Josh Kessler, Author at Environment + Energy Leader

PA PUC Encourages Customers to Shop for Retail Energy

May 13, 2015 by Josh Kessler

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is encouraging electricity customers to shop for retail electricity. Statewide, 36 percent of customers participate in retail choice programs. This is more heavily weighted toward large commercial and industrial users, as competitive suppliers serve 64 percent of the state’s total load. Although the eastern ... Read more »

How Retail Customers Can Benefit from Energy Storage

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

On April 30, Tesla CEO Elon Musk issued a ballyhooed announcement that the company will sell two battery storage systems that he believes will disrupt the energy industry. These systems, whether they run on distributed solar photovoltaic systems or are fed directly from the grid, can provide backup power that ... Read more »

Sweeping Changes in Western Energy Markets

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

PacifiCorp and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) just announced an agreement to explore the feasibility of integrating their two markets. CAISO, which oversees the only competitive electricity market in the West, manages 80 percent of the energy flow in California. Although the Nevada Valley Electric Authority joined CAISO in ... Read more »

Time-of-Use Pricing Delivers 6% Peak Load Reduction

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

PECO customers participating in a time-of-use (TOU) pricing pilot reduced consumption during peak hours last summer by an average of 6 percent, reports Energy Choice Matters. NRG Energy served as the retail supplier. PECO’s 2014 report to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) noted that the program objectives were to: Gauge ... Read more »

Non-Performing Power Plants Cost Customers $600M

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

Customers in the region covered by the PJM transmission operator, which spans much of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, lost an estimated $600 million in January 2014, reports Energy Choice Matters. This happened because power plants that were paid to make their capacity available to produce power at all times were ... Read more »

End-Use Customers Ink 23% of Wind Contracts in 2014

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

The American Wind Energy Association reported that retail and other non-utility buyers signed 23 percent of the wind power purchase agreements (PPAs) inked in 2014. This represents over 1,770 MW of generation. Other renewable energy customers mentioned in the article include leading technology firms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!—as ... Read more »

Navigant: Demand Response to Grow 600% in 10 years

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

On May 5, Navigant Research released a study on the global demand response (DR) market titled Demand Response Enabling Technologies. Navigant forecasts that the market will grow from about $184 million today to $1.3 billion in 2024 in annual spending – a 600 percent increase. Automated DR dispatch, which allows ... Read more »

Presidential Energy Review Focuses on Cyber-Security, Climate Change

May 6, 2015 by Josh Kessler

The Obama administration just released the first ever Quadrennial Energy Review, a report that identifies policies to address energy-related threats, risks, and opportunities. President Obama commissioned the report in January 2014 and intends, as the name suggests, for the Department of Energy to conduct the review every four years going ... Read more »

Energy Bill of the Future

April 29, 2015 by Josh Kessler

Direct Energy CEO Badar Khan delivered the keynote speech at the Energy Thought Summit last month where he introduced his vision of the “energy bill of the future.” Forbes reports that the bill itemizes how much energy an electric customer consumes in specific applications or appliances like heating, cooling, lighting, ... Read more »

New England Governors Discuss Regional Energy Solution

April 29, 2015 by Josh Kessler

The governors of five of the six New England states met on April 23 to discuss solutions to the regional energy supply challenges that have caused prices to spike during recent winters, reports WBUR News. The governors released a joint plan titled “Actions for a Cleaner, More Reliable, and More ... Read more »

Las Vegas Casinos Seek Competitive Power

April 29, 2015 by Josh Kessler

Caesars Entertainment became the fourth major casino corporation that has announced its intention to attempt to leave Nevada Power and seek competitive power supplies, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The casino companies have a collective demand of 370 MW. The casinos, along with data storage company Switch, are relying ... Read more »

Chicago Ends Municipal Aggregation Program

April 29, 2015 by Josh Kessler

About two years ago, Chicago became the largest city in the country to secure competitive electricity on behalf of its customers, reports the Chicago Tribune. This was the largest municipal supply contract in the country, covering about 750,000 households with a total of 2 million residents. According to Crain’s Chicago ... Read more »

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