No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Record climate disasters, moderate solar deviations through Q3 2020
We’re introducing a major upgrade to our SolarAnywhere® solar deviation maps! The new maps expand coverage to three continents and increase resolution to ~50 km. The maps give asset managers and owners high-level insights into the weather trends affecting the...
What’s the value of your solar data? (And why the median approach to solar resource data selection falls short)
Are the solar industry’s pre-construction production estimates too optimistic? Yes, according to several contributions to the “Solar Risk Assessment: 2020” paper published by kWh Analytics. kWh found evidence of “an industry wide bias towards aggressive predictions,”...
Solar resource trends: Changing cloud-cover and AOD, and implications for PV yield
In recent years, we reported on lower-than-expected solar energy production in the Eastern U.S., corroborating PV plant owner observations using SolarAnywhere® insolation data. This prompted us to ask the questions: How does this recent weather activity compare to...
Deployment of utility COVID-19 relief program using PowerClerk®
A Case Study from CLEAResult & Liberty Utilities While coverage of COVID-19 continues to dominate the daily news cycle, new information on the economic challenges facing utilities and their customers continues to emerge. In times like these, many companies are...
New Solar Risk Assessment report provides data-based insights for the solar industry
The latest kWh Analytics “Solar Risk Assessment” report provides solar investors with the latest insights on the evolution of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation risk—and the importance of allowing data-based insights to inform the deployment of capital. This report...
Tucson Electric Power builds a better customer experience with WattPlan® Advisor
With the rapid expansion of distributed energy resources (DERs), utilities are offering new types of electric rate plans to their customers. These traditional and renewable rate plans give customers new options, but knowing which rate to choose can be confusing. When...
Working from home? PowerClerk delivers for utilities and their customers
This post explains how to extract maximum value from PowerClerk® in “work from home” situations and outlines a new offer for utilities and energy agencies to use PowerClerk at no cost on COVID-19-related programs. Working from home with no compromises With the broad...
Less coal, sunnier skies increasing solar project value
In many regions around the world, the skies are getting cleaner thanks to controls on air pollution designed to benefit public health. The Eastern U.S. and Europe have seen dramatic improvements in air quality since the 1980s. Coal plant retirements and stricter...
Clean Power Research and EPRI win NYSERDA clean-energy challenge
We’re pleased to announce that Clean Power Research and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have been selected as winners of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA’s) “Future Grid Challenge.” The project will demonstrate...
Attention DER/PV interconnection teams: Your system planners are relying on you!
Recently I spoke with two very large investor owned utilities (IOUs) that are trying to backfill information for thousands and tens-of-thousands of PV systems located in their service territories. In other words, these system planners do not have equipment...
How Duke Energy sped up payment processing by 90% with ePayments
In late 2016, Clean Power Research announced a new integration between PowerClerk® and Stripe for ePayment processing. Stripe allows applicants to pay fees such as application fees via an online system integrated with PowerClerk’s workflow, rather than physically...
Three reasons not to build your own software
We often talk with utility customers who are considering the classic build versus buy decision for software. Should they use their own utility IT staff, or a subcontractor, to build and maintain custom software? Or should they partner with a vendor with a...
How Orange and Rockland Utilities reduced interconnection application errors by 95%
PowerClerk: The DER interconnection control center In September 2016, we released an important new integration capability that enables utilities to use PowerClerk® to create their own distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection control center. By using web...
PowerClerk: Your 24/7 assistant, not just a front end tool
PowerClerk® as a system In the world of software, the term “front end” refers to elements that users interact with, the user interface (UI). A front end, in turn, may enable access to “back end” databases, other software, etc. Over the years, we’ve often heard...
Destination: Integrated DER interconnection
For utilities, getting to an integrated DER interconnection workflow may seem complicated. Our latest whitepaper - Resolving the Conflict Between Distribution Planning and Interconnection Processes – provides a road map for the journey. In fact, thinking about that...
Are utilities prepared to handle DER administration through their 20-year lifecycle?
Today, utilities are facing pressure from customers and regulatory agencies to approve DER (distributed energy resource) applications for interconnection quickly. However, utilities will need to track and manage interconnected DERs through their lifecycle, which can...
DERs take center stage at DistribuTECH
At the recent DistribuTECH Conference in San Diego, more than 13,000 attendees spent three engaging days discussing the biggest issues facing utilities today. One of the hottest topics, judging by session attendance and exhibit floor conversations, was Distributed...
Utilities speed up interconnection with ePayments
There is a growing expectation among utility customers that interactions with their energy providers will take place digitally, online. This “digital transformation” is unlocking opportunities for utilities to streamline business processes and increase customer...
