Ten Resolutions for the Energy Industry in 2024
Welcome to the fourth edition of the annual Top Ten Resolutions for the utility industry. These ten resolutions illustrate a renewed vigor and determination entering the New Year to make progress toward accomplishing so many things. Now armed with unprecedented federal funding and a majority of public support, the call for modernizing our energy system action and subsequent acceleration of this action is louder than ever. While utility priorities continue to change as the industry and world transform to a clean energy economy, utilities continue to rise to the occasion, and utility leadership continues to seize opportunities with a continued mission to deliver safe, reliable, clean, and low-cost energy.
2024’s resolutions introduce entirely new topics for the industry compared to previous years. Since the transformational Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2021 and 2022, and the enactment of the CHIPS Act in 2022, the workload to bring the clean energy transition to fruition is monumental, and the call for action is even greater. By utilities making these ten resolutions part of the investment plan for the New Year, there will be a renewed focus on tapping into opportunities to help build a better energy future for all. Let’s make 2024 the year that plans are fully embedded in the actions of industry leaders and regulators alike.
While utility priorities continue to change as the industry and world transform to a clean energy economy, utilities continue to rise to the occasion, and utility leadership continues to seize opportunities with a continued mission to deliver safe, reliable, clean, and low-cost energy.
1. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
AI has become one of the hottest topics during 2023. It offers informed decision-making through data-backed predictions and modeling, using historic trends and statistical methods. AI offers the ability to transform the energy space, such as personalizing customer interactions to meet their unique needs, using solutions like AI chatbots for outages, billing issues, and energy offerings. AI can even support the mitigation of wildfires using satellite intelligence for greater detection abilities and improved insights into real-time data. (1) The potential is endless when integrating and leveraging the opportunities of AI. Investing in dedicated teams to support analytics and AI adoption will motivate the utility in optimizing grid performance and maintenance, and improve the customer experience.
领英推è
2. EXPAND TRANSMISSION INVESTMENT
Ambitious decarbonization and renewable energy generation goals are dependent on the expansion of our transmission and distribution networks. Better interconnections within and between grids will also quicken recovery from extreme weather events, connect states and regional markets for interregional sales, and reduce costs. As more funding around transmission becomes available and federal regulatory bodies streamline siting and permitting processes,2 the success of investments will continue to be dependent on strong due diligence and widespread public acceptance. Consider low-impact siting for project development, such as previously developed and underused lands, and use existing infrastructure rights-of-way to create a more sustainable strategy. Low-impact siting supports goals of environmental conservation and responsible infrastructure development, while also increasing access to underserved communities. Identifying an experienced and skilled team to navigate and analyze such challenges and solutions will streamline the energy industry’s journey to meet future energy demands.
3. PLAN FOR THE FUTURE OF NATURAL GAS
Natural gas distribution utilities are facing huge challenges in addressing a myriad of decarbonization pressures. These pressures are taking many divergent forms, from formal whole-market and sector studies supported or mandated by governors and legislatures to the enactment of stringent local and county-level building standards. Appliance standards are also beginning to force out natural gas appliances. At the same time, there are significant opportunities associated with new funding for innovation through the IIJA and IRA stimulus appropriations, including new state-level emphasis on the role of natural gas companies to support customer efficiency, and a strong embrace of improving infrastructure to reduce direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from utility assets (Scope 1 fugitive emissions). However, many of these external pressures are largely uncoordinated. Not only do they carry big risks in the form of deflecting attention and resources away from other programs and investment priorities, but they are also difficult and time-consuming to track and respond to in an impactful way. New forms of collective action—such as landfill gas capture, hydrogen, liquified natural gas, and renewable natural gas—may be warranted by the natural gas industry to mount an effective case in support of its role in a decarbonized future. This issue is complex and challenging to address. Simple talking points are not sufficient to comprehend the potential role of gas in the foreseeable future.
To read the entire article and access a pdf version click here for Energy Central.