February 16
Report: Majority of Americans Believe Grid Modernization Is Important
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Eighty-seven percent of Americans believe that grid modernization is either very or somewhat important, yet less than half (48 percent) are aware of any steps that their electricity providers have taken to modernize the grid, according to a new survey from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), a nonprofit organization that studies the needs and wants of today’s energy consumers.
For decades, air travel was kind of a pain in the butt. When we first started flying commercially in the 1940s, it was hardly a navigable arena for most people. That started to change in 1957 when American Airlines began working on the first automated reservation tool. By the time it was finished in 1964, the so-called Semi-automated Business Research Environment (SABRE) could process more than 7,000 bookings per hour via two IBM mainframes connected to thousands of terminals.
Uplight, the technology partner to energy providers transitioning to a decarbonized future, announced it achieved record amounts of load shift and flexible capacity on behalf of its utility clients in 2023, and closed its previously announced acquisition of AutoGrid, the leading virtual power plant (VPP) and distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) provider.
Xcel Energy proposed a new clean energy plan for the Upper Midwest that would significantly accelerate carbon reduction plans. Under the proposal, carbon emissions reductions would exceed 80 percent by 2030, potentially reaching up to 88 percent. This would position the company to meet Minnesota’s new carbon-free standard for 2040.
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Industry News
Kay and Bruce Schilling decided last year that they wanted to install electric-vehicle charging equipment at an apartment building they manage in Belmont, California, but they had no idea where to begin. They figured that adding the amenity could attract renters, and Kay so loved driving her own EV that she hoped providing chargers would help tenants make the switch themselves.
Vermont Electric Cooperative, which serves a small, dense region in the northern half of the Green Mountain State, has been working with grid management platform Camus Energy since early last year to fine-tune visibility into its present and future grid. The pair recently concluded what the utility’s innovation and technology leader Cyril Brunner described as the “painful” process of integrating internal and external data sets into an integrated platform.
Minnesota community solar developers are adjusting their business plans as the state’s program undergoes some of the biggest changes since its launch over a decade ago. One of the oldest and largest in the country, Minnesota’s community solar program has spurred development of more than 800 MW worth of solar capacity since launching in 2013.
Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces. Again. According to data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute released last week, Americans bought 21 percent more heat pumps in 2023 than the next-most popular heating appliance, fossil gas furnaces. That’s the biggest lead heat pumps have opened up over conventional furnaces in the two decades of data available from the trade group.
