April 10
Minnesota PUC Approves Xcel’s VPP Proposal
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
The Minnesota PUC approved a program from Xcel Energy that is designed to create a utility-owned virtual power plant (VPP) to enhance grid reliability. Specifically, it is for Phase 2 of Xcel’s Capacity Connect project, a program designed to deploy a network of community-based battery energy storage systems to create a VPP. The project will deploy up to 200 MW of battery energy storage systems across the distribution grid by 2028.
BlastPoint this week launched PressurePoint – a free, interactive tool that ranks 600+ U.S. investor-owned and municipal utilities by the affordability pressure their residential customers face. Available at pressurepoint.blastpoint.com, PressurePoint scores each utility by combining its residential electricity rate with the poverty rate in its service territory.
In western Illinois, ComEd is tapping a rarely used technique to fast-track community solar installations – working with, not against, environmental groups and solar project developers. For years, utilities have explored the concept of flexible interconnection, in which solar projects are allowed to come online even when, by the books, there’s not enough space on the grid for these arrays.
There’s a critical moment happening right now that some utilities are missing. As gas prices spike, customers are heading online to ask: “Is there an electric vehicle that fits my driving needs?” and “What are my estimated fuel cost savings if I switch to an EV?” The utilities pulling ahead are providing high-quality customer engagement around these transportation electrification decisions.
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Industry News
Chad Shepard has warm feelings about the all-electric Honda Prologue he bought recently. Unlike his first EV, a BMW i3, the SUV is big enough for his two teenage sons and his 80-pound sheepdog. Its 300-mile range is plenty to get him to the homes across the San Francisco Bay Area that he appraises for a living. And while he hasn’t done the math since he bought it last autumn, he’s pretty certain that he’s saving money on fuel, compared with when he was driving a gas-powered car.
The 7.2 million EVs in the United States are simultaneously driving the need for grid upgrades and providing utilities with a powerful tool to defer those expenses. Utilities are working with third-party software providers and automakers to develop and scale managed charging programs that can spread out the EV charging load and avoid creating peaks that stress local systems.
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) filed a proposal with the Maryland PSC to modernize the electric grid using technology like home battery storage, EVs and smart devices. BGE’s proposal, made in response to the 2024 Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act, provides customers with incentives for allowing BGE to temporarily adjust these devices during times of high energy use.
As a key deadline for federal solar tax credits ticks closer, a Massachusetts program is helping the state’s nonprofits get solar projects underway before the incentive disappears. The Solar Upgrading Nonprofits (SUN) program provides nonprofits with financial and technical assistance to evaluate options for solar installations and seek out additional funding if they choose to go forward. The first round, in 2025, worked with 23 organizations.
