Demand Management, Energy Storage, Microgrids, Regulation, Finance, Regulation, Sourcing Renewables  -  June 17, 2017

Weekend reads: IOUs caution DOE on grid study; 'self-healing' batteries; Brooklyn's microgrid craze & more

Every Saturday, we'll bring you five of the most interesting — or quirky; it is the weekend after all — energy stories from around the web that you may have missed this week. This weekend's reads:

Utility CEOs to DOE: Hands off state energy policies, grid planning (Utility Dive): The leaders of some of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities have a message for President Trump and his Department of Energy: Stay out of our grid planning. Utility executives convened this week in Boston for the annual conference of the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for U.S. IOUs. During panel appearances and interviews, they expressed hope that the DOE's pending review of baseload generation would reaffirm that changes to the U.S. power mix do not threaten reliability.

The Energy 202: EPA's budget finds unexpected defenders in Congress (The Washington Post): The Environmental Protection Agency's budget found defenders in Congress. And they aren't from the party you might expect. For months, ever since The Washington Post reported on leaked documents that showed the White House wanted to cut the EPA’s budget by almost a third, congressional Democrats have sharply criticized the proposal they say would gut environmental programs nationwide.

Brooklyn's Latest Craze: Making Your Own Electric Grid (Politico Magazine): When Michael Guerra, a blunt-talking Brooklyn real estate broker, installed 24 solar panels on his Park Slope rooftop in 2012 during a home renovation, all he knew was that he liked the idea of being able to supply his own green electricity—and to run his air conditioning in the summer without paying exorbitant charges. So he got as many panels as his utility and the state would allow. "I'm the guy who wanted solar panels on his roof since Jimmy Carter was president," says the 54-year-old.

Illinois researchers explore 'self-healing' for energy storage batteries (Midwest Energy News): Batteries — whether they're powering a smartphone or storing energy on the grid — take a beating. Repeated charging and discharging causes all kinds of wear and tear on the devices we increasingly rely on to keep our gadgets, cars and renewable energy sources running. But what if batteries could repair themselves automatically and fix on-the-fly the cracks that lead to dead laptop batteries, the limited range of electric cars and other modern woes?

Renewables Provided a Record 10% of U.S. Power in March (Bloomberg): Wind and solar energy accounted for more than 10 percent of U.S. power generation for the first time in March following a record year for clean energy development. Wind farms in Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere accounted for 8 percent of electric generation, while residential and commercial solar installations provided about 2 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a statement Wednesday.

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