January 24
Duke Energy’s EV Garage Accelerates EV Adoption
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
From the outside, it looks like an inviting residential home complete with potted plants and front porch rocking chairs. But visitors who step inside Duke Energy’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Garage discover a setup designed to not only delight but also to better explain why the future of four wheels is electric.
Consumers Energy reported that its average customer experienced 21 fewer power outage minutes in 2024 compared to the previous year, with more than 93 percent of customers having their power restored in less than 24 hours. Consumers Energy’s Reliability Roadmap set long-term goals to have fewer power outages affecting no more than 100,000 customers, even during major storms, and to restore power to all customers in less than 24 hours.
As the coldest temperatures so far this winter settled into the region this week, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power generation system met the highest peak demand in the agency’s over 91-year history. Wednesday’s preliminary all-time record peak of 35,319 MW came at 8 a.m. CT with a system temperature of 11 degrees. TVA’s power system remained stable throughout the event.
Xcel Energy–Colorado announced it was releasing a non-pipeline alternative portfolio to meet energy needs for customers in select mountain communities. The Mountain Energy Project will reduce natural gas use and emissions while ensuring safe and reliable energy for customers served by the Easter Mountain Gas System in Grand, Lake, Eagle and Summit counties in Colorado.
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Industry News
In northeastern Oregon, nearly 9,500 acres of farmland will soon be transformed into a 1,200-MW solar project. State regulators approved Sunstone Solar, the nation’s largest proposed solar-plus-storage facility, last fall. Once up and running, the project will include up to 7,200 MWh of storage, and its nearly four million solar panels will produce enough clean electricity to power around 800,000 homes each year.
A new program promises free solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage systems for many Texas homeowners, breaking down any lingering cost adoption barriers standing in the way of tapping into the benefits of behind-the-meter distributed resources.
In the early 1980s, Chattanooga, Tennessee found itself at a crossroads. Once a thriving manufacturing town, the mid-sized city was grappling with economic uncertainty as businesses closed or offshored operations. The city’s downtown was still home to several major employers, but it became a ghost town after 5 p.m. when workers headed home.
The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds” under the landmark federal climate and energy laws passed during the Biden administration, a move that will throw tens of billions of dollars of lawfully designated federal funding into limbo – and one that is likely to be challenged in court.
