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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...
Solar+ home proven: a milestone reached
This article is a follow-on to Clean Power Research’s 11-part series on Solar+ homes series. Solar+ homes describes how homeowners can combine simple energy efficiency measures, solar PV, electric vehicles (EVs) and appliance electrification to create households that...
Accurate DER data is key for utility planning: PowerClerk makes it possible
A key to managing utility distributed energy resource (DER) programs is capturing the right information—not only to complete interconnection requests, but also to support a host of emerging utility planning and business intelligence needs. As discussed in a previous...
Higher-resolution data and broader geographic access with new SolarAnywhere Data license options
Thanks to our subscribers, partners and hard-working development team, SolarAnywhere® has become the most trusted and vetted solar resource dataset available. In 2017 alone, the SolarAnywhere team: Topped an EPRI study for forecasting Spotted a calibration issue at...
Defining DERs: Does it matter that we all seem to have slightly different definitions?
Over the last few years, the term DER has become more and more commonplace in the energy space. Most of us know that this three letter acronym (TLA, get it?) stands for Distributed Energy Resources, but what Distributed Energy Resources are might be a bit fuzzier....
Hot Topics at DistribuTECH 2018: The rise of DERMS, integrated interconnection and DER adoption planning
Every year we’re inspired at DistribuTECH, where in 2018 more than 11,000 participants from over 70 countries gathered in San Antonio to discuss the latest topics on grid modernization. For Clean Power Research and our customers, there was ample evidence that many of...
The future of solar forecasting with the new GOES-16 satellite
The SolarAnywhere® team transforms satellite images into industry-leading solar irradiance data. We make algorithms, not satellites, so when NOAA/NASA upgrades the hardware, we take notice of the possibilities—and get to work. On January 2, 2018 we made a seamless...
Georgia blazing new trails with its value-based FiT
California and New Jersey are known for solar policy innovation, while the states of the Southeast have tended to stay on the sidelines despite having abundant sunshine. Until now, that is. Georgia is quickly emerging as a solar power innovator. Over the past 12...
Four ways that auto-communications save incentive administrators time and money
Imagine how much time it would take to send 1,000 personalized emails or letters, each one referencing multiple parties, unique technical information such as PV system equipment and capacity, and important economic information such as incentive amount. Performed...
USC 2013 insights: illuminating key utility solar issues
The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) Utility Solar Conference (USC) was held last month in Portland, Ore. This was convenient for our Kirkland, Wash., software team, so we sent four people down to join Tom Hoff from our Napa, Calif., office at the event. It was...
Solar incentives start strong in 2013
Ringing in a new year generally means a busy time for our PowerClerk® Incentives customers, as it often coincides with the opening of new incentive funding. 2013 has been no exception. In January, Imperial Irrigation District (IID) in California, and Rocky Mountain...
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...
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...
Gearing up for Solar Power International (SPI) 2012 in Orlando
SPI is next week in Orlando! Six of us will be there from our Kirkland, WA and Napa, CA offices. If you’re attending, please stop by Clean Power Research at booth #4058, right next to the “Energy Networking Station” in Hall B. Areas of emphasis for Clean...
Lessons from SEPA’s Utility Solar Conference Part 2: Stop worrying about rooftop solar (start focusing on opportunities)
For all the talk of utility death spirals, a single graph from GTM Research’s Shayle Kann, presented at the recent Solar Electric Power Association’s (SEPA) annual Utility Solar Conference (USC), should give U.S. utilities significant comfort that residential solar...
Lessons from SEPA’s Utility Solar Conference Part 1: Get electric rates right to fill the belly of the duck
The Solar Electric Power Association’s (SEPA) annual Utility Solar Conference (USC) is the premier utility solar conference in the United States, and the in-depth discussions between utility and industry leaders can be counted on to portend where solar is heading. At...
Connecting 150,000 solar customers to PG&E’s electric grid
This week, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced a major milestone: connection of 150,000 solar customers to their electric grid. This achievement is the result of PG&E’s long commitment to supporting their customers going solar, and comes with some...
