Vermont

The Consumer-Centric Utility

Empowering Consumers while Managing Risk and Optimizing Assets

Electric utilities do not simply sell a commodity. They sell safe, affordable, reliable and clean electric service. The “Consumer-Centric Utility” business model provides a viable framework for utilities while enabling new products and services that meet growing consumer expectations.

Improving Performance in Publicly Owned Utilities

Consistently setting, measuring, and updating quantitative performance metrics should be a central feature of any program.

Modern performance-management practices can – and should – be applied to public and private utilities alike.

Response to Cicchetti/Wellinghoff Re: Net Metering

Letters to the Editor: A response to the article by Charles Cicchetti and Jon Wellinghoff in our December 2015 issue

A major mistake is the claim, under net metering, customers who generate power with rooftop solar simply “bank” or “park” their extra electricity with their utility, retaining ownership rights.

Four Utilities, Four Strategies

Installing utility-scale, grid-connected battery storage.

Stories on installing grid-connected battery storage from AEP, Green Mountain Power, Imperial Irrigation District, and Kauai Island (Hawaii) Utility Co-op.

Solar at High Noon

Surplus generation at mid-day calls for long-duration energy storage.

Utility execs and PUCs should plan now to handle extensive solar penetration, including the significant overgeneration that can occur at mid-day.

Unleashing Energy Efficiency

The Best Way to Comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan

A framework for measuring the resource value of energy efficiency – touted as the best way for states to comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

Putting a Price on Carbon

How EPA can establish a U.S. GHG Program for the Electricity Sector.

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards expected in June 2014, many states are considering their own approaches to provide flexibility in meeting compliance requirements. Experience in North America to date provides policy guidance.

Entergy to Close, Decommission Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station

Entergy plans to close and decommission its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vt. The station is expected to cease power production after its current fuel cycle and move to safe shutdown in the fourth quarter of 2014. The station will remain under the oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission throughout the decommissioning process. Vermont Yankee, a single unit boiling water reactor, began commercial operation in 1972. Entergy acquired the plant from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation in 2002.

FERC vs. Idaho

PURPA and the future of avoided cost rates.

A tussle between Idaho and the feds exemplifies the flood of petitions that QFs have filed during the past several years, asking FERC to enforce or confirm their PURPA-guaranteed rights.