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The EV Transition Is a Challenging Journey, but State PUCs Are Taking the First Steps

By David Farnsworth
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 and developing the electric transportation sector in their state." Several... Read More

Synchronizing the Electric Regulatory Response to COVID-19

By 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 the broad range of impacts so that those that increase costs or reduce sales can be appropri... Read More

Making a Clean-Energy Future an Equitable Future

By 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 for jobs or work from home, to access essential goods, to cook and store food, to keep our homes at safe temperatures, to access wate... Read More

Modern Marginal Cost of Service Studies

By 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 should be responsible for the future impact of their usage. These states, notably California, Or... Read More

Three New EV Resources from RAP

By David Farnsworth
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 seems clear that the long-term future of the transportation sector lies in electrification. In the policy world, the... Read More

A European Green Deal for heat – Smart sector integration is key

By Jan Rosenow, Richard Lowes
The EU is currently reviewing its 2030 climate targets and has put forward a Green Deal for Europe. It is unsettling to see that the package of measures says nothing about heat, despite its critical importance for meeting Europe’s climate goals. Heating in buildings is responsible for almost a third of total EU energy demand. And most of that heat is met by bur... Read More

E-Mobilität braucht Reform der Netzentgelte

By Andreas Jahn, Julia Hildermeier
Wenn die Elektromobilität in Deutschland ein Erfolg werden soll, muss ihre Einbindung ins Stromnetz von Anfang an mitgedacht werden. Bisher fehle ein schlüssiger Ansatz dazu. Alle reden vom Hochlauf der Elektromobilität. Bis 2025 sollen zwei bis drei Millionen elektrisch betriebene Fahrzeuge in Deutschland zugelassen sein. Geladen werden sollen sie daheim,... Read More

Polish coal boiler phase-out an inspiration for clean heat

By Jan Rosenow, Richard Cowart
It all started in Krakow, Poland. The medieval city is known for its beauty, but also for poor air quality from coal heating. In 2012, a group of local residents joined together and founded the organisation Krakow Smog Alert to push for change — and the campaign got results. In 2013, the city approved a law banning boilers and stoves that burn coal and wood. T... Read More

For MADRI, the End of an Era … and the Beginning of Another

By 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 meeting of this group, the Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resources Initiative (MADRI). So MADRI’s final convening was a graduation ceremony of sor... Read More

Updating Embedded Cost of Service Studies for a New Era

By 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 should be updated to account for modern features of the power system. In this second installment, we’ll dive a bit deeper into the co... 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.