Ranking utility business models, from quick-reward opportunities to long-term investments For years now, U.S. utilities have been finding ways to make money outside their core business of building energy infrastructure and selling kilowatt-hours. Some are putting their field service expertise to use for tree trimming and landscaping services, or using their call centers and service… Keep reading →
Microgrids are not so micro anymore. When a traditional infrastructure asset investor like Stonepeak Partners is ready to bankroll microgrids with a $250 million finance facility, it’s a sign of the mainstreaming of grid modernization. Energizing Co. will be the sole project developer for the $250 million Stonepeak fund focused on microgrids and grid modernization.… Keep reading →
Flattened tiers, minimum bills and time-of-use pricing are coming. This week, California utility regulators issued a long-awaited proposal to reform the complex, multi-tiered rate structures for residential customers of the state’s big three investor-owned utilities. And as solar advocates expected, it contains some good news and some bad news for the economics of customer-owned net-metered… Keep reading →
Will more cities follow San Francisco’s lead? When San Francisco’s water meters were coming to the end of their lifespan about six years ago, the city wanted to make sure the next set of devices installed would prove useful for the next 20 years. “It’s the best of both worlds,” Tyrone Jue, director of communications… Keep reading →
From Germany to Orange County, cost-effective grid batteries will require adaptability. Controlling and optimizing grid-tied and behind-the-meter batteries is already a complicated business. But it’s going to get a lot more complicated in the years to come, both for utility-facing storage integrators like S&C Electric Company, AES Energy Storage and NEC/A123, and for customer-facing behind-the-meter… Keep reading →
An Arizona solar installer is glad that “a utility in our state is saying, ‘We see a place for solar.’” Arizona utility APS just proposed that its regulator increase the grid access charge for solar “from 70 cents per kilowatt — or approximately $5 per month — to $3 per kilowatt, or roughly $21 per… Keep reading →
Japanese giant could help startup compete with Stem, Tesla, others in burgeoning energy storage market. GTM Research predicts that behind-the-meter batteries could expand to make up nearly half of the rapidly growing U.S. energy storage market by decade’s end — and there’s also great potential for international growth in solar-rich and energy-constrained countries like Germany… Keep reading →
German solar power output of 21.7 GW dropped to a low point of 6.2 GW and then added another 15 GW over the course of the planetary event. During this week’s Energy Gang podcast, energy futurist Jigar Shah said that the March 20 solar eclipse would result in “nothing interesting” for the European electrical grid,… Keep reading →
The “performance-based” utility regulation could set stage for modernization efforts like those underway in California and New York. Colorado’s state legislature is seeking to follow the lead of states like California, New York, Hawaii and Massachusetts in revamping its utility regulations to better serve for a more distributed, customer-empowered energy future. Colorado House Bill 1250… Keep reading →
Is this decision a calling card for the post-Peevey CPUC? The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) made a proposed decision on Friday that denied approval of a new gas-fired power plant in the coastal Southern California city of Carlsbad. According to the PUC, approval for the plant was denied because the utility, San Diego Gas… Keep reading →
