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Incisive commentary from RAP experts
RAP experts keep their finger on the pulse of the energy sector and provide timely analysis of topics impacting stakeholders TODAY.
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May 13, 2020
The EV Transition Is a Challenging Journey, but State PUCs Are Taking the First Steps
RAP’s recent publication, Taking First Steps: Insights for State Utility Commissions Preparing for Electric Transportation starts with the observation that “while no one state agency has clear responsibility for it, utility commissions are taking their first steps toward understanding… View Summary +
May 5, 2020
Synchronizing the Electric Regulatory Response to COVID-19
- Jim Lazar
The COVID-19 crisis is influencing every aspect of the global economy, and electric utilities are certainly seeing significant impacts. Before utility regulators take actions to adjust revenues or rates to reflect COVID-19 impacts, it is important to identify and quantify… View Summary +
April 29, 2020
Making a Clean-Energy Future an Equitable Future
- Alice Napoleon ,
- Donna Brutkoski ,
- Nancy Seidman
Our jobs, comforts, and ability to survive all depend on something most people take for granted until it goes missing: energy. It powers our lighting, our appliances, our cell phones – our entire daily lives. We need it to search… View Summary +
April 15, 2020
Modern Marginal Cost of Service Studies
- Jim Lazar ,
- Mark LeBel
The previous blog post in this series examined embedded cost of service studies — but some states choose to look ahead, considering marginal costs. This approach stems from the economic theory that today’s consumption drives tomorrow’s costs and customer classes… View Summary +
April 8, 2020
Three New EV Resources from RAP
The market for electric vehicles — from cars to buses to delivery vans — continues to expand around the world, and the pace of innovation is accelerating. While current public health and economic challenges may pose a temporary roadblock, it… View Summary +
February 5, 2020
For MADRI, the End of an Era … and the Beginning of Another
- John Shenot
Over the past 15 years, a group of power sector professionals have followed — and fostered — developments in an era of enormous change for the sector. In December, the group met in Washington DC for the 54th and final… View Summary +
January 28, 2020
Updating Embedded Cost of Service Studies for a New Era
- Jim Lazar ,
- Mark LeBel ,
- Paul Chernick
In the first blog post in this series, we outlined how our new manual, Electric Cost Allocation for a New Era, looks comprehensively at the process of dividing utility costs among customer classes — and proposes several ways it… View Summary +
January 6, 2020
Cost Allocation: New Approaches for a New Era
- Jim Lazar ,
- Paul Chernick ,
- William Marcus ,
- Mark LeBel
Setting electric utility rates has traditionally been a three-step process: first, determining the revenue requirement; second, determining how to equitably divide costs among classes of ratepayers; and third, designing the rates themselves. That second step, cost allocation, is a… View Summary +
December 2, 2019
21世纪电力系统的灵活性
- Carl Linvill ,
- Jim Lazar ,
- David Littell ,
- Jessica Shipley ,
- David Farnsworth
简介 电力系统最基本的规则是发输用电必须同时完成。多年来,电网运营商一直在确定系统的负荷,并通过增加可用的发电机来满足需求、调整供电。 然而,现在供应侧出现了快速爬坡和高度灵活的联合循环燃气轮机发电等新技术,需求侧也出现了智能热水器和储能等新技术,另外,输电能力和系统运行也得到了改善。这些新技术共同创造了巨大的机会,使电力系统比以往更加灵活。… View Summary +
October 23, 2019
A Hearty Bowl of Texas Soup: How ERCOT Keeps the Lights On
ERCOT (or the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, the independent system operator of that state’s stand-alone wholesale market) has confounded the doomsayers once again. Despite dire predictions that ERCOT lacked sufficient generation capacity, it came through the peak summer season… View Summary +