The Pew Charitable Trusts has released a new report: “America’s Electric Grid: Growing Cleaner, Cheaper, Stronger. Industrial Efficiency in the Changing Utility Landscape. ”  

The post states: “Electricity is illuminating, but its generation, transmission, and distribution have long been opaque. Cleaner, Cheaper, Stronger: Industrial Efficiency in the Changing Utility Landscape  reports on how the once static utility industry is becoming a dynamic and transformative opportunity for the nation’s economic, environmental, and energy future.”  

“An array of technological, competitive, and market forces are changing how the U.S. generates power and the ways that Americans interact with the electric grid. A century-old centralized system is yielding to advanced, distributed-energy generation capabilities—in which power is produced at or near the place where it is consumed—that allow the industry to respond to new market opportunities and evolving consumer desires.”  

“The report concludes with an evaluation of the impact of key regulatory and legislative policies on the deployment of industrial energy efficiency technologies in order to help federal policymakers effectively encourage adoption of these systems. The Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned ICF International Inc. to model these policies and found that implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and an improved federal investment tax credit could result in a 27 percent increase in adoption by 2030.”  

Key findings:

• “$150 billion The amount electricity blackouts cost U.S. businesses every year”
• “300 Number of US. electric grid disturbances from 2011-2013, more than any other developed nation.”
• “90% Share of new power capacity that came from gas and renewable energy sources since 2000”
• “27% Amount that enhanced tax policies could boost WHP and CHP deployment by 2030”