July 15
TVA Seeks Up to 5,000 MW of Clean Energy
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
The Tennessee Valley Authority has issued a request for up to 5,000 MW of carbon-free energy that leaders of the country’s largest public utility say needs to be online by 2029. The RFP from Knoxville-based TVA, which has operations in seven states and serves 10 million people, calls for applicants to put forward solar, land-based and offshore wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, nuclear, green gas or battery storage plans.
Duke Energy Florida is deploying its smart, self-healing technology to limit power outages as the summer storm and hurricane season hits the state. Like a GPS can reroute traffic during an accident, self-healing technology can automatically detect power outages and quickly reroute power to restore service faster or avoid the outage altogether. In 2021, the technology helped avoid nearly 250,000 extended customer power outages in Florida, saving almost 17 million minutes of total lost outage time.
The former chief executive of Xcel Energy’s Colorado operations has a new company-wide role focused on planning the utility’s energy future. Alice Jackson will have a lead role in coming up with strategies to meet the company’s goals of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050 across all its territories, including Minnesota.
ComEd officially submitted its plan to support the adoption of beneficial electrification technologies to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) this week, setting up potential commitments of up to $100 million per year over the next three years. This money would take the form of incentives, education efforts and infrastructure support.
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Industry News
The more electric vehicles people see in their neighborhood, the more likely they are to purchase one, according to results from a Consumer Reports survey released Thursday and a 2021 research report from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation. Talking with or knowing others who own electric vehicles creates “peer effects” that can influence someone’s decision to buy an EV, the studies revealed.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced it has broken ground on the first of up to 130 new EV charging ports at 22 schools in its service area. The first installation is at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, California. Overall, PG&E’s EV Charge Schools pilot program aims to help fill charging gaps at these locations and support California’s clean transportation and decarbonization goals.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a memorandum announcing the 2022/Round 6 Designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, which will help build out the backbone of the national EV charging network. The newly designated corridors will provide additional connections to highways designated in the previous five rounds of nominations to better complete nationwide coverage of alternative fuels.
Texas electricity retailer Octopus Energy has launched an electric vehicle leasing business to help residential customers acquire an EV and enroll it in a smart charging plan, the company announced Wednesday. Reduced electricity rates are available to customers who enroll their EV and a smart thermostat in the company’s integrated demand response program called Intelligent Octopus.
