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Selections From our Library
Browse a few of our latest or featured documents below. If you don’t see what you need or are looking for something specific you can search the RAP Library.
Featured Documents
Can Competition Accelerate Energy Savings? Options and Challenges for Efficiency Feed-In Tariffs
Document Summary
Can Competition Accelerate Energy Savings? Options and Challenges for Efficiency Feed-In Tariffs
This paper appeared in Volume 24 of the Energy and Environment Journal. The authors identify key policy issues and options for an energy efficiency fed-in-tariff (EE FiT) design. While an EE FiT will not always be the best approach, its potential benefits merit serious consideration where alternative programmatic routes to efficiency are not well-established. In particular, EE FiTs offer the potential to create new markets and enable new market entrants to uncover and deliver energy efficiency resources. This market-based approach may also have advantages in jurisdictions facing political objections to other methods of funding efficiency initiatives. However, as the European experience with FiTs for renewable power reveals, any jurisdiction considering adoption of an EE FiT will need to consider a range of questions, both fundamental and practical. No jurisdiction to date has created an explicit EE FiT, so this paper draws on experience in Europe with white certificate programmes, and in the US with utility efficiency mandates and regional capacity markets, in particular the “standard offer” programmes that have been offered by obligated entities over the past two decades. The standard offer programmes differ from a pure efficiency FiT, as they have been offered as part of a portfolio of measures designed jointly to meet an energy savings obligation, not as the fundamental policy construct for achieving savings. Nevertheless, they offer valuable insights into the policy and implementation choices that would need to be made to enable an EE FiT to effectively deliver on its promise.
- Type:
- Publication
- Authors:
- Chris Neme
- Richard Cowart
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 160 kB
Use of Data Platforms to Identify and Verify Energy Savings in China
Document Summary
Use of Data Platforms to Identify and Verify Energy Savings in China
In response to Chinese government initiatives promoting demand-side management and energy efficiency, grid companies, government agencies, and private sector companies have established data platforms to identify and verify energy savings. The energy use data collected by these data platforms will eventually form a valuable national resource that will provide a unique insight into how energy is used in China. This information will enable the development of government policies to significantly reduce both the energy intensity and the pollution emissions intensity of the Chinese economy. This paper makes recommendations to ensure that the various energy use data platforms are set up in ways that maximize their effectiveness.
- Type:
- Publication
- Authors:
- David Crossley
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 1 MB
Looking Beyond Transmission: FERC Order 1000 and the Case for Alternative Solutions
Document Summary
Looking Beyond Transmission: FERC Order 1000 and the Case for Alternative Solutions
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Order 1000 makes great strides towards ensuring just and reasonable transmission rates and a level competitive playing field. It does this, in part, by requiring the consideration of non-transmission alternatives (NTAs) during regional transmission planning. Unfortunately, however, the order fails to address certain significant barriers to the implementation of NTAs, making it unlikely that regional plans will ever approve their implementation—or that genuinely competitive solutions will prevail anytime soon. While FERC might provide guidance on these issues in the future, states have the opportunity to remove competitive barriers to NTAs now. By doing so, they can help ensure that the transmission system built under Order 1000 provides the greatest benefits to ratepayers at the lowest possible cost.
- Type:
- Publication
- Authors:
- Elizabeth Watson
- Ken Colburn
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 706 kB
Latest Documents
Global Best Practices in Residential Electric Rate Design
Document Summary
Global Best Practices in Residential Electric Rate Design
Jim Lazar, RAP senior advisor, shared best practices in residential rate design with members of the California Municipal Rates Group. He emphasized the need to align rates with long-run marginal costs, so consumers make good long-run choices. The inclining block rate, with a zero or minimal customer charge, is extremely common around the world, and provides an incentive to customers to invest in efficiency resources. Mr. Lazar also demonstrates several examples of time of use and critical peak pricing rates that can be implemented with advanced metering infrastructure.
- Type:
- Presentation
- Authors:
- Jim Lazar
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 1 MB
A Preview of America's Power Plan: Aligning America's Power Markets
Document Summary
A Preview of America's Power Plan: Aligning America's Power Markets
Mike Hogan, RAP senior advisor discussed the need for matching the structure and operation of wholesale power markets to the needs of the 21st century at the American Wind Energy Association’s 2013 Windpower conference. He participated in a panel discussion designed to “preview America’s power plan” and the opportunities to move towards a more sustainable power sector, particularly one that has a high share of renewable energy. Mr. Hogan emphasized the need for power markets to value energy efficiency and demand response resources capable of providing the flexibility needed to balance variable renewable resources.
- Type:
- Presentation
- Authors:
- Mike Hogan
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 1 MB
Use of Data Platforms to Identify and Verify Energy Savings in China
Document Summary
Use of Data Platforms to Identify and Verify Energy Savings in China
In response to Chinese government initiatives promoting demand-side management and energy efficiency, grid companies, government agencies, and private sector companies have established data platforms to identify and verify energy savings. The energy use data collected by these data platforms will eventually form a valuable national resource that will provide a unique insight into how energy is used in China. This information will enable the development of government policies to significantly reduce both the energy intensity and the pollution emissions intensity of the Chinese economy. This paper makes recommendations to ensure that the various energy use data platforms are set up in ways that maximize their effectiveness.
- Type:
- Publication
- Authors:
- David Crossley
- Date:
- Filetype:
- Size:
- 1 MB
