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Substation equipment and dense lines, blue tone map.
Substation equipment and dense lines, blue tone map.
Substation equipment and dense lines, blue tone map.
Substation equipment and dense lines, blue tone map.
Substation equipment and dense lines, blue tone map.

States Recognized for Their Leadership in Grid Modernization

Dec. 19, 2018
California and Illinois were each presented with GridWise Leadership Awards

The GridWise Alliance this month recognized the states of California, Illinois, Ohio, and Rhode Island for their roles in leading a range of grid modernization initiatives.

The awards coincide with the release of the Grid Modernization Index (GMI-2018) Summary Report, produced in collaboration with E9 Insight, and can be downloaded at www.gridwise.org. The Index assesses and ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based upon the degree to which they are moving toward a modernized electric grid.

California and Illinois were each presented with GridWise Leadership Awards for their continued success at implementing initiatives that spur grid modernization efforts. California and Illinois finished in first and second place, respectively, in the GMI-2018.

“California continues to be the grid modernization trailblazer, having instituted distribution system planning requirements and many other leading grid modernization efforts,” stated Steve Hauser, GridWise Alliance CEO. “California uses a multi-pronged approach to support distributed energy resources (DER), including competitive solicitations, multiple DER demo projects, a self-generation incentive program, a net metering tariff, and an energy storage target and default time-of-use (TOU) rates.”

“For the third year in a row, Illinois has ranked second among all of the states in the GMI and is actively implementing numerous instruments of a modernized grid,” Hauser continued. “The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has hosted NextGrid working groups-releasing preliminary drafts and reports in 2018, offering guidance on regulatory and business model reform, technology deployment and metering, and communication and customer data.”

The Alliance also recognized Ohio and Rhode Island with Outstanding Progress Awards for their accomplishments in rapidly expanding their grid modernization efforts.

“The Ohio Public Utility Commission’s (PUCO) yearlong review to enhance the consumer electricity experience in Ohio, called PowerForward, culminated with the release of a roadmap report outlining the state’s electricity future,” Hauser explained. “PowerForward advanced a regulatory paradigm to support innovation while envisioning the distribution grid as an open access platform enabling various levels of customer engagement.”

“Rhode Island has made significant commitments to grid modernization through policy. In 2017, Governor Raimondo initiated the Power Sector Transformation Initiative, which laid the foundation for National Grid’s Power Sector Transformation (PST) Plan which was approved in August 2018”, announced Hauser. “The commission also completed an Investigation into the Changing Distribution System that set goals, rate design principles, and a Benefit-Cost Framework for all future decisions.”

The awards were presented during the evening reception at gridCONNEXT 2018, a conference bringing together business, utility, finance, and policy leaders to explore the most important topics impacting the electric grid.

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