The Obligation to Serve in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, achieving the state’s decarbonization target in a cost-effective manner will likely require the refusal of new gas service in addition to the termination of existing gas service in certain buildings and its replacement with electric service. The scope of utilities’ legal obligation to serve their customers will be central to those efforts. Local distribution companies (LDCs) must generally continue service to existing customers in their territories unless the costs of providing service would result in a permanent financial loss (except in certain instances of nonpayment). However, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) might have some discretion to …

The U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan

The U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan presents a pathway to rapidly accelerate hydrogen use across regions and sectors through new policies and industrial strategies, with a focus on leveraging regional hydrogen hubs as growth engines. Recently passed federal laws—the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—provide unprecedented clean hydrogen support and are expected to significantly reduce clean hydrogen production costs. This Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) study shows that additional measures are necessary to get from those cost reductions to a national, commoditized clean hydrogen market, and now is the time to take action.…

A Guide to 1.5°C-Aligned Hydrogen Investments

In a net-zero carbon emissions world in 2050, hydrogen will meet a significant portion of global energy demand, ranging from 5% to 22%, according to different organizations. Therefore, the world will require several times the quantities produced today and companies will need to produce it in a much less carbon-intense manner. Modeling shows that meeting this demand will happen through two main hydrogen production pathways: water electrolysis powered by renewable energies (otherwise known as green hydrogen) and natural gas reforming with carbon capture and storage (CCS) (otherwise known as blue hydrogen). Both will result in low levels of emissions. However, …

Quantifying the Financial Impacts of Electric Vehicles on Utility Ratepayers and Shareholders

Widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption is critical for meeting economy-wide decarbonization goals and, as a result, states are considering enabling policies and rate designs to accelerate EV deployment. EVs can provide possible financial upside to electric utilities and ratepayers in several ways. For example, from the utility perspective, EVs could drive increased electricity sales and new earnings opportunities through increased capital investments. From the ratepayer perspective, increased electric loads from EVs could reduce average all-in retail rates. The degree to which there are net benefits or costs to shareholders and/or ratepayers depends on how EVs are integrated and managed through …

Comparison of Home Appliance Energy Use, Operating Costs, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions 2022 Update

This AGA study evaluates the critical differences in energy cost and emissions for many common home appliances that use natural gas or rely on other forms of energy. AGA based this study on the characteristics of the average American single-family home and the likely energy consumption for each type of end-use home appliance. The analysis then looks at the current average full-fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions for each energy source to evaluate the impact on the environment from each appliance in the coming year. …

Advancing Equity through 100% Clean Energy: A Review of the Plans of 12 States

Twenty-one states plus DC and Puerto Rico have set goals through legislation or executive orders to achieve 100% clean energy. The majority of Americans live in a state with such a goal. In an encouraging trend, states are giving increasing attention to equity and environmental justice in their 100% clean energy plans. These actions are particularly important, because low-income populations, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups have suffered the greatest burdens from climate change yet have historically received the least investment in climate solutions.

This report documents state actions to advance environmental justice by reviewing the 100% clean …

Starting with Solar: A Preliminary Assessment of Solar Energy Systems in Residential New Construction

New homes provide a ready option for states hoping to reduce energy use, as evidenced by the steady increase in energy efficiency requirements in new home building codes. A less common approach is to specifically encourage or require new homes to produce their own carbon-free energy, through the installation of a solar energy system. Adopting these practices nationwide might significantly reduce new home energy use, but the drivers of the new solar home market have not been well studied. Partly filling this gap, this report looks at historical deployment trends of solar on over 500,000 new homes built through 2020 …

The Value of Transmission During Winter Storm Elliott

As families gathered for the holidays at the end of last year, in many regions they were joined by an unwelcome guest: bitter cold. From December 22-26, 2022, Winter Storm Elliott brought near-record low temperatures and wind chills across much of the Central and Eastern U.S. In the power sector, record winter electricity demand coincided with the large-scale loss of fossil power plants due to equipment failures and interruptions to natural gas supplies. Parts of the Southeast experienced rolling blackouts as electricity demand exceeded supply, while power prices spiked in many regions.

Additional transmission capacity would have protected consumers from …

2023 Utility Transformation Profile

SEPA’s Utility Transformation Challenge is an initiative to assess and present a holistic view of U.S. electric utilities’ progress in transforming the energy system to a carbon-free system that is safe, affordable, reliable, resilient and equitable. The Utility Transformation Challenge explores the critical role utilities and their stakeholders play in addressing these opportunities and challenges. In 2022, SEPA fielded its revised Utility Transformation Survey to collect extensive information from electric utilities of all types, sizes and geographic areas, about how they are rising to this challenge, as well as the innovations they are employing. 

Insights derived from the survey results …

Coal-Exit Alliance Must Confront Free Riding Sectors to Propel Paris-Aligned Momentum

The global phase-out of coal by mid-century is considered vital to the Paris Agreement to limit warming well-below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Since the inception of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) at COP23, political ambitions to accelerate the decline of coal have mounted to become the foremost priority at COP26. However, mitigation research lacks the tools to assess whether this bottom-up momentum can self-propagate toward Paris alignment. Here, we introduce dynamic policy evaluation (DPE), an evidence-based approach for emulating real-world policy-making. Given empirical relationships established between energy-economic developments and policy adoption, we endogenize national political decision-making into the …