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PowerClerk®: The proven solution for more than one million DER applications
The past two years have seen key milestones for distributed energy resource (DER) adoption in the U.S., including: Passing one million total residential solar installations in 2017. All solar generation (including residential, commercial and utility scale) in 2018...
Make the most of your DER interconnection data: virtual metering
In a previous blog post, we detailed the responsibility of distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection managers to capture DER system specifications for their system planners and distribution engineers. Since then, even more U.S. utilities have turned to...
Curtailment of low-cost renewables a cost-effective alternative to ‘seasonal’ energy storage
Last month, Utility Dive highlighted one of the major findings from our recent Minnesota Solar Pathways work: Minnesota study finds it cheaper to curtail solar than to add storage. In this article, we explain how some curtailment of low-cost renewables such as solar...
Demystifying battery storage for residential energy customers: solar self-consumption (Part 2)
Grid-connected battery storage is an exciting, new and rather mysterious technology. This blog is the second in a series that will help equip utilities to demystify battery storage for their residential customers. The first blog post discussed ways residential...
Video: Residential electrification with a Solar+ home (real-life example)
What can a typical residential customer that doesn’t live in a new home do to address greenhouse gas emissions? Electrification of energy consuming activities such as transportation, space and water heating, lighting and refrigeration is an affordable option—even for...
Demystifying battery storage for residential energy customers: an overview (Part 1)
Grid-connected battery storage is an exciting, new and rather mysterious technology. The press is particularly interested in the solar + storage technology bundle. Headlines declare how inexpensive it is to bundle PV with batteries. Some articles even suggest that an...
Change is a constant: why agile software development fits today’s utility
As a developer of software for utility companies, we're frequently asked for information about integrating PowerClerk®, WattPlan® and SolarAnywhere® into utility processes. Often these requests include long lists of questions about product features and pricing, as...
A better way for utilities to forecast DER adoption
Since the Great Recession, utility planners have consistently over forecasted peak and total load. Econometric models used in the past are failing: energy efficiency continues to decouple load growth from Gross Domestic Product and customer energy habits are changing....
New SolarAnywhere PXX Data Streamline Probability of Exceedance Energy Calculations
Until now, SolarAnywhere® has offered two types of data: time-series and typical year (TGY). Today we’ve added a third option, probability of exceedance, or PXX for short. The “XX” refers to the probability that the level of irradiance will be exceeded in a given...
Reflections on SPI 2014: How today’s U.S. solar industry is the same, different and revolutionary
Clean Power Research had a first-floor booth at Solar Power International (SPI) this year, and it drew great traffic. It didn’t hurt that we had a cool meteorological station in our booth from GroundWork Renewables that also drew a lot of attention, since Clean Power...
Five things you need to know about PowerClerk Interconnect
We’re very excited to be releasing the latest product in our PowerClerk® family of products—PowerClerk® Interconnect—this week. Developed and launched with the help of a Department of Energy Sunshot Incubator award, PowerClerk Interconnect is already helping NV Energy...
Three reasons it’s time for utilities to think seriously about distributed solar interconnection
When home and business owners decide to go solar, they embark on an adventure that will require navigation of a multi-step process that includes soliciting and evaluating proposals, determining financing, and applying for permits, incentives and interconnection....
New York State solar incentive programs consolidated into NY-Sun
This month, under direction from the New York State Governor’s office, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and PSEG Long Island (now operating Long Island Power Authority’s electric system) merged their solar incentive programs under...
PowerClerk auto-document generation and electronic signature features streamline incentive and interconnection processing
Taking paper intensive processes online can dramatically simplify what formerly would have been manual, time-consuming administrative tasks. For the solar industry, this can help reduce soft costs, which today account for more than 60 percent of the cost of installing...
Infographic: Keeping Track of Solar
2013 saw record-breaking solar growth in the U.S.—an increase of 41% over 2012—and 2014 is expected to see even larger gains. With more than 440,000 solar electric systems operating across the U.S. today, keeping track of these distributed resources is more important...
CSI program wind-down doesn’t mean the end of solar in California
As the California Solar Initiative General Market program—the largest PV incentive program in the U.S.—winds down, an interesting solar landscape is emerging in California. A number of incentive programs large and small continue to support solar adoption in the state,...
Three ways automation can smash solar interconnection costs
It’s no secret that although solar hardware costs have been steadily decreasing, solar soft costs— including permitting, interconnection, customer acquisition and installation labor—have remained steady. In fact, according to studies by the National Renewable Energy...
California Solar Initiative at 85% of MW goal (and how we helped them get there)
It’s a remarkable achievement that in just seven years, the California Solar Initiative (CSI) has reported an estimated 1,629 megawatts (MW) of solar PV has been committed. That is a whopping 85% of its goal to install 1,940 MW of solar by the end of 2016 in...
Three ways utilities can prepare for high solar growth in the wake of the ITC extension
While extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is expected to relieve some of the pressure for new solar photovoltaic (PV) interconnections in 2016, the long-term outlook is for overall stronger growth for all types of projects, including residential PV. As a...
