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Recently in Public Power Current
To find earlier stories in Public Power Current, browse by popular topics or contact us at News@PublicPower.org.
Transmission
The U.S. Department of Energy on Dec.16 released a list of three potential National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors moving to the next phase of the designation process.
Reliability
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity released three Notices of Funding Opportunity totaling nearly $18.4 million for programs to support research and development of electricity grid technologies.
Customer Service
Power outages, wildfires, rooftop solar systems, and demand response programs create a need for utilities to communicate with customers quickly and clearly. Utilizing omnichannel communication systems can help ensure customers stay in the know and also help utilities respond to the many outage-related calls and emails from customers.
Reliability
For water and electric utilities, it is critical to communicate with customers about potential leaks, rate changes and outages. Speed and clarity are essential to ensuring water is not wasted and customers know about outages. This boosts customer satisfaction.
Generation
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 returned to operation on December 10 after the team completing a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage that will add approximately 24 megawatts of electricity to the unit’s typical 1,200-MW output.
Generation
U.S. natural gas consumption grew by 1% to reach a new annual high of 89.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration, and continued growing in the first nine months of 2024.
Energy Storage
Energy Vault Holdings on Dec. 11 announced a strategic partnership with RackScale Data Centers that aims to accelerate the delivery of 2 gigawatts of firm, primary power to data center sites developed by RSDC through the deployment of Energy Vault's proprietary B-Nest™ hyperscale battery energy storage system.
Bills and Rates
The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority recently approved a resolution to change the Florida public power utility’s residential electric tier structure beginning Jan. 1, 2025.