We’re not in 1930 anymore.
The US electric grid of 2030 will confront emergent technology including remote renewables, microgrids and rooftop solar, fleets of electric vehicles and cyber attack threats. Keep reading →
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A division emerged between federal and state environmental regulators this week, with Pennsylvania urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to revise impending CASPR rules or face new strains on the electricity grid.
Pennsylvania on Wednesday urged the EPA to make further revisions to its Cross State Air Pollution rule, which the state said would reduce the use of waste coal by power generators and drive up their costs. Keep reading →
It is no secret that the US electricity infrastructure is in large part outdated, often inefficient and hampered by continuing confusion over energy policy direction.
Despite its challenges, the power sector remains a perennial hive of financial activity as development costs remain high, quality assets remain elusive and the mix of financial products required to conduct business grow progressively more complex. Keep reading →
The average US customer is paying only 7% of their electricity bill to cover transmission investment, John Jimison of the Energy Future Coalition told Breaking Energy in this video from the US Association for Energy Economics Conference in Washington, DC.
As regulators move to address a “decades-long under-investment in transmission,” a number of incumbent utilities are opposing the approach the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has taken in one of its most recent orders, widely known as FERC 1000. Keep reading →
Though its touted for its clean, green efficiency potential, smart grid may be getting sidelined in Washington.
That’s just one of the ways regulation and smart grid development are coming into conflict, according to regulators and utility officials at the GridWeek conference in Washington DC September 12-15. Keep reading →
It’s a tough time to be an energy regulator in Washington.
The value of all federal regulation is being challenged on the political front as “job-killing,” but the legal requirements remain in place. Regulators must enforce laws while debate rages. Conversations with Washington observers evoked not only vociferous criticism and fervent praise for those on the spot to keep energy regulation functioning, but also a general respect for the barriers regulators face. Keep reading →
Department of Energy plans to give federal regulators more authority over the siting of electricity transmission lines would delay development, provoke lawsuits, and damage federal-state relations, the utility commissioners’ trade group said.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners blasted the proposal to hand more power to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, saying it ignores court rulings and the intent of Congress, and would give the industry, rather than the government, control over the approval process. Keep reading →
Texans often have a kind of pride in the extreme weather their state can throw at them, but the ice storms of February 2011 tested even their tolerance as blackouts swept the state alongside freezing temperatures.
Many of the problems highlighted by the cold weather were potentially preventable, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a review of the incident earlier this year. But the response of those in the Texas power sector was without doubt heroic and swift. Keep reading →
Opponents of the latest federal rule on transmission planning have re-emerged to lodge complaints as the regulation awaits implementation.
A group representing seven utilities, the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy filed a request for a rehearing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 1000 on Tuesday, calling the regulation “inconsistent with its stated objectives.” Though it has long been policy for all the utilities of a geographic region to pay together for new transmission lines, new renewable energy projects that require extensive new infrastructure are straining the model. Keep reading →
All hopes have been dashed that a settlement to the debt crisis, which plagued American politics and global markets through the final weeks of July, would result in smooth sailing through August.
Prices for energy commodities were whipsawed amid wild volatility as indicators for the broader economy showed signs of weakening even as Congress finally signed a debt deal. Oil prices, so often a proxy for the broader energy sector, fell sharply on August 8. Keep reading →
