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Seven Conditions Justify Smart Grid Investments

Utilities and Partners Can Benefit

Seven essential conditions justify smart grid investment: If customers engage, if DER defers capital assets, if DER is grid integrated, if DER lowers overall costs, if desired reliability is assured, if greater innovation results, and if greater utility profits result.
Byline: 

Eric Woychik

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The Sun Shines for All

Solar Options Abound

As utilities get better at distribution planning, it is likely they will incentivize putting solar in older neighborhoods where the grid needs to be strengthened. A portfolio of rooftop solar, community solar and utility-scale solar is the only way to make solar accessible to all.
Byline: 

Ed Smeloff

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Energy Highways

Politics and Infrastructure Development

Technology adoption is an incomplete strategy. What is needed is a more comprehensive and long-term approach to infrastructure development.
Byline: 

Tom Sloan

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The New Energy Math

NY Operations Center Saves Millions

New York’s Energy Manager Network Operations Center is an example of how the development and robust use of smart electric technology is moving the industry in a new, unprecedented and necessary direction.
Byline: 

Gil Quiniones

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Fighting the Cyber Threat

How To Prepare

Growing up as an Air Force brat, I had certain values drilled into me: Be aware, take responsibility, work as a team, and be prepared. These same values can help combat security threats facing our industry.
Byline: 

Sue Kelly

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Change Underway in Electric Power Industry

Key Trends Volume Released

In 2016, the Institute for Electric Innovation released Volumes I, II, and III of Key Trends Driving Change in The Electric Power Industry. The final volume examines rate and regulatory reform, data analytics, and grid modernization.
Byline: 

Lisa Wood

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Interest Rates After the Election

What they Mean for Public Utility Returns

This article highlights rate drivers that could lead to yield movements upwards or downwards, and even into nominal negative interest rates. We then analyze how policy and market developments could affect the analyses used to establish public utility returns and expert debate in adjudicated rate cases.
Byline: 

Kurt Strunk and Walter Hopkins

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Renewable Portfolio Standards: Changing the Industry

Updates and Forecast for 2017

Since 1983, renewable portfolio standards have been enacted in 29 states, with 8 others setting different benchmarks. In addition to increasing renewable energy generation in states that have adopted these standards, the standards have driven renewable energy development in states without them.
Byline: 

Brian Nese and Allison Post Harris

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Ted Koppel: Right and Wrong

Electric Sector Cyber Security

Koppel’s “Lights Out” book focuses on America’s cyber vulnerability, and on what he perceives as the fecklessness of institutions designed to protect us. He deserves credit for raising a serious subject in greater depth than it is generally covered in the media. But his expertise in the area is not deep, and he gets some fundamental things wrong.
Byline: 

Jonathan Schneider

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The Power of Innovation, Part 1

Utility Execs' Roundtable: We sat down with seven utility execs who lead their companies on innovation

Strategy& and Public Utilities Fortnightly recently collaborated on an innovation roundtable in Washington, D.C. at the offices of the Edison Electric Institute. The experiences of these senior executives convey insights attained through the hard work of creating their unique innovation platforms.
Byline: 

By Public Utilities Fortnightly

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