States urged to promote advanced transmission technologies that can enable more solar
States have an opportunity to influence transmission providers to adopt advanced conductors and other technologies that increase transmission capacity, says a renewables trade group. Added transmission can enable more solar to connect to the grid.
A Boston hospital’s 572 kW battery is expected to pay for itself in 7 to 10 years
The battery system is expected to earn $80,000 per year by providing energy to the local utility during peak summer demand periods, while saving $57,000 per year by reducing the hospital’s own monthly and annual peak consumption.
Grid operator PJM enters collaboration to streamline interconnection applications
A consulting firm incubated by Google as a “Moonshot” project will collaborate with PJM to streamline the interconnection application process.
A call for better compensation for energy storage in wholesale markets
Improving compensation for energy storage can improve grid reliability and save customers money, says a clean power trade group.
The Southeast needs regional transmission for clean energy and savings, groups say
Better transmission planning in the Southeast can save billions, largely by enabling access to low-cost clean energy, says a Brattle report prepared for three business groups.
Firm recruits EV owners in Connecticut and California for vehicle-to-grid charging
Eight states are now pursuing bidirectional, vehicle-to-grid charging of electric vehicles, which can help balance renewable generation.
Reaching 90% renewables can maintain stable electricity rates, Brattle finds
The grid operator Southwest Power Pool could achieve “high levels of decarbonization and electrification with minimal rate impacts,” says a study requested by SPP and prepared by The Brattle Group.
Federal regulator recommends using automation to speed interconnection
A FERC commissioner said that automation software took just ten days to reproduce an interconnection cluster study for renewables projects that had taken two years of human labor to complete. He said he hopes to meet soon with grid operators to discuss interconnection automation.
A federal grid planning authority could counter utility incentives to stall transmission
Utilities that own fossil generation can benefit from congested transmission that blocks renewables, an economics professor found. In related work, a law professor proposed a federal grid planning authority to cure transmission delays, as well as near-term measures in that direction.
Eliminating tax credits would reduce solar and wind deployment by half, says Brattle
“A wide array of resources is needed” to meet growing electricity demand, including hundreds of gigawatts of solar and wind capacity that can be deployed quickly but would be reduced by half without tax credits, says a report prepared for ConservAmerica.
