Duquesne Light Co. (DLC) is using BlastPoint software to conduct customer data analysis to determine who they should proactively reach out to during these turbulent times. BlastPoint is a B2B provider of big data and analytics solutions. Marie Tamilia, General Manager of Credit and Collections at Pittsburgh-based DLC, sees firsthand the number of electricity customers whose late bills have piled up since COVID-19 hit the region. Watching the numbers of at-risk households tick upward, she wants more people to know about the financial support that is available.

CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas has made “significant reductions” in emissions, according to the public power utility’s recently released sustainability report. CPS Energy’s 2019 Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship Report documents reductions in carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury, and particulate matter, as well as reduced water use and waste production. The report includes data through calendar year 2019.

As EVs enter the market and sales continue nationwide, the Public Service Commission of South Carolina has approved two Duke Energy electric transportation pilot programs that will allow South Carolina to join other states in deploying EV infrastructure to meet the needs of this growing market. Duke Energy will install, own and operate 60 fast chargers across Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress South Carolina territories to provide a foundational level of infrastructure and facilitate EV market growth.

The grid outages hitting California this year gave the clean energy industry a chance to prove itself, to show that localized solar power and batteries really can help people ride through grid disruption. But the events – stemming from wildfire prevention shutoffs, scarce electricity supplies and good old-fashioned equipment malfunction – also revealed a swath of the population that typical distributed energy solutions do not serve.

This summer, California suffered crippling blackouts. Many Californians were left without power at a time they were facing the dual deadly threats of wildfires and COVID-19. The exact causes are still being untangled. What is clear, though, is that renewables most definitely are not to blame – instead, antiquated grid design and management tools bear at least some of the fault. The world’s fifth-largest economy should not have been derailed by hot weather.

The Arizona Corporation Commission last month approved the state’s first residential battery storage program — an incentive pilot proposed in August by the Arizona Public Service Company. Around the same time, Green Mountain Power (GMP) said its growing network of stored energy in Vermont, including home batteries and other resources, has reduced customer costs by about $3 million so far in 2020. The Arizona pilot will offer incentives of $500 per kilowatt of installed storage, up to $2,500.