More and more, utilities are deploying behind the meter (BTM) assets — particularly energy storage and electric vehicles (EV) — to reduce their loads, balance their systems and provide resilience. In the wake of a February outage, Portland General Electric said it has been testing projects that deploy customer sited storage to help boost … [Read more...]
How Behind the Meter Assets Can Help — or Hinder — Utility Energy Management in Texas
Texas Crisis Reveals the Grid’s Complications
The recent Texas disaster has accelerated the conversation about creating a clean, resilient grid. But much work needs to be done to achieve that goal, according to three speakers who participated in a the recent Pecan Street webinar, "Addressing Technology Roadblocks to Clean Energy Adoption.” Pecan Street conducts research aimed at … [Read more...]
How Well does the Energy Industry Serve People of Color?
The energy industy (both fossil and renewable) is failing to provide benefits to people of color, and in many instances undermining the health of this community. That was one of the messages from a group of medical, energy and poverty experts who spoke at Race and Energy, a webinar presented this week by Pecan Street, a data research and … [Read more...]
Pecan Street and Austin Energy Look to Bring V2G Mainstream with Possible Microgrid Applications
Energy research center Pecan Street and utility Austin Energy have launched Texas' first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) research and testing center, which will work on hardware and software innovations to enable V2G to go mainstream, with possible application for microgrids down the road. V2G describes the electricity flowing to and from plug-in … [Read more...]