Solar Energy / Read 1 Response

New York and the Standby Tariff: A Breakthrough for Clean, Distributed Energy

By Marc Rauch / Published: October 5, 2016

ny-clean-fall For New Yorkers wanting more clean, distributed energy, the recent Con Edison rate case offers some good news.

Presented to New York’s Public Service Commission (NYPSC), which regulates utilities in the state, a rate case is a process utilities use to adjust policies and set rates charged to customers. A rate case occurs once every few years and provides an opportunity for state and local governments, along with consumer and environmental advocacy groups, to seek cleaner, cheaper, and more customer-friendly electricity.

The Con Edison rate case is considered a bellwether for similar proceedings involving electric utilities throughout New York State – which is part of why a recent filing with the NYPSC is so important. Along with more than 20 other parties (including Con Edison, the Real Estate Board of New York, the New York Energy Consumers Council, and several environmental advocacy groups), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) on September 20th filed a joint proposal with NYPSC that (among other recommendations) calls for changes to the current standby tariff that are likely to be approved by the Commission. Read More »

Also posted in New York, New York REV, Utility Business Models / Comments are closed

Hot Topics at the Summer’s Biggest Electricity Meeting

By Diane Munns / Published: August 4, 2016

NARUCMeeting More than 1,000 people gathered in Nashville, TN this week for the summer meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). The meeting is one of three yearly where thought leaders gather to socialize the knottiest issues of the day in regulated utility industries, including telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, and water. Two electricity debates dominated the stage and the halls during this summer’s meeting: nuclear power and rate design.

NARUC meeting participants represent state public utility commissioners and their staffs, federal energy agencies, regulated industries, and special interest groups. The meetings are a place to define issues, float solutions, and begin to understand and narrow disagreements.

Nuclear power and rate design were hot topics at this summer’s meeting because of cracks in the present electricity system created by new technologies and environmental regulation.

Also posted in Utility Business Models / Comments are closed

How More Transparent Electricity Pricing Can Help Increase Clean Energy

By EDF Blogs / Published: July 6, 2016

By: Beia Spiller and Kristina Mohlin

The price of most goods we purchase is CostPriceImage generally based on the costs associated with the goods’ production, including the raw materials used to generate them, the labor associated with their manufacturing, and so on. However, when it comes to pricing residential electricity, many regulators choose to use a flat price per unit of electricity (kilowatt-hours, or kWh) that unfortunately fails to adequately reflect the underlying costs of generating and delivering energy to our homes.

This creates incorrect incentives for conservation and investments in distributed energy resources (like rooftop solar, energy storage, and demand response). Getting these incentives right can go a long way in creating more opportunity for efficiency and clean energy resources.

Pricing electricity generation

The cost of generating electricity from large-scale power plants varies significantly over the course of a day. When demand is low, electricity providers call upon the most efficient and inexpensive power plants to produce electricity. As demand increases, they must also utilize more inefficient and expensive power plants. So, for the price of generation to accurately reflect these costs, it too must vary with the time of day. Time-variant pricing charges customers more for using electricity during periods of high demand (such as during hot afternoons) and less when demand is not as great. This pricing system is an accurate reflection of generation costs.

In contrast, flat rates that don’t vary over time incentivize customers to consume more electricity when it’s most valuable to them, even though consuming during times of high demand places a larger cost on the system. Thus, the current, static pricing system creates incorrect incentives for conservation and electricity use. Read More »

Posted in Electricity Pricing / Comments are closed

What is Good Rate Design, and How Will We Get There?

By Diane Munns / Published: June 27, 2016

Good process blog post image As a former state utility regulator, I know the difficulty of balancing competing interests in making decisions and communicating those decisions to constituents. Solutions deemed “fair” by some parties may have harsh or unintended consequences for others.

This challenge of balancing competing interests is playing out with the current debate on electricity rate design as the system struggles to deal with the impact of new, distributed forms of energy like rooftop solar. From Nevada and Arizona, to Kansas and New Hampshire, we’ve seen these debates leave the hearing rooms of public service commissions and enter the public arena. Increases to fixed charges, changes to net metering, demand charges, time-of-use rates, minimum bills, or a combination of these options, are just some of the policies that states have either implemented in response to this debate, or are currently considering.

But many questions remain about the best path forward: What design will adequately compensate utilities for their investments, support the need to upgrade the electric grid, and encourage new technologies and innovation, while being perceived and accepted as fair? To answer these and related questions, a “good” rate design process needs to be put in place – one built on transparency, fairness, accessibility, and accountability. Read More »

Also posted in Utility Business Models / Comments are closed