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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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How Do You Know If “The Price Is Right” for Community Solar Programs?
In television’s longest running game show, contestants are challenged to guess the prices of a wide variety of consumer goods. The contestant who comes closest to the actual price, without going over, is the winner. I found myself thinking about… View Summary +
California’s Mandatory PV Code Amendment: Is It Really Time for This?
The press has been abuzz this summer about the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) new building code amendment that will require most single-family residential and low-rise multi-family dwellings to incorporate PV systems at construction. The amendment takes effect in 2020. Buildings… View Summary +
We All Wish We Were More Flexible: Electrification Load as a Grid Flexibility Resource
Imagine you are preparing dinner for guests arriving at 6 p.m. when you learn that they’ve been delayed. And imagine that, instead of keeping the food hot, you had to throw all of it away and start cooking again for… View Summary +
Timing Is Everything: How Smart Rate Design Helps Make Electrification Beneficial
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… View Summary +
Renovating Energy Policy to Encourage Beneficial Electrification
RAP’s recent papers on the beneficial electrification of space heating and water heating draw a picture of great potential. Electrification of these fossil-fueled end uses could cut carbon emissions significantly while saving consumers money and providing power system operators with… View Summary +
Clean, Flexible and Efficient: A Recipe for Energy Optimization
The United States is the second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet — but we are also a leader in technological and economic strength. We have the capability to lead the world in finding solutions to the urgent challenge… View Summary +
Cost Allocation: New Approaches for a New Era
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 +
For MADRI, the End of an Era … and the Beginning of Another
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 +
With the Shift Toward Electrification, Decoupling Remains Key for Driving Decarbonization
States across the United States are increasingly prioritizing electrification of transportation and buildings to meet their decarbonization goals. Utilities are an important driver of this investment, so it’s critical that their business incentives be aligned with the public policy goals… View Summary +
California’s Outages Are a Teachable Moment
Two keen observers of the power sector, Jigar Shah and Cheryl LaFleur, have noted that the responses to the rotating power outages in California on August 14 and 15 became a Rorschach test of individual preexisting biases. Before… View Summary +
