December 19
SRP Details Strong National Reliability Performance Ranking
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
Arizona utility Salt River Project ranked third nationwide among electric utilities serving more than 500,000 customers for reliability performance, according to the EIA. Reliability is measured using the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which tracks the average outage duration per customer, and the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), which measures outage frequency.
A new paper from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) reports that U.S. consumers share similar priorities regarding their electricity use, regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural areas. According to the study, about one-third of consumers across all three geographic categories identified saving money on their electric bills as a top priority.
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, said last week that it completed two new solar energy sites in the state, each producing 74.9 MW of clean energy that have been added to the electric grid, saving the company’s two million customers an estimated $500 million over their service lifetimes. The two new solar sites are the Half Moon Renewable Energy Center in Sumter County and the Rattler Renewable Energy Center in Hernando County.
After more than a year of stakeholder engagement, analyzing costs and conducting third-party studies on its overhead and underground electrical distribution system, Texas public power utility Austin Energy announced its Electric System Resiliency Plan (ESRP) to develop a stronger, smarter and more reliable electric system for Austin, Texas.
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Industry News
LED light bulbs and TVs. Front-loading washing machines. Energy-lean refrigerators. All were once nascent technologies that needed a push to become mainstream. Now, California is trying to add über-efficient plug-in heat pumps and battery-equipped induction stoves to that list. It’s a tall order; today these innovative products cost thousands of dollars and aren’t widely available in stores.
The Energy Information Administration cut its 2026 electricity generation growth forecast by 1.3% from last month “based on how much large load electricity demand has come online so far this year,” particularly in Texas, “and its implications for near-term growth,” according to its most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday. EIA now projects generation to grow 2.4% this year and 1.7% next year.
According to a new report, the U.S. solar industry installed nearly 12 GW of new capacity in the third quarter of 2025, the third-largest quarter on record. A new report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie found that solar and storage account for more than three quarters (85%) of all new power added to the grid in the first nine month of President Donald Trump’s administration, despite actions in Washington D.C. to target clean energy.
Meghan Wood, CEO of Raya Power, thinks solar and batteries should be as easy to install as a typical household appliance, durable enough to provide backup power for critical devices during storms and heat waves and sophisticated enough to help lower everyday energy bills. “Solar can give you a return on investment; it can give you resilience – and I want that to be as normal as getting Wi-Fi,” Wood said.
