White Papers

Why Your IoT Solution Needs LTE-M Next-Gen Connectivity

With low-cost modules, extended battery life, better signal penetration, and the ability to use existing infrastructure, LTE-M has the potential to improve all IoT business models.

Capitalizing on Change: How Executives Can Use Efficiency to Future-proof Business

Disruptive changes in today’s global energy landscape present new opportunities for business growth and profitability – and more companies are taking notice. Progressive companies have found that energy is no longer a cost center, but an enabler of improved operational and financial performance.

Already, 93 percent of companies have energy efficiency technology in place and adoption of renewables and energy storage has increased 11 percent over just the last year. However, while new technologies and solutions like these can be powerful tools, many companies still struggle to accelerate ROI and translate these investments into long-term growth. Often, complex organizational structures and competing business priorities make it difficult and more costly to reach corporate energy and sustainability goals.

Based on four real-world stories, our latest eBook addresses the top roadblocks to enterprise-wide efficiency, as well as the strategies to overcome them.

Learn how to leverage an enterprise-wide efficiency program to future-proof your business.

How Utility Companies Can Reduce Operating Costs With Vehicle Area Networks

A Comprehensive Approach to Utility Cost Reduction

Vehicle-based cellular gateways or routers establish a continuous, reliable and secure internet connection for utility field personnel, giving them access to corporate applications and enabling two-way communications. These vehicle area networks (VANs) also deliver significant cost savings and benefits that deliver a positive return on investment.

Utility cost savings can be realized through lower subscription and cellular connection costs and reduced downtime for equipment. Benefits include increased field worker productivity, improved logistics and improved fleet management and safety.

Download this white paper to learn how vehicle area networks can:

Lower your OpEx, IT and asset costs
Improve your fleet management efficiencies and worker safety

Analysis of Net Energy Metering Policy Changes in the United States

Net energy metering (NEM) policies have played a crucial role in making residential solar installations a good investment for homeowners in the United States. However, as installed solar capacity has increased, many utility companies have introduced changes to their NEM programs that reduce the value of distributed solar. Using its proprietary solar financial analysis tools, Aurora Solar conducted a large parametric study that analyzed over 45 million scenarios to determine how these new programs impact solar customers’ savings across the United States. The study analyzes the financial impacts of specific billing mechanisms, as well as the cumulative impacts of different combinations of these mechanisms as implemented by utilities in different states. The policies evaluated slightly diminish the financial value of installed solar but also promote larger system designs in certain circumstances.

Voice Assistant Platforms: Pursuing an Improved Utility Customer Experience

The explosive growth of voice assistants cannot be ignored by any customer-centric company, and that includes utilities. Google recently announced the release of a Google Assistant developer program that energy companies can use as a platform for fruitful customer interactions. The platform streamlines Google Assistant integration for utilities and helps them improve the customer experience. This white paper offers examples from early adopters, such as Xcel Energy, and insights as to how energy providers can best leverage smart home technologies to offer customers a better experience when it comes to making energy decisions.

2019 State of Demand-Side Energy Management in North America

The “2019 State of Demand-Side Energy Management in North America” is a market-by-market analysis of the issues and trends the experts at CPower feel organizations like yours need to know to make better decisions about your energy use and spend.

CPower has taken the pain out of painstaking detail, leaving a comprehensive but easy-to-understand bed of insights and ideas to help you make sense of demand-side energy’s quickly-evolving landscape.

Armed with that knowledge, your organization can leverage its existing energy assets so they can be optimized for savings and monetized for earnings.

Checklist for Engaging Your Utility on Renewable Power

While large corporations were responsible for nearly 6 gigawatts’ worth of wind and solar power-purchase agreements last year, the options for affordable, clean, low-carbon energy are increasingly available to companies of all sizes. And when it it comes to choosing an energy partner,  the distribution utility that already serves your organization may be the best place to start.

In this paper, we will discuss a framework for engaging your utility to move toward achieving your clean energy goals, whether the driver is sustainability, reliability, cost savings or a combination thereof.

U.S. Solar Market Insight

U.S. Solar Market Insight™ is a collaboration between the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables that brings high-quality, solar-specific analysis and forecasts to industry professionals in the form of quarterly and annual reports.

Each quarter, we gather a complete account of industry trends in the U.S. solar market via comprehensive surveys of installers, manufacturers, utilities and state agencies. The result is the most relevant industry data and dynamic market analysis available.

State of Performance-based Ratemaking in the U.S.

Performance-based ratemaking is an emerging regulatory framework that attempts to bridge the gap between traditional grid infrastructure investments and distributed energy resources (DERs). Innovation on the grid edge transforms customers from loads to resources. The grid will continue to evolve to be more bidirectional, and traditional ratemaking favoring capital-intensive investments to ensure supply will no longer be adequate.

This executive summary focuses on one alternative to traditional utility ratemaking: performance-based ratemaking (PBR). The slide deck summarizes Wood Mackenzie's June 2019 report focusing on PBR activity since 2015 at state utility commissions and utilities, finding activity in 19 states plus Washington, D.C., an increase of 6 states over spring 2018. The full report looks at drivers behind PBR activity at varied stages, looks at regulatory tools for commissions, and analyzes the progress in determining performance metrics and incentives.

U.S. Energy Storage Monitor

Delivered quarterly, the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor provides the industry’s only comprehensive research on energy storage markets, deployments, policies, regulations and financing in the U.S. These in-depth reports provide energy industry professionals, policymakers, government agencies and financiers with consistent, actionable insight into the burgeoning U.S. energy storage market.

The U.S. Energy Storage Monitor is offered quarterly in two versions– the executive summary and the full report. The executive summary is free, and provides a bird's eye view of the U.S. energy storage market and the trends shaping it. In contrast, the full report features state-by-state breakdowns and analysis on storage deployments, growth forecasts, policies helping or hindering growth, financing trends, and market strategies. It is available individually each quarter or as part of an annual subscription.