News & Events

Electric Utility Innovation at the Speed of Regulation: May 12th Public Webinar Tees Up Challenges and Opportunities

4/15/2022

Innovation is essential for future power systems to be “safe and secure, clean and sustainable, affordable and equitable, and reliable and resilient," according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In order to attain these goals, state regulatory reforms are needed to encourage adoption of the technologies that can support the evolution of the nation’s power systems.1 

Electricity Regulation with Equity and Justice for All

1/19/2022

Poring over the line items on your monthly electricity bill may not sound like an enticing way to spend an afternoon, but the way electricity bills are structured has a significant impact on equitable energy access and distribution. For example, fixed fees can have a disproportionate impact on low-income households. And combined with other factors, low-income households and households of color are far more likely to report losing home heating service, according to recent federal data.

Meeting the Twin Goals of Equity and Decarbonization: December 16th Public Webinar With Authors of New Report

11/29/2021

Equity issues are being raised across all sectors of society. In a general sense, equity is just and fair inclusion. In terms of how we power our homes and our economy, equity is the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of energy production and consumption.

New Report: ‘Advancing Equity in Utility Regulation’

11/4/2021

States are increasingly recognizing equity as a goal of utility regulation, going beyond traditionally stated objectives to ensure that electricity systems are reliable, safe, and fairly priced. But they are just beginning to grapple with how to achieve this goal.

A new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Advancing Equity in Utility Regulation, provides four cutting-edge perspectives on advancing equity in electric utility regulation.

WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: Utility Investments in Resilience of Electricity Systems

Event Date: 4/30/2019 10:30am

Report No. 11 in the Future Electric Utility Regulation series

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on April 30, 2019, to discuss a new report, Utility Investments in Resilience of Electricity Systems.

Lisa Schwartz Wins Utility Regulator Honor

2/20/2019

Lisa Schwartz, Deputy Leader and Energy Efficiency Team Leader in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group, received the 2018 Mary Kilmarx Award from the Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: The Future of Transportation Electrification: Utility, Industry and Consumer Perspectives

Event Date: 9/13/2018 10:30am

Report No. 10 in the Future Electric Utility Regulation series

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on September 13, 2018 to discuss a new report, The Future of Transportation Electrification: Utility, Industry and Consumer Perspectives.

Future Electric Utility Regulation Image

WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: Value-Added Electricity Services: New Roles for Utilities and Third-Party Providers

Event Date: 11/6/2017 10:30am

Report No. 9 in the Future Electric Utility Regulation series

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on November 6, 2017, to discuss a new report, Value-Added Electricity Services: New Roles for Utilities and Third-Party Providers.

WEBINAR: Regulatory Incentives and Disincentives for Utility Investments in Grid Modernization

Event Date: 5/31/2017 10:30am

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free webinar on May 31, 2017, to discuss a new report, Regulatory Incentives and Disincentives for Utility Investments in Grid Modernization.

Webinar: The Future of Centrally Organized Wholesale Electricity Markets

Event Date: 3/24/2017 11:30am

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presents a free, 90 minute webinar on March 24, 2017, to discuss a new report, The Future of Centrally-Organized Wholesale Electricity Markets.

FEUR in Fortnightly

12/1/2016

The November issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly featured the fifth report in Berkeley Lab’s Future Electric Utility Regulation series, Recovery of Utility Fixed Costs: Utility, Consumer, Environmental and Economist Perspectives. The article, “Rethinking Rate Design,” is a round-table discussion by the report authors about recovery of utility fixed costs, from various perspectives.  The authors are: -Utility experts Lisa Wood, Institute for Electric Innovation and The Edison...

Is the utility of the future a natural monopoly?

7/1/2016

As part of our Future Electric Utility Regulation series, Steve Corneli and Steve Kihm revisited the concept of natural monopoly and asked whether electric distribution utilities will remain natural monopolies if the capabilities and affordability of distributed energy technologies improve sufficiently.   

Their basic conclusion: Don’t count on it.  

EMP's Future Electric Utility Regulation (FEUR) Series report featured on Greentech Media

3/1/2016

The growth of distributed energy resources is causing a transition as fundamental as the shift to competitive power markets in the 1990s. Distributed energy resources (DERs) are diverse—from energy-efficiency and peak-shaving initiatives to distributed generation, storage, and microgrids—but they all enable customers to reduce their use of traditional grid services, and even to provide valuable services to the grid.

Innovative Report Series to Help Inform Decisions by Utility Regulators, Policymakers and Electric Industry

12/1/2015

The electric industry in the U.S. is undergoing significant changes for a number of reasons, including new and improved technologies, changing customer desires, low load growth in many regions, and changes in federal and state policies and regulations.

Webinar: Future Electric Utility Regulation Series

10/1/2015

The Electricity Markets and Policy Group is pleased to annouce new two webinars related to the Future Electric Utility Regulation Series.

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