The North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) recently approved an EV pilot program for Duke Energy in North Carolina, which Duke says will be the largest such program in the state. Duke originally proposed a $76 million plan in April 2019. The NCUC gave the go-ahead for a scaled-back version with a currently estimated budget of $25 million. Through the program, Duke will install, own and operate a total of 160 public Level 2 charging stations at public destinations to encourage EV adoption.

The acceleration of electrification is “increasingly viewed as inevitable,” the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) concluded in a new report issued Wednesday, while also warning that energy policies must be designed carefully in order to ensure customers and the grid benefit from increased load. Building heating, transportation, industrial activity and the electric grid are responsible for about 70 percent of emissions, according to Rocky Mountain Institute.

The Attachments Energy Rating Council (AERC) announced a partnership with four entities to roll out the nation’s first smart shade pilot project. Through the pilot, select Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) customers will receive up to ten AERC-rated smart shades. The overall goal is to test the energy savings that customers can realize from automated window shades. AERC developed the automated shades’ operation schedule, which will serve as the guiding force behind the program so that participating customers may maximize the energy savings opportunity of the shades in their homes.

PlugShare, an EV driver app maker and research firm, announced a multi-year collaboration with J.D. Power to co-develop research for the U.S. EV marketplace. Under the agreement, the firms will collaborate on a series of EV-oriented reports, with initial topics including the total ownership experience, charging at home, and charging in public. The alliance will give rise to the first-ever J.D. Power Benchmark Awards within the EV category, including for the performance of EV charging networks.

The U.S. energy storage industry smashed its quarterly installation record with an influx of major projects in the third quarter. The industry had just broken records in the second quarter, but it beat that period’s performance by 240 percent, installing 476 MW, according to the Energy Storage Monitor out Wednesday from Wood Mackenzie and the Energy Storage Association. The growth came in spite of the coronavirus fallout, which slammed the broader economy and conventional energy companies in particular.

Shutoff moratoria across the country, allowing COVID-impacted residential and small business customers to defer utility payments without the threat of losing service, have been invaluable to millions, authorities on energy bill assistance say. But when the vaccines are dispensed and the pandemic fades, any economic recovery will be impacted by potentially huge debts to utilities, debts that have yet to be addressed anywhere, experts said.