Why EV strategy is important for utilities: SMUD’s story
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is increasing, and utilities are taking notice. In a May 25, 2017 webinar, “Shifting Utility EV Strategy into Drive: Best Practices and Lessons Learned1,” Thor Hinkley, EV senior program consultant at CLEAResult, pointed out that nearly...
MN Solar Pathways: Illuminating pathways to 10% solar
On March 30, 2017, the Minnesota Department of Commerce along with its core team, kicked off its Department of Energy-funded MN Solar Pathways project aimed at finding the least-risk, best-value solutions for MN to achieve its solar energy goals. Clean Power Research...
Can a simple model predict future PV adoption? (Yes—if done right)
Utilities across the U.S. are eager to know how much PV their customers will adopt, as this adoption can impact both revenues (from reduction in energy purchases) and costs (linked to distribution operation and intermittency mitigation). Having seen the explosive...
Can Hawaiian Electric convince customers to invest in solar and battery storage without pushing them off the grid?
As of September 2016, all three Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO, MECO and HELCO) had reached the Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) Customer Grid-Supply program limit. Now, Hawaiians interested in installing rooftop solar will want to consider installing battery...
2017: The year of the long range EV
In 2016, electric vehicle (EV) sales grew 37% and utilities initiated strategies for dealing with that growth. Six utilities and state energy agencies now use WattPlan® to provide customers with personalized and objective guidance to their EV related questions....
NARUC aims to level the playing field for cloud software
In November 2016, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) approved a resolution encouraging State regulators to level the playing field for cloud software and on-premise software. Why is this resolution critically important for utilities?...
Tesla-SolarCity merger: a utility’s worst nightmare or sweetest dream?
On November 17, 2016, shareholders will vote on whether to approve the merger of Tesla and SolarCity. If approved, this merger would bundle together a triangle of disruptive distributed energy resources (DERs): rooftop solar, electric vehicles and battery storage. The...
Electric vehicles provide large GHG reductions in Minnesota
This week’s blog post is a contribution from our guest author Dane McFarlane, of Great Plains Institute (GPI) and was originally published on GPI's Better Energy, Better World. To learn more about how Clean Power Research is helping customers understand the value of...
Net metering changes: An opportunity to improve customer satisfaction
Electric utilities are introducing new rate designs for mass-market (residential and small commercial) customers to better align with costs to serve and to encourage energy use habits that benefit the grid. However, with innovative rate designs utilities can achieve...
Solar resource trends: Changing cloud-cover and AOD, and implications for PV yield
In recent years, we reported on lower-than-expected solar energy production in the Eastern U.S., corroborating PV plant owner observations using SolarAnywhere® insolation data. This prompted us to ask the questions: How does this recent weather activity compare to...
New Solar Risk Assessment report provides data-based insights for the solar industry
The latest kWh Analytics “Solar Risk Assessment” report provides solar investors with the latest insights on the evolution of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation risk—and the importance of allowing data-based insights to inform the deployment of capital. This report...
Less coal, sunnier skies increasing solar project value
In many regions around the world, the skies are getting cleaner thanks to controls on air pollution designed to benefit public health. The Eastern U.S. and Europe have seen dramatic improvements in air quality since the 1980s. Coal plant retirements and stricter...
Clean Power Research and EPRI win NYSERDA clean-energy challenge
We’re pleased to announce that Clean Power Research and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have been selected as winners of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA’s) “Future Grid Challenge.” The project will demonstrate...
Leveraging GOES-17 for more accurate solar data
In February 2018, we blogged about the future of solar forecasting with the new NOAA/NASA GOES-16 satellite. The launch of the GOES-17 satellite held similar promise, but bringing it online ended up being problematic for NOAA/NASA—and provided a few wrinkles for those...
SolarAnywhere® 2019 weather report: Midwest solar energy resource downturn continues for second year
In July 2019 we posted an article about unprecedented weather affecting the solar energy resource across much of the U.S. during 2018 and the first half of 2019. In that article, we anticipated a rebound during the second half of 2019. So now that 2019 is over, where...
A long history of data is key to solar project bankability
While the average power purchase agreement (PPA) price falls to keep solar competitive, the amount of global solar capacity developed in the past two-years has increased at a rate of roughly 30% year-over-year. This means that project developers are being forced to...
SolarAnywhere now-casts to support EDD-led U.S. DOE project to improve grid resiliency with interconnected DERs
Clean Power Research was selected to participate in a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development (R&D) project focused on increasing behind-the-meter solar situational awareness and grid resiliency. SolarAnywhere® historical, now-cast and forecast...
Demand for firm power driving innovation in solar forecasting
Since 2014, compelling economics have made renewable energy the preferred source of new power generation capacity in the United States. Energy cost parity with traditional sources has been well-established by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and other...
