Electricity
Rate-Design Best Practices for Public Electric-Vehicle Chargers
Public direct current fast chargers (DCFC) are anticipated to play an important role in accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, utility demand charges—special charges based on the peak rate of electricity consumption in a month, which are applied in addition to the…
Shifting Currents
The regional power-grid operator Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has quietly become a leader in renewable energy, and recent improvements to its marketplace signal an opportunity for corporate buyers. With an estimated 19 gigawatts (GW) of planned wind capacity additions (more than three times the current total of corporate off-take deals),…
A Utility Business Model That Embraces Efficiency and Solar Without Sacrificing Revenue?
A few weeks ago the city council in Fort Collins, Colorado, unanimously voted to accelerate the city’s climate action goals to achieve an 80-percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The municipally owned Fort Collins Utilities understood the community’s desire for such aggressive…
Growing the Minigrid Market in Sub-Saharan Africa
Download the report Energy Within Reach: Growing the Minigrid Market in sub-Saharan Africa here. Businesses lining the rusty red dirt road of the commercial thoroughfare of Segbwema in Sierra Leone (pronounced shuh-BOY-ma) sell cold Coca-Cola and local ginger ale, their dry goods in the front of…
Bringing Energy Efficiency into the 21st Century
In April 2016, RMI hosted its third annual eLab Accelerator. Described as a boot camp for electricity innovation, the four-day intensive work session brought together 13 teams from across North America—from North Carolina to Ottawa and California to New York—to work on new business models, energy innovation districts, and innovative…