Our top 3 in 2014
In 2014, we covered a wide range of topics on the Clean Power Research blog, from the differences between solar resource datasets, to deep dives into value of solar calculations. The top three posts of the year followed suit, reflecting interest in topics that address...
U.S. solar trends: 2015 edition
As everyone recovers from their New Year’s Eve festivities, shakes off the cobwebs and gets back to work, it’s time for our annual look at trends and predictions for the coming year. Who knows if we’ll be right, but it’s always fun to prognosticate. Here are the three...
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...
29 million answers to the question “What can solar do for me?”
The calculations to determine whether or not solar is a good investment are not simple—unless you’re using the Clean Power Estimator® solar calculator. Since we started counting 10 years ago, Clean Power Estimator has performed more than 29 million solar savings...
The solar value proposition part 2: Charting a new path using data and analytics
In Part 1 in our series on the solar value proposition, we looked at a new approach to valuing PV. With this new approach, there is a need to quantify deferred and avoided generation, as well as transmission and distribution capacity increases through peak-load...
The solar value proposition part 1: A fork in the road
Much like Kermit the Frog and Fozzie the Bear passing a fork in the road , the explosive growth of solar has many in and around the solar industry exclaiming in Kermit-like fashion, "I don't believe it." No longer is solar relegated to being the energy option when no...
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...
West vs. south: Why change the orientation of your solar PV system
Originally published in the March/April issue of Solar Today. Within the solar industry, it's common knowledge that the optimal orientation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the Northern Hemisphere is typically south, to maximize electricity production over the...
UVIG technical achievement award presented to Tom Hoff
Last week, the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group (UVIG) recognized Tom Hoff, Clean Power Research founder and president of Research and Consulting, with an award for his ongoing contributions to solar forecasting. The ability to forecast the output of tens...
When it comes to solar resources, 2014 was anything but average
Solar resources naturally vary from year to year, and 2014 was no exception. While the 2014 average monthly solar resource map shows expected patterns, with the greatest energy output in the southwest, the real story is revealed by the PV power variance map. The PV...
Solar forecasting goes “EPIC”
Itron and Clean Power Research are embarking on the next phase of research that will lead to high-fidelity distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) forecasts, and integration of those forecasts into net load forecasts for the California Independent System Operator (ISO)....
Understanding PV variability: Affects of the 2014 California monsoon
While we all know that the energy production of solar PV systems can vary temporally on the short term (e.g., hourly and daily basis), monthly to annual variability can significantly affect the ongoing status of a developed PV solar asset. For developers and owners of...
Using ground plus satellite solar irradiance data to reduce risk, increase project profitability
If you stopped by the Clean Power Research booth (#118) at the most recent Solar Power International (SPI) Conference in Las Vegas, you would have noticed a tall metal frame supporting some measurement equipment. While this structure could have passed for a new-age...
Solar fleet modeling part 3: Balancing the variability of PV
In our previous two posts, we described how to incorporate PV diversity (diversity in both design configuration and geography) in fleet-level modeling, and how to generate high frequency fleet power data with 60-second temporal resolution. In this post, we will show...
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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...
Paradigm shift for U.S. utilities: “Energy” efficiency, not “electric” efficiency
Stagnant load stinks If you're a regulated utility in the United States, stagnant or declining load stinks. Policies like decoupling help a little, but like any other business, no utility really wants to face the economics of declining use of their product. If one...
Should I wait for Tesla’s Model 3?
Tesla announced the release of the Model 3 on March 31, 2016, and several hundred thousand reservations have been made. This has demonstrated a strong market demand for an electric vehicle (EV) that has three attributes: It’s attractive, has a decent range, and is...
Build trust with your customers by facing electric rate changes head-on
By now it’s old news that the utility business model needs to change. According to Utility Dive’s 2016 State of the Electric Utility Survey, only 3% of utility respondents feel the utility business model does not need to evolve. Unsurprisingly, utilities are investing...
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...
Prescription for avoiding angry customers as net energy metering caps approach
As recently reported by GTM Research, the volume of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on American homes and businesses is continuing its rapid climb—with the residential solar market growing 66% in 2015 over 2014. This growth can be attributed to a variety...
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...
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...