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Tapping the win-win-win of rate reform
Utilities nationwide are adding variety to residential electric rate plans and reconsidering how to value rooftop solar. Rate changes being considered include demand charges and net metering “2.0” policies that provide customers less than full retail credit. These...
NV Energy cuts interconnection costs by 63% while application volumes swell
NV Energy’s incentive and interconnection application volumes have grown tremendously in the past 12 months—by 15 times. As many program administrators know, this type of rapid growth can overwhelm the administrative staff, leading to processing delays and unhappy...
Valuation of solar plus storage in Hawaii
Clean Power Research recently took on the challenge of developing a new methodology for performing a hybrid solar plus storage (solar + storage) valuation study for systems in Hawaii. The methodology was commissioned by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc....
Is it rational for the value of solar to exceed existing average retail electricity rates?
The utility and solar industries are in a heated debate about how to compensate customers who have distributed photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on their homes. Net energy metering (NEM) is currently the predominant approach used in the U.S. However, to understand any...
Minnesota first to develop Value of Solar tariff methodology for use statewide
The Minnesota Department of Commerce Division of Energy Resources (Commerce) has kicked off a stakeholder engagement process that will lead to the development of the methodology of an optional Value of Solar™ tariff for the Minnesota Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs)....
LADWP doubles solar generation capacity with streamlined incentive processing
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) – the nation’s largest municipal utility – processed 400% more solar incentives in the 2011-2012 fiscal year after implementing a new, more efficient program management solution from Black & Veatch and Clean...
NREL turns to SolarAnywhere for NSRDB
Yesterday, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the newest release of the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). The database is widely used by solar system designers, building architects and engineers, renewable energy analysts and others to...
Accolades for Austin Energy’s Value of Solar tariff continue
Austin Energy’s innovative approach to compensating distributed solar owners is continuing to receive accolades across the country. In September, Austin Energy received an Innovation Award from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Earlier in the year Austin...
Austin Energy’s Value of Solar Tariff, a new approach for valuing Distributed Generation (DG)
Austin has long had a reputation as a hip college town with an innovative music scene, but did you now it's a pioneer in the design of electric tariffs for distributed generation (DG)? Yes, it's true. Austin Energy has composed a new tune...and it sounds like an...
Solar resource trends: Changing cloud-cover and AOD, and implications for PV yield
In recent years, we reported on lower-than-expected solar energy production in the Eastern U.S., corroborating PV plant owner observations using SolarAnywhere® insolation data. This prompted us to ask the questions: How does this recent weather activity compare to...
New Solar Risk Assessment report provides data-based insights for the solar industry
The latest kWh Analytics “Solar Risk Assessment” report provides solar investors with the latest insights on the evolution of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation risk—and the importance of allowing data-based insights to inform the deployment of capital. This report...
Working from home? PowerClerk delivers for utilities and their customers
This post explains how to extract maximum value from PowerClerk® in “work from home” situations and outlines a new offer for utilities and energy agencies to use PowerClerk at no cost on COVID-19-related programs. Working from home with no compromises With the broad...
Less coal, sunnier skies increasing solar project value
In many regions around the world, the skies are getting cleaner thanks to controls on air pollution designed to benefit public health. The Eastern U.S. and Europe have seen dramatic improvements in air quality since the 1980s. Coal plant retirements and stricter...
Clean Power Research and EPRI win NYSERDA clean-energy challenge
We’re pleased to announce that Clean Power Research and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have been selected as winners of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA’s) “Future Grid Challenge.” The project will demonstrate...
Leveraging GOES-17 for more accurate solar data
In February 2018, we blogged about the future of solar forecasting with the new NOAA/NASA GOES-16 satellite. The launch of the GOES-17 satellite held similar promise, but bringing it online ended up being problematic for NOAA/NASA—and provided a few wrinkles for those...
SolarAnywhere® 2019 weather report: Midwest solar energy resource downturn continues for second year
In July 2019 we posted an article about unprecedented weather affecting the solar energy resource across much of the U.S. during 2018 and the first half of 2019. In that article, we anticipated a rebound during the second half of 2019. So now that 2019 is over, where...
SolarAnywhere now-casts to support EDD-led U.S. DOE project to improve grid resiliency with interconnected DERs
Clean Power Research was selected to participate in a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development (R&D) project focused on increasing behind-the-meter solar situational awareness and grid resiliency. SolarAnywhere® historical, now-cast and forecast...
Empowering customers with backup power protection during outages
Reliability is a core mission of electric utilities. Utilities are typically so effective at providing reliable service that customers are accustomed to having power available whenever they want it. As might be expected, when power is unavailable, customers become...