The Concrete Benefits of Virtual Power Plants — Episode 203 of Local Energy Rules

Date: 14 Feb 2024 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Chris Rauscher explains the benefits of coordinating distributed energy resources, how residential solar and storage customers have saved their neighbors from blackouts, and why every utility could be offering a virtual power plant program.… Read More

Connecting Customers to Create a Virtual Power Plant — Episode 126 of Local Energy Rules

Date: 24 Mar 2021 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell and CEO of OhmConnect Cisco DeVries discuss demand response and the 550 megawatt Resi-Station “virtual power plant.”… Read More

A Solar Settlement for the Good of the Grid — Episode 118 of Local Energy Rules

Date: 2 Dec 2020 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

For this episode of the Local Energy Rules podcast, host John Farrell and Vote Solar’s Thad Culley discuss a net metering settlement underway in the Carolinas: a compromise benefitting the utility, customer-generators, and the electric grid.… Read More

Sparking Grid Savings Starts at Home

Date: 2 Sep 2020 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This 2020 update to a 2016 report finds that while new technology has made electricity demand response simple and cost-effective, and has opened the opportunity for residential savings, utility implementation of demand response programs is lagging.… Read More

Dumb and Dumber: Looking Beyond the Department of Energy’s Flawed “Baseload” Study

Date: 24 Aug 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Energy commissioned a study purportedly about grid reliability. In reality, it’s more likely the study is a fishing expedition searching for ways to buttress fossil fuel contributors to and allies of the Trump administration — folks squeezed by competition from less costly wind and solar power.… Read More

Amid EV Surge, Austin Eyes a New Way of Doing Business — Episode 48 of Local Energy Rules Podcast

Date: 26 Jun 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States, Podcast | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Electric and autonomous vehicle technology supports the change, said Popham, whose city-owned utility is a leader in conservation and renewable energy. He recently spoke with John Farrell, head of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, about changes already in motion and what’s yet to come.… Read More

Report: Sparking Grid Savings Starts at Home

Date: 12 Oct 2016 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

New technology, particularly in the hands of electric customers, is creating an unprecedented opportunity to tap the many other sources of controllable electricity demand in homes and businesses. Utilities, like Xcel Energy in Minnesota, should harness these lower-cost ways to meet rising peak energy demand.… Read More