Power & Utilities

Visual Primer: Texas Power Outages Draw Scrutiny into Grid Operator’s Market Design and Reliability

Visual Primer: Texas Power Outages Draw Scrutiny into Grid Operator’s Market Design and Reliability

coal, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Retail Power and Gas, Solar, Wholesale Markets, Wholesale Power, Wind

The widespread power outages across Texas during the extreme winter weather conditions brought about by a polar vortex in mid-February has raised questions about the reliability of the power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. (ERCOT). The grid operator, which manages about 90 percent of the state’s electric load, reported that 48.6 percent of generation was forced out at the highest point due to the winter storm.

EnerKnol Special Report Part II: ERCOT Forecast Risks

EnerKnol Special Report Part II: ERCOT Forecast Risks

coal, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, Reports, Solar, Wholesale Markets, Wholesale Power, Wind

EnerKnol is committed to providing real-time transparency of the fragmented and highly technical landscape of energy regulation. With this as our guiding principle we are examining our database of over 35,000,000 regulatory records for insights into last week's Texas outages.

Visual Primer: State Decarbonization Goals Spur Innovative Resource Planning Measures

Visual Primer: State Decarbonization Goals Spur Innovative Resource Planning Measures

Climate Change and Emissions, coal, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Nuclear, Oil, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Renewable Energy Credit Market, Retail Power and Gas, Smart Grid, Solar, Wind

Innovations in energy planning continue to emerge as state regulators devise programs and explore solutions that effectively meet customer needs and support policy goals. Recent state initiatives range from New York’s efforts to align gas planning with climate goals, to Maine’s investigation into the future design of the grid to accommodate growing renewables, and California’s transmission planning guidance to achieve ambitious decarbonization goals.

Enerknol Special Report: Texas Outages Raise Questions About ERCOT’s Reliability

Enerknol Special Report: Texas Outages Raise Questions About ERCOT’s Reliability

coal, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, Reports, Solar, Wholesale Markets, Wholesale Power, Wind

EnerKnol is committed to providing real-time transparency of the fragmented and highly technical landscape of energy regulation. With this as our guiding principle we are examining our database of over 35,000,000 regulatory records for insights into last week's Texas outages.

Policy Primer: Net Metering Reforms

Policy Primer: Net Metering Reforms

Climate Change and Emissions, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Renewable Energy Credit Market, Retail Power and Gas, Smart Grid, Solar, Wind

Net metering policies continue to evolve as state regulators seek to make rate structures more equitable to address cross-subsidy issues arising from the growing penetration of distributed solar generation. Net energy metering (NEM), which credits customer generators for grid-exported power, has been a key component of the policy framework to spur investment in customer-sited renewable energy facilities, including solar and energy storage systems. Successors to original tariffs are considering a range of factors including avoided utility costs, value to the grid, cost-shifting, and energy demand.

Policy Primer: Competitive Retail Electricity Markets

Policy Primer: Competitive Retail Electricity Markets

Climate Change and Emissions, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Natural Gas, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Retail Power, Retail Power and Gas, Solar, Wind

Interest in retail electric competition has been growing as innovative sources of energy production emerge, giving consumers an active role in managing their power supply. This has led to increased oversight as policymakers and regulators explore reforms to enhance customer protections while encouraging the development of a competitive market.

Policy Primer: Energy Storage Gains Prominence to Foster Grid Reliability

Policy Primer: Energy Storage Gains Prominence to Foster Grid Reliability

Climate Change and Emissions, Energy Storage, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Integrated Resource Plans, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, Retail Power and Gas, Solar, Wholesale Power, Wind

Energy storage initiatives are moving forward at a swift pace to complement clean energy policies as batteries can facilitate the integration of diverse generation technologies and address grid stability. With improving economics, there is a growing discussion on the role of energy storage as a grid asset to foster reliability and optimize renewables to meet ambitious clean energy goals.

States Rethink Resource Adequacy Constructs

Policy Primer: States Rethink Resource Adequacy Constructs

Climate Change and Emissions, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Integrated Resource Plans, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Retail Power and Gas, Smart Grid, Solar, Wholesale Power, Wind

Several states are rethinking the resource adequacy paradigm as the electric resource mix changes through the addition of more intermittent resources to replace retiring coal-fired capacity and meet state decarbonization goals. Resource adequacy initiatives are intended to ensure that the planned resource mix is sufficient to meet the future system capacity needs and maintain grid reliability.

Policy Primer: Distribution System Planning Evolves With Growing DER Deployment

Policy Primer: Distribution System Planning Evolves With Growing DER Deployment

Climate Change and Emissions, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Integrated Resource Plans, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Retail Power and Gas, Smart Grid, Solar, Wind

Distribution system planning is occurring across various states as utilities and regulators assess the growing need for grid integration of distributed energy resources (DER) and investments that have long-term implications for the power system.

Year Ahead: Five Must-Watch Power Sector Trends for 2021

Year Ahead: Five Must-Watch Power Sector Trends for 2021

Climate Change and Emissions, Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Insights, Grid Modernization, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, Smart Grid, Solar, Wholesale Power, Wind

The shift in policy priorities of the incoming administration is expected to accelerate the transformation of the power sector towards clean energy and distributed grid, continuing its trajectory driven by market dynamics, technology, and customer preferences. The strong growth of renewable energy is expected to speed up, particularly with the extension of the federal tax…...

Utilities Are Reshaping Rate Design Strategies

Policy Primer: Utilities Are Reshaping Rate Design Strategies

Climate Change and Emissions, Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, Retail Power and Gas, Smart Grid, Solar, Wholesale Power, Wind

The growing adoption of clean energy standards, energy efficiency, and customer-sited resources is driving the need for innovative ratemaking principles. Utilities are exploring rate structures that facilitate the integration of variable and distributed generation, and align customer behavior with grid needs. Smart meters are paving the way for time-based and dynamic rate options to balance the grid under the increased penetration of renewable and distributed energy resources, as well as electric vehicles.

Visual Primer: Joe Biden’s Victory Hailed as Turning Point in U.S. Energy and Climate Policy

Visual Primer: Joe Biden’s Victory Hailed as Turning Point in U.S. Energy and Climate Policy

Climate Change and Emissions, Energy Storage, EnerKnol Impact-Misc Categories, EnerKnol Impacts, EnerKnol Research Reports, EnerKnol Visual Primer, Grid Modernization, Natural Gas, Power & Utilities, PRODUCTS, REC Feed, Smart Grid, Solar, Wind

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s energy agenda prioritizes clean energy and climate action, with a far-reaching strategy, which includes rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, committing to achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2035, and banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.