November 21
Austin Energy Adds Record 18.8 MW of Local Solar to the Grid
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
Austin Energy added a record 18.8 MW of new local solar power to the grid this year – “an unprecedented achievement that reflects Austin’s growing investment in renewable energy, community collaboration and innovation,” it noted. The milestone represents 749 new solar projects across the city, including 690 residential systems and 59 commercial installations, "all of which contribute to cleaner air, lower energy costs and a more resilient local grid.”
GridX, the industry’s leading Enterprise Rate Platform provider, and Recurve, the trusted platform for measuring and optimizing demand flexibility, announced a strategic partnership to provide utilities with an end-to-end approach for designing, targeting and verifying demand flexibility programs, including time-varying rate and dynamic pricing programs.
Electricity bills are rising across the United States. According to a recent update from the EIA, residential rates were up 6.1 percent in August over the same month last year – though some areas have seen significantly higher rate hikes. There may also be further increases on the horizon. An analysis of U.S. utilities by consulting firm ICF found that residential rates could rise 15 to 40 percent over the next five years.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy said recently it plans to build the Midwest’s largest battery energy storage site at the Sherco Energy Hub in central Minnesota. The proposed project is among several investments that aim to bolster the region’s energy security and expand the company’s investment at Sherco and elsewhere. The proposal would double the amount of battery storage adjacent to the Sherco coal plant, which is scheduled to retire by the end of 2030.
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Industry News
Due north of Chattanooga, a power line runs through a wooded tract called Sale Creek before it dead-ends at the Tennessee River. On Oct. 8, this line lost power. But the lights stayed on for nearly 400 customers because Sale Creek has a new tool to neutralize outages. Chattanooga’s municipal utility, EPB, had installed a Tesla Megapack battery system on this lonely stretch of the distribution grid back in June.
Power outages across the United States are getting longer, according to a recent survey by J.D. Power, which cites “increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events.” The average length of the longest power outage has increased in all regions since 2022, from 8.1 hours to 12.8 by the midpoint of 2025. Customers in the South reported the longest outages, averaging out at 18.2 hours, followed by the West at 12.4 hours, it said.
In its 2025-2026 Winter Reliability Assessment, NERC found that much of North America is at an elevated risk of having insufficient energy supplies to meet demand in extreme conditions. While resources are adequate for normal winter peak demand, prolonged cold snaps could present challenges, largely due to the rising electricity demand, which has grown by 20 GW since last winter.
Gas cars are sputtering, stuck in the slow lane – and battery-powered vehicles are gaining on them fast. A massive shift has occurred in less than a decade. At their all-time high, in 2017, global sales of pure internal combustion vehicles hit 79.9 million units, per data from the International Energy Agency. Last year, 54.8 million internal combustion cars were sold, a 31-percent reduction.
