Eight Areas of Electricity Innovation to Watch in 2017
New York, NY -
For the past five years, Rocky Mountain Institute has been convening and supporting the Electricity Innovation Lab (eLab), a unique network of leaders and change agents from across the electricity industry representing a cross-section of the key stakeholders who are shaping the transformation of our electricity system. With utilities, regulators, distributed energy resource companies, energy consumers, advocates, and academic experts collaborating together, eLab really is a laboratory: a place to test new ideas and to explore new solutions.
They surveyed those eLab members about their most exciting opportunities—and their critical challenges—in 2017. Eight key issues emerged.
- Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Valuation and Rate Design
- Electric Vehicles as a Grid Asset
- Alternative Capital Planning
- Utility Business Models in Vertically Integrated States
- Distribution System Operations and Markets
- DER Control Schemes: Coordination or Chaos?
- Customer Engagement
- DERs for Low- and Moderate-Income Customers
Related News
Massachusetts stirs controversy with solar demand charge, TOU pricing cut
WASHINGTON - A recent Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities' rate case order changes the way solar net metering works and eliminates optional residential time-of-use rates, stirring controversy between clean energy advocates and utility Eversource.
"There is a lot of room to talk about what net-energy metering should look like, but a demand charge is an unfair way to charge customers," Mark LeBel, staff attorney at non-profit clean energy advocacy organization Acadia Center, said in a Tuesday phone call. Acadia Center is an intervenor in the rate case and opposed the changes.
The Friday MDPU order implements demand charges…
