Power, Energy and Water Reports

AAA projects a whopping 37.1 million road-tripping Americans will journey 50 miles or more from their homes this Memorial Day weekend, the third most since 2000, when AAA started tracking holiday travel. However, despite upbeat signs like this, the nation’s peak gasoline demand is squarely in the rear-view mirror.

Commodity traders often say that the cure for high prices is high prices. In other words, during periods of supply shortages or tight balances, sellers will increase their supply and buyers will cut back or adopt substitutes.

Considered one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century, the U.S. electric grid is now experiencing something of a mid-life crisis in the early innings of the 21st century.

The electricity sector no longer lives on a one-way street: U.S. consumers are fundamentally reshaping the electric power industry by demanding clean energy and widely adopting grid-edge technologies.

Increased customer needs and operating risks are pushing aging electric transmission and distribution systems past their limits, often with painful results for communities. In fact, the average American home endured more than eight hours without power in 2021, more than double the outage time five years ago.

The shift toward electric transportation will take more than just a dealership sale. Our research and discussions with electric cooperatives last year revealed a need for cooperation amongst co-ops and, more broadly, collaboration along the entire supply chain.

With the recent passage of the U.S. landmark $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure spending package to shore up the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and transmission grid, now is an opportune time to reflect on the state of our rural electric infrastructure.

Given promising signs of a return to normal for the country and the prospect of even more motorists hitting the road this year, it felt like the right time to celebrate a new CoBank initiative dedicated to electric vehicles. 

Given new commitments by car manufacturers, expanded policy incentives, and ambitious build-out of charging infrastructure, electric vehicles could make up 10% of all new car sales by 2025 – a five-fold increase from current levels.

A different market design probably would not have averted the crisis in Texas.  But there is a clear need to protect consumers from these price spikes. 

President Biden's new greenhouse gas emissions target for the U.S. could be viewed as the current generation’s moonshot opportunity for addressing climate change.

The February 2021 winter storm and widespread power outages have raised new concerns about the future of grid resilience.

One of the more thought provoking sessions I attended at this year’s NRECA PowerXchange conference focused on how the events of 2020 will likely accelerate transformation for the U.S. electricity industry. 

Over the past decade, retail electricity prices have continued to rise despite declining costs associated with generating electricity.

With fuel competition unlikely to abate, there is little opportunity for a revival in the U.S. coal patch.

Many consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the U.S. power industry have been extreme – from demand destruction to more intense supply-side competition.

The accumulated effects of deferred maintenance may pose a future reliability risk should staffing shortages persist.

Summer-time air conditioning demand masked underlying electricity demand weakness associated with COVID-19. As temperatures begin to moderate, loads will once again soften.

While the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the power sector remain unclear, belt tightening is a must and the industry has an opportunity now to adapt.

Agricultural irrigation accounts for a significant share of the industrial electrical load served by U.S. utilities, especially in rural & semi-rural areas of Western & Central states.

The world’s largest battery energy storage development project has received the green light from New York’s Public Service Commission. The project reaffirms what electric cooperatives in remote areas have known for years.

As the U.S. market for electric vehicles has grown in recent years, many electric utilities around the country have welcomed the resulting incremental demand for power. But the uncertainty over future U.S. national fuel economy standards isn’t helping the segment’s growth.

The EPA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking indicating that the agency seeks much greater authority in the infrastructure permitting processes regulated under the Clean Water Act. Under the EPA’s proposed rule, states and tribes could only prevent infrastructure construction in matters concerning water quality, ending some of their other long-held permitting authorities.

While vehicle-to-grid (V2G) integration remains more concept than reality in the U.S., it will likely afford economic value to cost-conscious utilities and their ratepayers in the long term.

On November 6, 2018, Nevada voters rejected a proposition that would have fully liberalized the state’s electricity market. 

Nevada’s Energy Choice Initiative that goes to vote in November poses many risks to electric coops. It could result in billions of dollars in stranded costs from the divestiture of NV Energy’s power supply assets.

Broadband communications is coming to rural America, but the pace of progress remains slow. There is good news in several areas. Rural electric cooperatives are entering the broadband space in increasing numbers. They are finding that their existing distribution networks can mean efficient deployment of broadband for their members.

Adoption of distributed solar among ag producers remains low, largely driven by incentives and tax appetite, but will accelerate when the levelized cost of energy for on-farm solar converges with retail electricity rates, which will likely occur by 2025 in most states.

Battery energy storage systems are gaining momentum beyond traditional markets in Hawaii, Alaska, California and the Northeast. Growth is dominated by lithiumion (Li-ion) battery technology, spurred by increasing demand for electric vehicles and stationary uses.