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Back to the future: A strong electric vehicle benchmark can cut transport emissions and help modernise Europe’s electricity grid

By Julia Hildermeier
Over a century ago, electric vehicles (EVs) were the best-selling cars on the market. In 1900, 28 percent of cars on the road in the U.S. were electric. If the competing combustion engine technology had not taken over, today’s policymakers would likely face a much smaller challenging in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in the transport ... Read More

Britain’s capacity market: What Europe can learn

By Philip Baker
The U.K.’s marketwide capacity mechanism for electricity provides a solution to a supply problem that has yet to emerge, writes Phil Baker. A targeted strategic reserve is likely to be a more cost-reflective alternative, he argues. In 2014 Great Britain introduced a marketwide capacity mechanism in the belief that necessary investment in generation capacity ... Read More

Smart Grid and Community Benefits—with No Rate Increase? How Burbank Made it Happen

By Jim Lazar
Burbank Water and Power (BWP) is a 50,000-customer, community-owned municipal utility in the Los Angeles area. BWP has implemented an advanced smart grid network, and did so with no rate increase to consumers. How did they do this? BWP received a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) as well as a grant from the California Energ... Read More

Timing Is Everything: How Smart Rate Design Helps Make Electrification Beneficial

By Max Dupuy
In talking about beneficial electrification, we have emphasized the benefits of various kinds of flexibility. For example, loads that can be scheduled at different times of day without too much inconvenience to the user can be beneficial, because they can help the power grid run more efficiently and use more clean renewable energy. Owners of electric vehicles ... Read More

Purple Haze, or Purple Mountain Majesties? How Energy Efficiency Can Reduce Regional Haze

By Nancy Seidman
Tourists visit our national parks to see the majestic vistas, not haze-obscured views. The two images of the Grand Canyon below illustrate this point: In the view on the left, one can see for more than 200 miles, while on the right, visibility is only about 60 miles. That’s because the view in the right-hand picture is obscured by air pollution, which also impa... Read More

A Tale of Two Reforms: The Power Sector in Andhra Pradesh

By Ashwini K. Swain
Andhra Pradesh’s power sector is going through a second phase of reforms. The first (1999-2004) was widely seen as focused on privatization of electricity distribution; this time the goal is to ensure affordable and reliable power supply for all. To do so, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has pledged to keep retail tariffs unchanged in the coming years for all ... Read More

A Window for Power Sector Transformation in Uttar Pradesh

By Jonathan Balls
A rare window is open for power sector reform in Uttar Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in office in both Lucknow and New Delhi, has a sweeping mandate to transform Uttar Pradesh’s troubled electricity situation. The party has made two important commitments on this front. First, to ensure every household in the state has an electricity connection and ... Read More

Electricity Reforms in India Depend on Getting the Politics Right

By Navroz Dubash, Sunila Kale, Ranjit Bharvirkar
The Indian economy is among the fastest-growing in the world. Sustaining this growth requires a healthy electricity sector that is able to meet increased demands, ideally alongside an eye to environmental sustainability. Yet electricity consumers continue to face unreliable supply, distribution utilities are in poor financial health, and, most problematic, pow... Read More

Replacing copper with negawatts—how RIIO-2 could revolutionise network regulation

By Jan Rosenow
Ofgem’s recent framework decision on improving its performance-based regulation scheme, RIIO, indicates that it may be ready to take a much-needed step toward levelling the playing field between supply-side and customer-side resources. However, it is not yet clear what the details will look like. According to Jan Rosenow of the Regulatory Assistance Project, a ... Read More

中国离自愿性可再生能源市场还有多远？

By Orrin Cook, Frederick Weston
睿博能源智库专家认为，中国的自愿性可再生能源市场潜力巨大，如果进一步健全监管框架，补全市场机制，中国将很可能出现大量的自愿性可再生能源需求。 2015年以来，美国企业正越来越多地认购可再生能源，美国新增可再生能源利用的主要推动力是企业用户与可再生能... Read More

The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)® is an independent, non-partisan, non-governmental organization dedicated to accelerating the transition to a clean, reliable, and efficient energy future.