July 11
CPS Energy Details Benefits of Tool to Simplify Access to Assistance Programs
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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San Antonio, Texas-based public power utility CPS Energy recently detailed the benefits of the Assistance Finder, a streamlined tool that makes it easier for customers to apply for bill assistance. In the past, customers had to complete separate applications for each assistance program, often repeating the same information and documentation. Recognizing that this process posed a significant barrier, CPS Energy developed the Assistance Finder.
Demand for the minerals used in electric vehicle batteries is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades amid the transition to EVs. These minerals, often sourced from outside the United States, are a scarce resource and make up a sizeable portion of an EV’s cost. Mining for the minerals has substantial negative impacts on the local environment and community where they are extracted, so it is important to use these resources to their fullest potential.
Keeping electricity affordable for consumers is a “formidable challenge” amid projections of declining generation capacity reserves and persistent uncertainty around the scale and pace of future load growth, ICF’s VP of Energy Markets Maria Scheller said. Meanwhile, broad policy uncertainty and an increasingly shaky regulatory environment give utilities and capital markets pause about expensive new infrastructure investments that could become stranded assets.
In a powerful example of corporate stewardship and ecological restoration, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has emerged as a national leader in salmon recovery. The utility – which as of year-end 2024 served roughly 1.24 million electric customers and nearly 900,000 natural gas customers in Washington State – has helped revive the nearly extinct Baker River Sockeye run in the North Cascades through decades of investment, science-driven innovation and tribal and state collaboration.
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As temperatures across New England soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in recent weeks, solar panels and batteries helped keep air conditioners running while reducing fossil-fuel generation and likely saving consumers more than $20 million. “Local solar, energy efficiency, and other clean energy resources helped make the power grid more reliable and more affordable for consumers,” said Jamie Dickerson, Senior Director of Clean Energy and Climate Programs at the Acadia Center.
A new report surveys and summarizes strategies states are employing to cope with significant new load growth. The July report was issued by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a national, nonprofit coalition of public agencies and organizations working together to advance clean energy. The key drivers of load growth include data centers, manufacturing and electrification, CESA said.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is setting aside $50 million for financial assistance programs to support eligible customers. The $50 million will go toward PG&E’s new Match My Payment Program and the existing PG&E Relief for Energy Assistance through Community Help (REACH) program. The new PG&E Match My Payment Program offers a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $1,000, for qualifying low-to moderate-income customers to pay past-due bills.
I was supposed to be looking at the largest energy-storage installation ever assembled from used electric vehicle batteries, the tantalizing new side project of former Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel’s recycling juggernaut, Redwood Materials. Instead, all I saw was a dusty field strewn with oddly shaped boxes wrapped in some kind of plastic sheeting. The boxes were propped up on cinder blocks, in the manner of rusted cars in a forgotten yard. It looked a bit like a garbage dump.
