House hands off nuclear waste storage bill to Senate

Legislators approved a bill seeking to advance the permanent storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. But Sen. Dean Heller has already declared it "dead on arrival in the Senate."

By Iulia Gheorghiu • May 11, 2018

How two value-of-solar studies add up to no clear value of solar

Valuation studies for Montana and Maryland demonstrate the complications of trying to use rooftop solar’s costs and benefits to settle net energy metering disputes.

By Herman K. Trabish • May 10, 2018

Explore the Trendline➔

Sustainability

Companies are pursuing increasingly ambitous sustainability goals around clean energy, but integrating rising amounts of renewables, minimizing environmental impacts, and achieving carbon reduction targets can be challenging.

By Utility Dive staff

House committee advances bipartisan grid cybersecurity bills

The House Energy and Commerce Committee issued voice votes to report three bipartisan cybersecurity bills favorably to the House.

By Iulia Gheorghiu • May 10, 2018

Power sector divides over FERC role in resilience docket comments

The coal and nuclear sectors want swift federal action on grid resilience, while others are keen to let regional grid operators handle the issue.

By Gavin Bade • May 10, 2018

Florida regulators approve nearly 1.7 GW in new gas plants

The Public Service Commission approved two plants — a 573 MW facility due to come online in 2021 and a 1.1 GW facility slated for 2022. Both will serve electric co-op customers.

By Robert Walton • May 10, 2018

New Hampshire rethinks distributed generation-only pilots for non-wires alternatives

Stakeholders said that without including other distributed energy resources, like energy storage, efficiency and demand response, any study of DER value would not yield much useful information.

By Robert Walton • May 10, 2018

EnSync's solar+storage to allow energy sharing in Hawaii

By combining solar energy and storage to share power, the company says it can increase system efficiency and lower costs.

By Peter Maloney • May 10, 2018

California to require rooftop solar for new homes

The state is the first to mandate that new homes be built using advanced energy efficiency measures and rooftop solar, starting in 2020.

By Iulia Gheorghiu • May 9, 2018

Perry: DOE 'looking very closely' at Defense Production Act to save coal, nukes

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in April asked the agency to use its authority under the 1950s wartime law to keep retiring coal and nuclear plants online. 

By Gavin Bade • May 9, 2018

PG&E taps EVBox to build up to 2.5K charging stations

The California utility announced its first supplier of charging stations, which it will own as part of its CPUC-approved electric vehicle charging program.

By Iulia Gheorghiu • May 9, 2018

Washington utilities need better carbon cost estimates in IRPs, regulator says

Washington utilities file an integrated resource plan every two years. Regulators want to see a more robust assessment of climate change risks in the next one.

By Peter Maloney • May 9, 2018

Order 1000 should remain a priority for FERC

As grid changes and resilience demands drive transmission construction, FERC should expand Oder 1000 to drive innovative solutions and cost containment, former PUC Texas Chairman Barry Smitherman writes.

By Barry Smitherman • May 9, 2018

Iowa town narrowly rejects break from Alliant

Supporters of breaking away from the utility are already gearing up for a recount.

By Robert Walton • May 9, 2018

Gas and renewables groups urge Perry to reject FirstEnergy emergency request

Grid conditions "do not empower the [DOE] to provide the long term out-of-market price support that the coal and nuclear plant owners seek," energy interests wrote to the secretary. 

By Gavin Bade • May 9, 2018

McIntyre links fuel security questions with resilience proceeding

The FERC chairman said it "would sure be convenient" if the commission could identify specific attributes of grid resilience to compensate.

By Gavin Bade • May 8, 2018

New York City moves to streamline energy storage permitting

City agencies and officials are working to remove barriers to energy storage installations, with comprehensive new guidelines on installing outdoor lithium-ion batteries.

By Peter Maloney • May 8, 2018

Tesla's Musk talks 'gigawatt-hour scale' storage project

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is thinking big and bigger, building on the success of the company's 129 MWh South Australia project.

By Peter Maloney • May 8, 2018

PJM stakeholders pan capacity market reforms in FERC comments

Commenters uniformly rejected PJM’s proposed two-part capacity auction, but a few said its alternative to extend the minimum offer pricing rule (MOPR) could work with changes. 

By Gavin Bade • May 8, 2018

8 states challenge EPA science rule that could overhaul clean air standards

The proposed rule would only allow the agency to consider scientific studies in its rulemaking processes that disclose all of their methods and data — a move critics say will exclude a broad swath of public health studies. 

By Gavin Bade • May 8, 2018

Solar has transformed into solar-plus-storage: What will net metering become?

Two prominent policy actions that could drive a more innovative use of solar-plus-storage are time-of-use rates and three-part rates with demand charges.

By Herman K. Trabish • May 7, 2018

As California energy markets modernize, regulators worry about repeating the past

A new report from staff of the California Public Utilities Commission concludes the state could drift back into another power crisis without careful planning as markets and technologies evolve.

By Robert Walton • May 7, 2018

Report: Actors paid to support Entergy gas plant at March hearing

The company said it has nothing to do with paying actors up to $200 to support its gas plant proposal at a March meeting of the New Orleans City Council.

By Gavin Bade • May 7, 2018

Pennsylavania opens 'future of utility rates' proceeding

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission issued a proposed policy statement calling for utilities to explore alternative ratemaking methodologies. 

By Robert Walton • May 7, 2018

ISO-NE cost recovery proposal opens new front in fuel security debate

The grid operator wants cost recovery for 1,700 MW of gas generation because it is afraid an adjacent LNG import facility will close without it. Critics call the request unprecedented and dangerous. 

By Gavin Bade • May 4, 2018

How can US utilities be ready when everything changes?

EY has modeled three critical tipping points for utilities on the way to a new energy system. In Europe and Oceania they're staggered, but in the U.S., they'll arrive in much quicker succession, Dana Hanson writes.

By Dana Hanson • May 4, 2018