US electric utility companies and competitive transmission developers need new incentives that reward efficiency improvements and allow project sponsors to share in cost savings, industry leaders said October 21. “There’s actually a penalty on utilities for putting in low-cost solutions that solve big problems, and I think we need to fix that,” Gregg Rotenberg, CEO of grid optimization company Smart Wires, told the inaugural EnVision energy summit in Lexington, Kentucky. The event was jointly hosted by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Lexington native, and the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research. Rotenberg, whose company is pursuing grid modernization projects expected to yield 1.5 GW in improved power transfer capacity in the UK, held that nation’s incentive framework up as a model for the US to emulate.
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