By Ahmad Faruqui and Mariko Geronimo Aydin,
American Public Power Association Blog
This is part of a series of monthly posts reflecting different thought leader perspectives on utility rate design. All five opinion pieces appear in full in Leadership in Rate Design: A Compendium of Essays, which was designed to help public power utilities to rethink rate design strategies in the face of evolving technologies and customer preferences. The essays were developed as part of the Association’s Moving Public Power Forward initiative.
The number of states, cities and counties committed to 100% clean energy is growing dramatically. The 100% clean electricity supply that seemed impossible 10 years ago has now become a tangible and feasible future. With higher renewables penetration, planning for greener electricity becomes less about building individual resources and more about building a resource portfolio and system that — as a whole — is tuned to take advantage of clean power when it is available. One key challenge is what to do about the hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute mismatch between renewables output and electricity consumption. Continue reading here.
Ahmad Faruqui is an internationally recognized energy economist. He has analyzed the efficacy of a variety of tariff structures and carried out a meta-analysis of experimental results. His areas of expertise include demand response, energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, advanced metering infrastructure, plug-in electric vehicles, energy storage, inter-fuel substitution, combined heat and power, microgrids, and demand forecasting. He has worked for nearly 150 clients on five continents and testified before commissions in several states and provinces.
Mariko Geronimo Aydin is an economist with almost fifteen years of experience in analyzing the policies and economics of electricity system planning, regulation and de-regulation of electricity supply, and wholesale electricity markets across the U.S. Mariko specializes in helping clients meet their potential in a changing industry, by evolving utility business models and by developing customer choice, resource planning, and wholesale market refinements that can make the best use of clean, distributed, and customer-driven power supply resources in synergy with more traditional resources.
Photo Credit: American Public Power Association
It’s clear that 100 percent renewable energy is imperative to fight climate change. And it’s already starting. Chris Clark, president at Xcel Energy; Bill Weihl, former sustainability and energy efficiency manager at Facebook; and Neha Palmer, head of energy strategy at Google talked about how to push and pull all companies, utilities and the public toward accessible 100 percent renewable energy. 
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Photo by Rob Davis
