February 12
CPS Energy Asks Community to Weigh In on Decarbonization
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Municipal power company CPS Energy has turned to its customers in the San Antonio metro area for guidance regarding its next steps toward decarbonization, including the fate of a coal-fired power plant that is merely ten years old. CPS has adopted a new “flexible” approach to resource planning with greater public input to adjust to the current rapid pace of technological change and avoid stranded assets, according to company Chief Operating Officer Chris Eugster.
Con Edison customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York installed 5,542 solar arrays in 2020 with the capacity to produce 44.77 MW of power. Overall, Con Edison customers have now completed more than 35,700 projects with the capacity to produce 322 MW. Customers in Queens have had the most customer solar arrays installed with 11,334, including 2,604 last year. Westchester County is the leader in capacity, producing 83.75 MW.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) announced that they are partnering to develop a statewide electric vehicle fast charging network to spur the growth of EVs across Tennessee and reduce barriers to transportation electrification. TDEC and TVA signed an agreement to collaborate and fund a network of fast charging stations every 50 miles along Tennessee’s interstates and major highways.
Don McPhail from Uplight had the opportunity to participate in a recent SECC webinar, titled “Demand Response: What Have We Learned and What’s to Come,” with Nathan Shannon of SECC and Shannon Morrow from Consumers Energy. In 2020, Consumers Energy responded to the challenges brought on by COVID-19 by partnering with Uplight and Google to offer up to 100,000 no-cost smart thermostats to consumers while also enrolling them in a demand response program.
Get Your Weekly Edition
Industry News
A handful of rural Virginia communities where the pandemic has exposed the cost of unreliable internet service may soon see relief as a spillover benefit from utilities’ smart grid investments. The state’s largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power, are each developing pilot projects in which the utilities will defray some of the cost of grid communication system upgrades by partnering with local internet providers who will share use the fiber cables.
Public power utilities have been among the leaders in the electrification of public buses and their efforts continue to move forward in several cities. Seattle City Light passed a major milestone in October when the Seattle City Council approved the utility’s Transportation Electrification Strategic Investment Plan, John Owen, the utility’s engineering supervisor for electrification and strategic technology, said. The approval “allows us to move forward under the legislation passed a couple years ago.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley said on the company’s Q4 earnings call last week that it will invest $29 billion in autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles through 2025, a dramatic ramp-up of its spending in those areas. Farley said the company will take a “more aggressive” approach toward automation and electrification, having previously pledged to spend $11.5 billion on electrification through 2022.
According to the Annual Energy Outlook 2021 released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewables’ share of the national electricity generation mix is set to double from 21 percent in 2020 to 42 percent in 2050. That change of pace will largely be fueled by two simultaneous factors: wind and solar generation growth, while nuclear and coal-fired generation decreases. The natural gas share of generation is expected to remain fairly constant despite low prices, allowing for renewables to surpass it by 2030.
