Knowledge Center

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 +

Rapid technology change means cleaner, lower-cost, and more resilient options for meeting customers’ energy needs are or soon will be available. Customers may soon have cost-effective options to meet their own energy needs through transactive platforms and markets. How can… View Summary +

In a webinar for the Utah Public Service Commission, Jim Lazar, John Shenot, and Richard Sedano explore the intricacies of time-of-use rates. View Summary +

This brief, produced as a resource for the Solar Market Pathways initiative, explores three key questions for solar developers or advocates at the community level who need to work with utilities to move projects forward: the nature of utility… View Summary +

Ever since the introduction of retail competition in the late 1990s, the traditional regulatory paradigm that guided the last century has been evolving to adapt to the emergence of new energy technologies and the consumers’ appetite to have more control… 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 +

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 +

Energy efficiency is a cost-effective, multi-pollutant strategy for addressing air quality, but is rarely utilized to meet air quality standards in the United States. This policy brief provides state air quality regulators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with… View Summary +

Thanks in large part to some recent guidance and proposed federal regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state and local air pollution regulators have a growing interest in using energy efficiency (EE) as a strategy to improve air… View Summary +

As installed solar photovoltaic grows at unprecedented rates, the role of the electricity consumer is fundamentally changing. Customers are transitioning from being passive recipients of utility services to being active participants in both providing and receiving grid services. Distributed generation… View Summary +

Improvements in distributed generation economics, increasing consumer preference for clean, distributed energy resources, and a favorable policy environment in many states have combined to produce significant increases in distributed generation adoption in the United States. Regulators are looking for the… View Summary +

Increased adoption of distributed solar photovoltaics (PV), and other forms of distributed generation, have the potential to affect utility-customer interactions, system costs recovery, and utility revenue streams. If a greater number of electricity customers choose to self-generate, demand for system… View Summary +

In recent years, more and more regulators view energy efficiency as a viable air quality improvement strategy. While no regulator should expect to solve all air quality challenges through one strategy alone, efficiency has distinct advantages over pollution control methods. View Summary +

Regulators, advocates, and energy industry companies have long understood that energy efficiency policies and programs can reduce air pollution emissions associated with fuel combustion. This reduction in emissions can lead to lower environmental compliance costs and, ultimately, lower public health… View Summary +