Knowledge Center
We believe that sharing our expertise and collaborations in clean energy policy is how real, effective change happens.
From reports and policy briefs, to webinars and podcasts—RAP advisors have built an extensive collection of resources providing in-depth analysis and practical solutions to today’s energy challenges.
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This report, the first of three volumes of Next-Generation Performance-Based Regulation: Emphasizing Utility Performance to Unleash Power Sector Innovation, examines the concept of performance-based regulation (PBR) and how it can provide a framework to connect goals, targets, and measures to… View Summary +
This report, the second of three volumes of Next-Generation Performance-Based Regulation: Emphasizing Utility Performance to Unleash Power Sector Innovation, focuses on best practices for design, development, and implementation of performance-based regulation mechanisms. It begins by laying the groundwork for understanding… View Summary +
This report, the final of three volumes of Next-Generation Performance-Based Regulation: Emphasizing Utility Performance to Unleash Power Sector Innovation, focuses on how performance-based regulation (PBR) can be used to navigate an era of rapid technological change in the power sector. View Summary +
In a RAP webinar held on April 11, 2018, Dr. Carl Linvill and Jim Lazar unpack smart non-residential rate design and explain how it can produce benefits for customers in your state. Regulators can create price signals for utilities that reduce… View Summary +
This paper was written to assist the Public Service Commission of Arkansas as it seeks to remove barriers to entry for aggregators of distributed energy resources (DERs), encourage customer participation—the key to the success of DERs —and incentivize utility cooperation… View Summary +
The power sector’s shift from large, inflexible generation to smaller, more dispersed variable renewable resources has triggered a debate among some U.S. policymakers about reliability and the continued need for baseload power plants, such as coal and nuclear. Yet numerous… View Summary +
Electricity use by non-residential customers accounts for nearly two-thirds of California’s total consumption. Many of these customers are interested in adopting distributed energy resources, and many have access to sophisticated energy management and load control technologies. These customers could therefore… View Summary +
A well-designed compensation mechanism can help minimize the negative impacts and maximize the value of distributed generation (DG) to all stakeholder groups, including distribution utilities, the system owner, and other ratepayers. This paper, published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,… View Summary +
Performance-based regulation (PBR) enables regulators to reform 100-year-old regulatory structures to unleash innovations within 21st century power systems. Our current electric system is built upon an old regulatory paradigm that ensured safe and reliable electricity at reasonable prices from capital-intensive… View Summary +
Mexico’s energy reform will have far-reaching effects on how people produce and consume electricity in the country. Market liberalization will open the door to an increasing number of options for Mexican residential, commercial, and industrial consumers, and will encourage the… View Summary +
As we head into 2017, the U.S. power sector is still in the midst of a steady, technology-driven transformation. In a RAP webinar held on January 17, 2017, RAP’s Ken Colburn, Dr. Carl Linvill, David Littell, and Richard Sedano held… View Summary +
As utilities and regulators consider their strategies for complying with greenhouse gas emissions limits under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) forthcoming Clean Power Plan (CPP), natural gas has an important role to play. But a “dash to gas” approach… View Summary +
Some describe natural gas generation as the “Swiss army knife” of generation technologies, and gas’s current abundance and low price have driven calls for large-scale investments in gas infrastructure. Yet a Swiss army knife, versatile as it is, would not… View Summary +
The low price and relative abundance of natural gas bring good news for both consumers and society. Consumers benefit from cheap gas and society benefits from the availability of gas to help reach emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050. View Summary +
Ensuring that an acceptable level of electric system reliability is maintained as the Clean Power Plan is implemented is in everyone’s interest. This short paper suggests ways states can think about their reliability targets and associated tolerance bands in assessing… View Summary +