Utilities should consider these creative tools to speed system decarbonization

If we needed another proof point of the growing role sustainable business practice is playing in guiding investment decisions, the recent公告（PDF）that an institutional investors group representing $1.8 trillion in global assets has asked the country’s 20 largest publicly traded energy generators to commit to achieving net-zero carbon emissions should serve as a mic drop.

环境，社会和治理（ESG）考虑因素是金融市场中的一个势力，新兴在金融决策中发挥关键作用，其中一些估计估计发现ESG集中投资totaling $20 trillion in assets under managementaround the globe — about one-quarter of all professionally managed investments. That’s about等于美国经济产出总额for a full year.

纽约市议会斯科特斯特林格，倡议的领先签字人，noted in a press release, "The climate crisis is an imminent threat not only to our planet, but to pensions systems, and ultimately, our beneficiaries. Delaying climate action is like denying climate change — it’s not an option for these companies or for anyone else." The coalition — which includes among others the largest U.S. pension system, California Public Employees Retirement System — is asking energy producers to make the commitment within the next six months to achieve net-zero emissions from power generation by 2050 at the latest.

通过承认提供经济实惠，可靠和安全的电力服务的历史性授权是必要的，但不再足够，越来越多的前倾斜公用事业公司发现清洁能源不仅代表长期的风险助长者，而且是一个令人信服的经济机会。并且在突出显示客户从过渡到清洁能源系统的成本节省，这些大型电力提供商明确表示，制度投资者对更多气候友好型政策的需求不涉及气候和系统成本之间的权衡。

Integrating renewables and distributed energy resources

Many utilities, for example, are rushing to integrate increasingly low-cost clean energy technologies such as renewables and distributed energy resources (DERs) into their portfolio mixes. As RMI’sThe Economics of Clean Energy Portfolios report展示，可再生能源和DER的进步提供了较低的速率和无排放能源，同时提供新的化石燃料发电厂可以的所有网格可靠性服务。看起来没有Xcel Energy跨越八种州，成为第一个将100％碳源占用2050年的大型投资者拥有的效用。Xcel之后制作的枢轴预测last year that its customers would save $200 million by the utility retiring two coal plants earlier than scheduled and replacing that generation with renewables and battery storage technology.

看起来没有Xcel能量，这在八个州运营，成为第一个将100％碳化碳能量的大型投资者拥有的公用事业，到2050年。

过渡到脱碳网格也可以由公用事业公司支撑不仅是可再生能源，还可以支持other so-called non-wires solutions (NWS)- 例如储能，能源效率和需求响应 - 以成本有效地满足越来越多的网格需求。除了提供可靠的服务的同时提供客户节约，NWS还可以支持促进清洁，更灵活和弹性网格的智能，以客户为中心的技术的集成，如上所述“非线性解决方案实施账单：监管机构，公用事业和开发人员的实用指南。”One example of successfully implementing NWS is ConEdison’s innovativeBrooklyn-Queens需求管理需求响应计划,以便客户减少他们的energy usage during times of high demand — allowing the utility to optimize the use of its most efficient generation assets to meet those obligations.

Retiring uneconomic assets

速度脱碳的另一种干预是支持来自网格的不经济资产的有序转变。RMI估计，由监管的投资者所有公用事业公司经营的近102千兆瓦省煤炭发电量耗资更多的资金，以便通过这些地区的可再生能源的电力购买协议来运行更多的资金来运行。Yet while the economic decision to retire coal plants that are close to the end of their operating lives has a relatively minor impact on utilities’ balance sheets, cycling off coal generation where utilities have invested capital recently and are authorized to earn a steady economic return would cause rates to spike for customers.

新墨西哥州最近批准的100％清洁能源法案包括在其他国家司法管辖区讨论的证券化规定。

一种克服这种障碍的新兴的方法是煤炭证券化（PDF）- 在预定的退休日期之前结束煤炭植物，并允许公用事业公司通过创建类似债券的仪器来收回剩余的折旧。一种方法，如证券化，通过使用长期的专用速率Payer收费来提供公用事业资本恢复，避免了RATEPAYER冲击。如果允许公用设施将这种恢复的资本再循环到清洁能源的投资中，他们可以在脱碳的运营组合时捕获收益增长。这种机制正在增长：新墨西哥州recently approved 100 percent clean energy bill 包括在其他国家司法管辖区讨论的证券化规定。

Reforming business models

In addition to resource and grid planning there are structural changes utilities could undertake to support their decarbonization efforts, starting with business model reform. In the face of increased policy pressure and heightened consumer calls for choice — alongside flat energy usage in much of the country — meeting the demands of an increasingly decarbonized and distributed grid requires updating legacy business and regulatory models, which were built for different infrastructure investments and operating structures. As we discuss in our report,"Reimagining the Utility: Evolving the Functions and Business Model of Utilities to Achieve a Low-Carbon Grid,"延迟这些改革将抑制DER的增长和相应的经济，环境和网格福利这些技术可以提供。

能源系统处于深刻的过渡状态，通过可再生和DER技术的成本迅速下降，新技术能力，客户呼吁上升，增加了可持续性的政策压力，以及加强电网弹性的需求。必威体育2018虽然不应低估这一转变为更脱碳和分布式网格的固有的挑战，但公用事业公司可以使用许多创新解决方案来支持他们的努力。正如我们所看到的，这样做了很多经济乐趣。