Menu

Blog

Insights from Our Experts
Filter

Participating in Power: A Practical Guide to Utility Resource Plans for Local Governments

By David Farnsworth, Jake Duncan
To meet 21st century decarbonization and social equity priorities, utilities need to transform the way they plan power sector investments. One of the most important opportunities to encourage these changes is to become an effective participant in the development of a utility integrated resource plan (IRP). An IRP shapes the thinking of utility executives, regulat... Read More

China looks to apply flexible time-of-use electricity tariffs nationwide

By Max Dupuy
One major challenge for decarbonisation is mobilising consumers to play a bigger role in the clean energy transition. As consumers turn to electric appliances, including electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps, there are increasing opportunities for them to contribute to grid flexibility at low cost. This flexibility is essential to support the integration of vari... Read More

Rebalancing energy levies is a practical way to increase the electrification of heat

By Jan Rosenow, Richard Lowes
Every year households in the UK install about 1.7 million gas boilers. In May, the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council reported that 2021 looks to be a record year for gas boiler sales, with year-to-date sales up 41 per cent from 2020. So far, low-carbon heating occupies a small — although growing — niche in the heating market. One important factor suppo... Read More

Trust, not control: Germany, EVs and the power of consumer choice

By Andreas Jahn, Jaap Burger, Jan Rosenow
‘How electric vehicles endanger electricity supply’ rang the alarm in a major German newspaper in 2018. The author warned that the local electricity networks would collapse if people returned from work in the evening and all charged their cars at the same time, a fear that kept many network operators up at night. The government that, eight years prior, had... Read More

From laggard to leader: How the UK can capitalise on the heat pump opportunity

By Richard Lowes
The urgent tone of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, published on the ninth of August this year, shows the clear and stark need for immediate and rapid greenhouse gas emission reductions. Globally, across the EU and in the UK, heat pumps are seen as a vital technology to remove emissions from heating where fossil fuels cu... Read More

The Unsung Hero of the Climate Fight: Energy Efficiency

By Elaine Prause
It’s official: There is absolutely no time to waste, and our mission is clear. Whether or not you were surprised by the key findings from the recently released Working Group 1 contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this version is the most direct yet in stating findings that warming is human-induced and ... Read More

Lapping the Field: A Model Approach to Managing EV Adoption in Connecticut

By David Littell, Donna Brutkoski
Sales growth of plug-in vehicles well outpaced the auto industry as a whole over the first half of 2021 — just another piece of evidence that utilities and regulators must move quickly and thoughtfully to meet the fast-increasing demand for electric-vehicle infrastructure. Now the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) has pulled to the fro... Read More

In a Quickly Changing World, Gas Utilities and Regulators Need a Plan

By Megan Anderson
America’s favorite fictional salesman of propane and propane accessories, Hank Hill, may have said it best: “When you plan ahead, then when things happen, you're prepared.” Changes in the energy sector have big ramifications for the way utilities serve the current 70 million residential and 3.5 million commercial and industrial consumers of fossil gas in... Read More

Electrification: Using more to emit less

By Jan Rosenow
Estimating the emissions savings associated with electrification is complex. A number of analysts have made admirable attempts to appraise emissions savings resulting from a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) from internal combustion engine vehicles or to electric heat pumps from gas condensing boilers. These studies show electrification leads to significant reduct... Read More

Unwinding Finance for Coal Power in China: The Role of Power Sector Reform

By Max Dupuy
Building on its commitment to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060, China’s government recently pledged to “strictly control” coal power capacity over the next five years, before beginning to phase it out in subsequent years. Yet, despite these targets and the weakening underlying economics of coal-fired power plants relativ... 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.