PUF held its inaugural Fortnightly Top Innovators 2023 conference October 10-12 at the historic Willard Hotel.

“We can begin to look at advanced nuclear reactor options that are being developed today, such as smaller modular reactors that are about three hundred megawatts versus the thousand-megawatt reactors at Vogtle.”

“The future is bright for NARUC with First Vice President Julie Fedorchak and Second Vice President Tricia Pridemore coming up the line. They’re two hard charging women who are great to work with and have a sense of purpose.”

“There is never a point at which TURN’s policies are in alignment with utility policies. The reason is because ratepayer advocates and utilities have fundamentally diametrical interests.”

A roundtable with NASUCA President Chris Ayers (North Carolina), Vice President Michael Moody (Michigan), Treasurer Tom Content (Wisconsin); the Executive Committee’s Michele Beck (Utah), Bill Fine (Indiana), Nanette Edwards (South Carolina), Patrick Cicero (Pennsylvania), David Lapp (Maryland); and Executive Director David Springe.

“The program can scale up to $250 billion of lending up to 30 years, depending on life of the asset, at a rate as low as U.S. Treasuries plus three eighths of a point. Those benefits have to flow through to regulated customers. An unregulated project, say a merchant coal plant being replaced with solar and storage, that low-cost financing benefit can accrue to the developer.”

“As a way forward, regulators and policymakers need to modernize the way they support the development, planning and operation of the bulk power system, which is beyond the certainty of resource capacity.”

“The greatest risks are cost and affordability, even with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and all federal funds coming to utilities from those laws. Washington has a state Clean Energy Fund that supports utility investments in the clean energy transition, but it does not cover the significant costs of investment.”

“We are seeing a greater number of filings by developers for approval of new solar facilities. We are also seeing an increased number of transmission projects being filed with the Commission. That’s because there are a lot of data centers being built in our state, particularly in northern Virginia.”

“When you’re trying to build things like transmission lines, you can’t build them in the West without crossing over federal land. Unless significant changes occur, that takes a long time to work through the Bureau of Land Management to ultimately receive approval.”