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Regulators Can Win the Trifecta with Residential Demand Charges

Advanced metering and demand charges give efficient and equitable price signals to customers.

The wide deployment of smart meters gives regulatory policy-makers a rare opportunity to change residential rate design. This can be done in a way that improves economic efficiency, and utility consumer and shareholder equity. Here we provide ten questions that should be asked by policy-makers, as well as some guidance in deriving the answers.
Byline: 

Ross C. Hemphill and Kenneth W. Costello

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A Formula for Grid Modernization?

How is it going?

Ann McCabe is a commissioner at the Illinois Commerce Commission. The views expressed in this article are her own.

Five years have passed since Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois elected to participate in the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act, which authorized $3.2 billion in grid hardening and smart meter investments. As a commissioner at the Illinois Commerce Commission, I am often asked: How is it going?

Byline: 

Ann McCabe, with Orijit Ghoshal and Bill Peters

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Distribution Optimization: Ready for Takeoff

Part 1: How markets today are out of sync.

The time has come to consider options for optimizing distributed energy resources, with the intent of supporting a least-cost, reliable, and clean system that delivers more choice and control for customers.
Byline: 

Sonia Aggarwal and Robbie Orvis

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Electric Vehicle Charging: Tariffs and Tradeoffs

We examine various types of charging strategies and infrastructure available today and report on the experience gained from rate structures for electric vehicle charging now being offered at four different utilities. These findings lead us to provide recommendations to achieve more productive use of the electric grid.
Byline: 

Mindy Blank and Kevin B. Jones

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The Case for Smart Grid

Funding a new infrastructure in an age of uncertainty.

The world’s electricity supply will need to triple by 2050 to keep up with demand. What follows is a look at where we are, and what may lie ahead, with a focus on the the scope of the problem, regulatory reform initiatives now underway, and how to go about rethinking the business models that might evolve.
Byline: 

Massoud Amin

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Regulatory Roundup

2004 FERC roundup: Path 15 Upgrade; Gas Bypass Pipeline; Power Line Communications; Gen Station Power Needs; ISO Retail Service; Renewable Energy Portfolios; Gas Supply Risk; Fuel Cost Hedging; Utility Supply Solicitations; Provider of Last Resort; Coal Seam Gas; Deceptive Marketing Practices; Renewable Portfolio Standards.
Byline: 

Bruce Radford

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Transactions (December 2014)

NRG Energy acquired Pure Energies Group, a residential solar industry provider; Duke Energy Progress filed with FERC for approval to purchase the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency’s generating assets for $1.2 billion; Trina Solar Limited signed a share purchase agreement to sell a power plant to funds managed by Foresight Group LLP; AES entered into an agreement to sell its 49.62% equity interest in a joint venture in Turkey; Southern Power acquired the 150-MW Solar Gen 2 solar facility in California from First Solar; SolarCity is planning to launch what would be the first registered public offering of solar bonds in the US; and debt offerings from Dynegy and ComEd.

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FERC Approves Merger of Exelon and Pepco Holdings

Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2014-11-26 13:35

FERC approved the proposed merger of Exelon and Pepco Holdings. The companies announced their proposed merger on April 30. The combination of the companies will bring together Exelon's three electric and gas utilities - BGE, ComEd and PECO - and Pepco Holdings' (PHI's) three electric and gas utilities - Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco - to create the leading mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility.