April 27
CenterPoint Energy to Buy Vectren in $6B Deal
Top consumer smart grid news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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CenterPoint Energy wants to purchase Vectren Corp. for $72/share or about $6 billion, with the resulting gas and electric utility company serving more than seven million customers in eight states. The combined entity will have electric and natural gas delivery operations in eight states with assets totaling $29 billion and an enterprise value of $27 billion. The deal would allow them to leverage and expand competitive energy-related services across a larger U.S. footprint, and long-term efficiencies for delivery customers.
SEPA has announced its annual Top 10 lists recognizing the U.S. utilities that added the most new solar and storage to the grid in 2017. Compiled as part of SEPA’s 11th annual Utility Market Survey, the lists include the top utilities in four categories: new solar megawatts and watts per customer, and new storage megawatts and watts per customer. On the solar megawatts list, PG&E regained the No. 1 spot this year with 831.3 MW, while SCE, last year’s No. 1, was second with 547.1 MW.
AEP is investing in its core regulated businesses to improve service to customers and advance new energy technologies. Addressing shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Nick Akins said, “AEP is positioned as a premier regulated energy company, with nearly all of our forecasted earnings coming from our regulated businesses.”
Two Avangrid utilities in New York state are proposing aggregated and electric vehicle-related battery storage projects as part of the state’s REV initiative that aims to spur distributed resources while revamping the state’s utility framework. In one proposal, NYSEG plans to aggregate up to eight batteries totaling up to 1.1 MW and 4.2 MW-hours, according to an application filed recently with the NY PSC.
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Industry News
Becoming a smart city starts with a small step, said one expert, but it’s an important one. Jesse Berst, chairman of the Smart Cities Council, said cities interested in starting a smart cities program should turn first to their local electric utility company to start a partnership. “There are many cities out there that are looking at the triple crown – people, planet and profits, but you can’t get to 100 percent renewables without the help of utilities,” Berst told Daily Energy Insider. “And utilities have to work with cities in order to move forward as well.”
Two technological revolutions are shaping the dawn of the 21st century: the development of the internet and the shift towards a carbon-free global energy system. The latter received a boost in 2015, when the G7 pledged to phase out fossil fuels by 2100. With the advent of the Internet of Things, these two revolutions are rapidly converging and will ultimately result in an “Internet of Energy”.
Google-owned Nest Labs Inc. has revealed plans to donate one million of the company's smart thermostats to low-income homes as part of its Power Project. The project is part of a larger effort spanning five years to address the "vast discrepancy" in household energy costs. Average American households spend roughly 3.5 percent of their income on energy bills, while a fifth of families spends 20 percent or more.
This year’s Grid Edge Innovation Summit will bring together top talent and expertise from around the world of distributed energy. And as with every GTM grid edge event, this year’s summit will showcase a set of projects that represent the future of the grid. After months of careful selection and some tough voting choices, they are set to announce the 10 winners and two honorable mentions of this year’s Grid Edge Innovation Awards.