Are utilities the key to kick-starting electric vehicle sales in 2016?
After three years of strong growth, plug-in electric vehicle (PEV or ‘EV’) growth fell in 2015. Lower gas prices and consumers waiting for the new 2016 Nissan Leaf (and its longer range) were part of the reason for the decrease in sales, but likely these factors don’t...
2016: The year of enhanced energy price competition
You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about the price of oil. While in past years that often meant oil prices were skyrocketing, today, oil is threatening to hit 20-year lows (in inflation adjusted dollars). Right now, oil demand is so low, and supply is so...
With electric vehicles and solar, the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’
Is it possible to save more money by combining an electric vehicle (EV) with a home solar PV system rather than considering each individually? Often the answer is yes, and the additional savings can be substantial. To help energy consumers answer that question,...
Infographic: 5 Characteristics of Great Utility Customer Engagement
Industry research indicates that utilities that successfully educate their customers about their energy options will be positioned to survive and thrive, even as the industry evolves. Here’s how utilities can get the most from their customer engagement. Want to learn...
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...
Hot topics at Intersolar NA 2015: ITC, solar + storage and snow!
San Francisco once again played host to the Intersolar North America conference in July. For industry veterans, this year’s event was familiar: crowded registration lines, bumping into old friends and a busy exhibition floor. On the other hand, this year’s hot...
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....
Five to thrive: Key characteristics of great utility customer engagement
"The utilities that succeed in educating their residential customers may be [the best positioned not only] to survive, but [also to] thrive in the new customer-centric electricity landscape that is now taking shape." – 2015 Utility Residential Customer Education...
Quantifying day-ahead solar energy forecast uncertainty
Solar resource variability is an unavoidable natural characteristic that impacts solar power forecasting. However, its impact on forecast uncertainty can be reduced by providing information on predictive uncertainty, along with deterministic forecast values. Having...
Version control: Your bankable signpost in a digital world
If you own an iPhone, you’ve seen the familiar message “iOS 9.3.3 is available for your iPhone and is ready to install.” If you’re like me, you hit “Remind me later” a few dozen times before you actually install the update. Call me paranoid, but I always have to take...
Producing perfect PV fleet forecasts – at what cost?
In our last blog, we talked about the performance of SolarAnywhere® v4 PV fleet forecasts, and discussed how accuracy was a function of the PV fleet’s geographic footprint. For instance, SolarAnywhere hour-ahead forecasts in the Western U.S. were shown to have a...
Can ISOs rely on PV fleet forecasts?
PV fleet forecasts Solar forecasts are traditionally concerned with predicting the output of solar PV systems at particular locations. Consequently, much of what is known about solar forecast accuracy is centered on point validations. Fleet forecasts consider the...
How to validate PV fleet forecast accuracy when you cannot directly measure it
The capacity of behind-the-meter PV systems is growing steadily. Figure 1 illustrates that there is over 5 GW of PV in California alone. The number is continuing to increase. The result is that behind-the-meter PV fleet forecasts are becoming increasingly important...
Infographic: Five factors defining bankable solar irradiance data
Bankable solar irradiance data is crucial to minimizing cost of capital for solar projects. Check out this infographic to find out what you need to know when selecting resource data. Want to see the infographic in full size? Download it now: Download...
Quantifying the “variability” in variable solar energy forecasts
Utilities and grid operators need to procure and provide generation sources for anticipated load demands. As both grid connected and behind-the-meter photovoltaic (PV) systems continue to grow in number, total system load, including the load being served by solar, is...
The proof is in: Integrating PV into the grid is better with behind-the-meter solar forecasts
In recent years, Clean Power Research created a solar forecast method to accurately predict power production of “invisible,” behind-the-meter PV systems—typically those found on homes and commercial buildings. In our approach, forecasts are generated by simulating the...
Solar Power International 2015: Solar in Disneyland
Disneyland provided the backdrop for the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Anaheim this year. As the biggest solar-focused conference in the U.S., exhibiting at SPI provides a great opportunity to find out firsthand what is on the mind of the industry—that...
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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...
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...
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...
SolarAnywhere detects calibration error in nation’s most trusted ground site
How accurate are SolarAnywhere® irradiance data? They are accurate enough to identify an undetected calibration error at one of the nation’s most trusted ground truth stations. Figure 1 presents Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI)...
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?...
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...
100K applications in PowerClerk Interconnect & 500K in all PowerClerk products
The proliferation of distributed energy resource (DER) adoption, particularly solar, across the U.S. in recent years has led to a common pattern of records being set for utilities, installers and more. Along those lines, last week marked an important achievement for...
Version control: Your bankable signpost in a digital world
If you own an iPhone, you’ve seen the familiar message “iOS 9.3.3 is available for your iPhone and is ready to install.” If you’re like me, you hit “Remind me later” a few dozen times before you actually install the update. Call me paranoid, but I always have to take...