On a recent Tuesday morning, we had a blackout here in Key West. Five Brothers Grocery, the best Cuban coffee shop in town, is just around the corner, and owner Heriberto “Pepe” Paez was out of the café con leche business for nearly an hour in the middle of the morning rush. Always imperturbable as he does his magic behind the counter, Pepe was philosophical... Read More

When kids hear the fairy tale Chicken Little, they learn that a confused little bird is hit on the head with an acorn and concludes the sky is falling. It then manages to convince a handful of other animals of this, and they do a whole lot of running around for absolutely no good reason before a wily fox takes advantage of their confusion and eats them. It is a g... Read More

2017年底国家发改委、国家能源局联合发布了《关于开展分布式发电市场化交易试点的通知》  (发改能源[2017]1901号)，为就近利用分布式能源资源迈出了新的一步。这一通知规定了分布式发电交易模式和组织形式，并对其中关键问题，如“过网费”、相关补贴和可再生能源配额�... Read More

Network tariffs are an important part of energy costs for consumers, yet, surprisingly, the way these fees are established in Germany is completely opaque, writes Andreas Jahn, Berlin-based senior associate at global energy policy advisors Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP). According to Jahn, it is unclear how network operators and the regulator calculate costs... Read More

In December, the Chinese government announced the launch of a national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS), which is expected to become the largest ETS in the world. This is a major development, writes Max Dupuy, senior associate at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), but its success depends on an even deeper power sector transformation that is taking plac... Read More

During my trip to China this past October and November, my tenth such during that time of year, I wore my facemask only once, on a day when the air quality index (AQI) was 260. While an AQI of 260 is unacceptable and hazardous, just five years ago during the same calendar period, I experienced weeks of the AQI being at 400-500 (or higher), and there were many day... Read More

Reflection comes naturally during the holiday season. As I come to the end of my first year at RAP, I am reflecting on many interesting power sector developments from 2017. I will focus on a handful here—trends that stood out in the past year and will continue to change the electricity industry, and how it is regulated, in 2018 and beyond. Regulatory Innovatio... Read More

Investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is surging in China, and, although utility-scale solar continues to dominate, distributed solar is also growing rapidly. The country is estimated to have added 54 GW of solar in 2017, and distributed solar accounts for about one-third of that capacity. Now, policymakers appear to be emphasizing continued growth ... Read More

In 2015, the European Commission adopted moderating energy demand as a pillar of the Energy Union and “Efficiency First” as a guiding principle underpinning it. Last Friday, the Commission released its third State of the Energy Union. So how is Europe doing on implementing “Efficiency First”? The Commission states that it “has presented nearly all ... Read More

Germany and California hold the distinctions on their respective continents of being first movers in decarbonization policy. Both have aggressively pursued power sector decarbonization with ambitious renewable energy policies, and both have now set their sights on decarbonizing the building and transport sectors. While they have differences, their implementation ... Read More