The SEPAPower Top 10: Your Favorite Blogs of 2019

2019 was a landmark year for SEPA. Our Board of Directors adopted a bold new vision for the organization: a carbon-free energy system by 2050. We established a powerful mission to facilitate a smart transition to a clean and modern grid. And, we rolled out four pathways, or areas of focus, to lead electric stakeholders to solutions and strategies for their unique clean energy challenges: Utility Business Models, Regulatory Innovation, Grid Integration and Transportation Electrification.

Amidst this progress, our blog served to share ideas, stories, and insights that excited us — and, based on your clicks, you were eager to engage. Below you’ll find the most read SEPA blogs from the past year. They cover everything from the nitty gritty of autonomous home energy management to long-term visions for EV adoption. We hope you’ll read all 34 published SEPApower blogs from 2019, and revisit the ones you liked most as we count down to a new year and a new decade.

1. Carbon-Free Energy by 2050: Have We Reached a Tipping Point?
SEPA’s President and CEO Julia Hamm puts a new spin on the 10-year challenge in her blog post from April. In addition to covering SEPA’s evolution over the last two decades, she highlights both the symbolic impact and substantive importance of voluntary utility commitments to get to 100% clean or carbon-free energy within the next two-and-a-half to three decades. The road there won’t be easy, and it will take the collective effort of stakeholders globally to be successful.

2. Lithium-Ion Battery Prices are Declining, Powering Growth and Opportunity in the U.S. Energy Storage Market
Battery prices saw historic declines in 2019, and that’s good news for energy storage growth. This blog takes a look at how favorable policies, falling costs and increased applications of energy storage for both the grid and power consumers signal a fast-growing market.

3. The 4 Levels of Autonomous Home Energy Management
In this guest blog, Powerley CTO Kevin Foreman throws out the vagueness of “smart home” jargon and lays out a framework for autonomous home energy management — from simple historical data awareness to a fully optimized home.

4. EV Managed Charging: Lessons from Utility Pilot Programs
We’re looking forward to seeing how managed charging becomes a viable and scalable demand response option in the 2020’s and beyond. This blog pulls insights from our Comprehensive Guide to Electric Vehicle Managed Charging report and accompanying webinar, detailing lessons learned from three utility-run EV managed charging pilot programs.

5. Two Birds, One Water Heater: How Shifted Energy and Hawaiian Electric are Helping Hawaii Meet its Clean Energy Goals
This October deep dive into grid-interactive water heaters is sure to cure your winter blues. Shifted Energy and SEPA team up to show how the evolution of water heating from simple peak load shift appliances to true thermal energy storage DERs is being realized.

6. I Have Range Anxiety but It’s Not What You Think
SEPA’s President and CEO Julia Hamm makes a surprising claim in this March post — her EV actually CURED her range anxiety. Reread to understand how, and get her insights on the future of EV charging infrastructure.

7. Switching lanes: How utilities can encourage EV adoption through customer-centric programs
It was pretty hard to miss the rise in EV adoption in 2019, yet many customers still found it challenging to acquire an EV. This blog post from April covers customer-centric strategies and tactics utilities can deploy to overcome barriers to EV adoption.

8. Net Metering Without A Fight
If a net metering policy is changed and no one is there to object, is that a bad thing? Former SEPA employee Mike Taylor writes about his local city’s surprisingly seamless and cooperative net metering changes.

9. Your Opportunity to Help Shape the Smart Energy Industry is Here
…Well, it may not be here anymore, but we were excited to have Solar Power Events share with readers how they could be seen as thought leaders in the industry at North America Smart Energy Week in 2020. While abstract submissions are closed, you can pitch session ideas and vote for your favorites until January 6 using the online Content Curator Machine. Make sure to register for SPI this year to hear from industry experts, and put a submission for SPI 2021 on your list of New Year’s resolutions.

10. Set it and Save: Using Technology to Ensure a Smooth TOU Rate Transition
Consumer adoption of DERs is leading many utilities to implement TOU rates to better match supply with demand. In this September blog, Uplight shares its 3 best practice principles for a smooth transition.