While Governor Sisolak and the State Legislature were hard at work passing policy after policy to make Nevada one of the best places in the country to invest in advanced energy, the latest employment figures showed what a strong industry base Nevada has to build on: 33,900 advanced energy jobs in 2018, with employers predicting further growth of 7% for the year now coming to a close. What’s more, advanced energy jobs increased a whopping 31% in Nevada from 2017 to 2018, 10 times the rate of overall job growth in the state and far faster than any other state where AEE has reported employment. That should win the Silver State a Gold Medal!

In August, we published a list of the top 10 utility regulation trends of 2019 — so far. With 2019 wrapping up, we check in again. Ten trends and actions stand out above the rest, from states implementing 100% clean energy targets, to distributed energy resource integration efforts, to beneficial electrification investments. Here is the full round-up of the top matters before PUCs in 2019.

Note: some links in this post reference PUC filings and other documents in AEE's software platform, PowerSuite. Click here and sign up for a free trial.

Top executives and policy makers recently gathered for a forum on a set of advanced energy technologies not always at the center of attention. At the AEE Executive Forum, entitled Microgrids, Energy Storage, and Renewable Natural Gas: Capturing Value for Consumers, the focus of the conversation was on the opportunities presented by the adoption of these technologies and the challenges of bringing them to scale. “For this forum, AEE brought together senior leadership from member companies, entrepreneurs and investors, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and investor-owned utilities to address fundamental policies to strengthen our industry’s ability to transform the market and deliver resilient and reliable renewable energy,” said AEE CEO Nat Kreamer. Over dinner and a daylong dialogue, participants in this exclusive event also had the opportunity to network and build relationships among providers, utilities, regulators, and institutional customers.

There are a couple of major issues currently before FERC and Congress that will impact advanced energy resources in wholesale markets. One of them is a decision expected from FERC soon after it regains a quorum of voting members that threatens to force operators of renewable energy facilities to artificially jack up their prices in a way that leaves them uncompetitive. The other, on which FERC has launched a proceeding but is also within congressional purview, involves building the transmission that is needed to get low-cost renewable energy to consumers. Here, and in two new wholesale market briefs, we explore the implications of these two issues for advanced energy resources, especially large-scale renewable energy development.

AEE's Jeff Dennis testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy

Since Democrats won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, the topic of deep decarbonization in the power sector has attracted more attention in our nation’s capital. While this topic has received the most attention through Members of Congress, most notably Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling for a Green New Deal, many other policymakers across the political spectrum have put forward ideas on moving towards a decarbonized power sector. Most recently, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce set a goal in July 2019 to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and have begun a series of hearings to gather feedback from stakeholders. In October, at a hearing entitled “Building a 100 Percent Clean Economy: Solutions for the U.S. Power Sector,” AEE was invited to testify on the role the advanced energy industry has played to date.