May 1
Duke Energy Shows Progress Toward Sustainability Goals
Top consumer smart grid news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Duke Energy released a pair of data-driven reports outlining the company's recent accomplishments and path to advance its critical environmental, social and governance initiatives. The company's Sustainability Report details the company's performance in four key areas – customers, growth, operations and employees. Duke Energy’s 2020 Climate Report discusses how the company is addressing climate change by reducing carbon emissions and making its electric grid more resilient.
The Polaris Wind park in Gratiot County, Mich., became operational recently and is now providing clean energy to more than 64,000 homes. The wind park – the largest in Michigan — features 68 turbines and generates 168 megawatts. It is owned and operated by Detroit-based DTE Energy. It is the first of four new wind parks DTE will commission in 2020. The Polaris wind farm will offset 355,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, drawing DTE closer to its goal of reducing carbon emission by 50 percent by 2030.
The past decade has seen the proliferation of a number of technologies with the potential to help residential consumers engage in their energy use: smart meters, rooftop solar, electric vehicles, home battery storage, smart thermostats, etc. While the technologies have matured significantly, there are still gaps in consumer understanding and engagement that must be overcome to effectively realize the consumer benefits.
Potomac Edison, a FirstEnergy utility, marked a key milestone for its electric vehicle charging station program, EV Driven, in Maryland. The utility’s first three recently installed public charging stations are available for public use to benefit the state's environment by reducing auto emissions. The first charging station was installed in a parking lot near the Frostburg Museum in downtown Frostburg, in western Maryland. The unit became operational in late March.
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Industry News
The Chicago City Council on April 24 approved an ordinance requiring new construction of residential and commercial buildings of certain sizes to ensure at least 20 percent of any supplied parking spaces are ready for electric vehicle charging equipment to be installed. The new rules apply to residential buildings with five or more units and commercial buildings with 30 or more parking spaces. Consumer advocates say the ordinance makes Chicago a national leader in its efforts to increase adoption of emissions-free vehicles and called for similar policies to be adopted more widely.
Hawaiian Electric is set to expand massively beyond the 8-megawatt limitation of its first phase community-based renewable energy program, thanks to approvals from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. The second phase of the program would see a leap from that 8 MW to 235 MW of renewable generation across the utility’s five-island service territory. It would open greater opportunities for low- and middle-income residential customers to participate and give Hawaiian Electric the capability to develop projects and recruit subscribers beyond private companies.
If there was ever a time to appreciate that electricity service is not a “luxury item”, this is it. Large utilities across the nation and half of all states have taken steps to prevent power shutoffs for customers who fall behind on their bills during the coronavirus crisis. It’s a recognition that energy is essential to every household's health and safety, as well as to broader community resilience. But what happens when the bans on utility disconnections end?
Abu Dhabi has set a global record-low solar price as authorities confirmed the winning bid in a 2-gigawatt tender. Upon its expected completion in mid-2022, it is slated to be the largest single-site solar energy project in the world. The Al Dhafra project had five bidders, with the lowest offer coming in at 1.35 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. The state-run Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPower) confirmed to GTM that the leading consortium consists of French energy giant EDF and the projects division of Chinese solar manufacturer Jinko Solar.
