October 25
Xcel Energy Reaches Agreement to Add 4.2 GW of Clean Energy
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Xcel Energy would add 3,200 MW of wind, 600 MW of battery storage and 400 MW of solar by 2030 while extending operations at two nuclear power plants under a settlement agreement filed earlier this month with Minnesota regulators. Xcel Energy’s Upper Midwest Energy Plan could cut the company’s regional emissions by up to 88 percent by 2030, the utility said.
Open Access Technology International (OATI) and Landis+Gyr announced they’ve signed a collaboration agreement aimed at helping utilities leverage demand-side assets into grid operations to enhance grid resiliency and capture decarbonization goals. Landis+Gyr DERMS, Powered by OATI, combines OATI’s enterprise DERMS solution with Landis+Gyr’s connected grid-edge solutions.
CLEAResult was recently selected by AES Indiana to launch a groundbreaking new portfolio of EV programs that will remove barriers to EV adoption and offer managed charging solutions that maximize customer benefits. This is the first initiative of its kind, capturing the full potential of EVs with a comprehensive approach that spans from home charging support to bidirectional fleet charging.
Consumers Energy received a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to deploy new technology to improve the electric grid in Michigan. Specifically, the funding will go to Consumers Energy so that it can provide real-time visibility into the grid and help integrate electric vehicles into the state’s electric grid. Consumers Energy will match the grant with its own $20 million as it powers Michigan’s EV transformation.
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Industry News
There’s no good way for a company to abandon its customers. But Enel X Way, the EV-charging subsidiary of Italian utility and energy conglomerate Enel Group, may have picked the worst way to go about it – and critics say it’s running out of time to choose a better path. On October 2, Enel X Way abruptly announced it was shutting down its North American charging business.
Nashville-based public power utility NES has launched a Neighborhood Comparison tool that allows customers to compare their energy usage to similar households near them. The new feature can be accessed through a customer’s online account portal on nespower.com. The new tool allows customers to compare their energy consumption by cost and kWh usage to households in their neighborhood.
Electric vehicle sales are growing in the United States, but at a slower pace than expected. A recent Bank of America analysis projected that EVs will make up 30 percent of American car sales by 2030 — far short of the Biden Administration’s goal of 50 percent by that date. Even if EV sales aren’t rising as quickly as hoped, they could still be the single largest driver of demand growth in the decade to come.
Seventeen days after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina – tearing down power lines, destroying water mains and disabling cell phone towers – the signs of relief were hard to miss. Trucks formed a caravan along Interstate 40, filled with camouflaged soldiers, large square tanks of water and essentials from pet food to diapers.
