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Power Sector Leaders Act to Save Western Electricity Consumers Money

By Carl Linvill
Saving money for electricity consumers in the Western states seems like it should be easy. Department of Energy researchers like Brendan Kirby, Michael Milligan, Kevin Porter, Debra Lew, Brian Parsons, and Lori Bird have been showing us for more than ten years how Western electricity consumers could save money by working together. The measures they suggest are mo... Read More

Minimum Bills: An Effective Alternative to High Customer Charges

By Jim Lazar
One wouldn’t necessarily expect the components of an electric bill to make headlines, but recent decisions in some states have caused controversy. The controversy involves the size of the monthly customer charge applied to residential consumers. Until recently, U.S. regulators generally allowed a charge of $10/month or less on residential customer bills—an am... Read More

中国为电网公司建立新业务模式和实施更多能效敞开大门

By David Crossley, Helen He, Wang Xuan
2014年11月4日，国家发改委下发了《关于深圳市开展输配电价改革试点的通知》（下称《通知》），正式启动我国新一轮输配电价改革试点。这份文件对拥有1千500万人口的深圳市来说，意义非同寻常。深圳将成为中国电网公司转变业务模式的先锋—电网公司将从传统的售电业务... Read More

China Opens the Door for New Utility Business Model and More Energy Efficiency

By David Crossley, Wang Xuan, Helen He
On 4 November 2014, China’s powerful economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), released Notice for Transmission and Distribution Rate Reform Pilot in Shenzhen, a modestly named document with significant implications for the 15 million people of Shenzhen. They will be at the forefront of China’s first major step towards s... Read More

Securing the Social License to Transform Power Sector Regulation

By Richard Sedano
I recently participated in a conversation with North American regulation experts organized by University of Calgary professor and former California Energy Commissioner Michal Moore. The topic was the “social license” in energy regulation. What is the social license? It is not something an agency grants. Rather, an agency or utility earns its social license. ... Read More

RAP Responds to European Commission Consultations on Market and Policy Issues

RAP provides international power sector expertise to European decision makers and stakeholders on key market design and policy issues in the form of comments and replies to European Commission consultations. In particular, RAP responded to the 2013 Commission Consultation regarding the future of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Europe. Drawing on those resp... Read More

Lighting up China with Distributed Solar Resources

By Kevin Porter
China set ambitious targets for solar, with a goal of 35 GW by 2015 and 100 GW by 2020. Currently, China has 12 GW of solar, with 3 GW of that being distributed solar. For 2014, China set a goal of installing 14 GW of new solar! More than half (8 GW) is slated to come from distributed solar, which is about 10 times the amount of distributed solar installed last... Read More

用分布式太阳能照亮中国

By Kevin Porter
中国制定了宏伟的太阳能目标，计划到2015年达到35GW，到2020年力争达到100 GW。目前，中国的太阳能容量为12 GW，其中3 GW为分布式太阳能。2014年，中国的目标是安装14 GW的太阳能，其中8GW确定由分布式太阳能发电——这一数字相当于去年安装的分布式太阳能的10倍左右。然而... Read More

Distributed Energy Resources in Europe: Opportunities and Challenges for Generation, Storage, and Demand-Response

Distributed energy resources (DER) — on-site, customer generation (e.g. solar photovoltaic systems), storage, and demand-response resources — can help Europe meet its power needs reliably and affordably. Tapping the full potential of DER in Europe raises many crosscutting regulatory and policy issues that RAP has experience addressing worldwide. RAP advises o... Read More

Tackling 111(d): The Proposed Rule is Out, Now What?

By Ken Colburn
June 18th— the date EPA published its proposed rule to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing power plants under section 111(d) of the federal Clean Air Act in the Federal Register—marked the beginning of a new era for state energy and environmental regulators. That’s because EPA’s proposal reflects an unprecedented, comprehensive, and flexi... Read More

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