Grid modernization efforts are increasingly focused on resilience and reliability to protect the system against extreme weather and cyberattacks. Lawmakers and regulators are pursuing reforms to ensure that policies keep pace with the rapidly changing resource mix to facilitate the transformation to a future grid capable of integrating the increasing number of intermittent resources and electric vehicles.
Performance-based regulation (PBR) is gaining momentum across U.S. states driven by policy and technology changes to meet decarbonization goals and changing customer expectations.
The evolving retail electricity marketplace has prompted reforms to strengthen customer protections and expand options to access clean energy while addressing reliability concerns.
A massive investment in transmission infrastructure is necessary to move renewable energy over long distances from where it is produced to where it is needed. These transmission lines, which are so necessary to combat climate change present an inherent wildfire risk exacerbated by drought conditions in the western United States and Canada.
Strategies to expand electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure are gaining emphasis as states seek to reduce the use of carbon-intensive transportation fuels to progress towards decarbonization and EV adoption goals.
PJM Interconnection LLC’s capacity market auction for the 2023-2024 delivery year cleared at $34.13 per megawatt-day (MW-day), which is nearly 32 percent lower compared to the 2021 auction and the lowest in almost a decade. The auction results reflect a low-carbon resource mix, with a growth of more than 5,000 cleared megawatts of carbon-free resources, according to the grid operator, which operates across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
The U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector is poised for more growth amid surging natural gas prices, growing export capacity, and high demand due to Europe's supply crisis. Currently, about 25 LNG projects are under construction or under different stages of planning across the country.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a slew of measures to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, which sets increasing annual volumetric mandates for renewable fuel use in the transportation sector.
The U.S. Energy Department’s $6 billion nuclear credit program, the pursuit for carbon-free generation to meet climate goals, and technological advancements are reigniting support for nuclear power. The global impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine has also escalated the importance of national security considerations in energy policies including a discussion about the role of nuclear power.
Several states that have ambitious clean energy and emissions reduction mandates are investigating the role of natural gas in the shift to a low-carbon power system. Actions at the federal level, spurred by the Biden administration’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, are also catalyzing efforts to decarbonize the gas system.
Amid federal and state policies aimed at catalyzing solar power to facilitate power sector decarbonization, an investigation into circumvention of tariffs on solar panels imported from Southeast Asia has created market uncertainty, threatening U.S. solar buildout.
The U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for continued progress as evident from the recent record-setting New York Bight wind auction, the first to be held under the Biden administration.