Energy Markets & Policy at Berkeley Lab

“Regulatory sandboxes” allow utilities to test and scale innovations in a structured environment. Learn how they are being applied to advanced grid technologies on a free @BerkeleyLab webinar. August 13, 2pm Eastern/ 11 am Pacific. Register at naruc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Regulatory Sandboxes and Utility Adoption of Advanced Grid Technologies. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Advanced grid technologies can help meet many challenges emerging on the grid, but traditional frameworks for evaluating utility investments may be limiting their adoption. Regulatory sandboxes are be...

Join @BerkeleyLab and state experts for a public webinar on August 13th, at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific. Register at naruc-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity supported this work. <end>

Learn more about how these mechanisms create an ongoing laboratory to test innovative ideas for advanced grid technologies, respond to changing grid needs, and document impacts, benefits, and lessons learned. Download the @BerkeleyLab report at emp.lbl.gov/publications.... 5/x

Sandboxes are flexible approaches that can adapt to customer needs, create a culture of innovation at utilities and commissions, increase collaboration and elicit ideas, and scale technologies and programs that improve grid reliability, resilience, and affordability. 4/x

A dozen jurisdictions across the U.S. are using sandbox-type mechanisms to trial advanced grid technologies like dynamic line rating and smart distribution circuits, new customer programs, and resilience and cybersecurity strategies. 3/x

We categorize four types of innovation mechanisms—regulatory sandboxes as well as complementary approaches, such as funding opportunities, pilot processes, and rate cases and rulemakings that include innovation initiatives. 2/x

Advanced grid technologies don’t easily scale under traditional regulatory approaches. “Regulatory sandboxes” allow utilities to test innovations in a structured environment and rapidly scale successful approaches. Our new report talks about how to do that. <THREAD> 💡🔌

Who Benefits from Rooftop Solar—and How Much?, with Madeline Yozwiak In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Madeline Yozwiak, a PhD candidate at Indiana University Bloomington, about the potential of residential rooftop solar technology to address the gro

One in four US households face energy insecurity. Research by Madeline Yozwiak, done in partnership with @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social suggests that rooftop solar panels could improve energy affordability. Yozwiak discusses the findings on Resources Radio.
Listen now: on.soundcloud.com/4sGg1V2TZmAY...

This webinar on grid reslience planning for severe storms is starting NOW! Register and join.

Berkeley Lab Helps Utilities Understand Power Outage Costs Tools confirm the need for significant investments to make the U.S. power grid more reliable and secure

From short blips to long blackouts, we're crunching the numbers on power outages. 🧮💡 Our researchers developed tools to estimate the cost of widespread outages. The goal? Help utilities invest smarter—so fewer people lose power. ⬇️

@berkeleylabemp.bsky.social

The Energy Innovator Fellowship is looking for recent grads to help advance solutions at critical energy organizations. Help us spread the word about this (paid!) opportunity.

Learn more: bit.ly/3SVv2de #ExperienceORISE #Energy @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Energy Dept. Unveils Supercomputer That Merges With A.I.

The new supercomputer, which uses NVIDIA chips tailored for A.I. calculations, could be the Energy Department's biggest resource for tasks like training A.I. models, says @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's Jonathan Carter. @energygov.bsky.social

Grid Resilience Planning for Severe Storms in the East and Southeast: Join us on June 16, 2–5 pm ET, for an interactive webinar on grid resilience planning. Experts will discuss planning for severe storms and hurricanes and answer questions from participants.
Register: lbnl.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The Energy Innovator Fellowship is looking for recent grads to help advance solutions at critical energy organizations. Help us spread the word about this (paid!) opportunity.

Learn more: bit.ly/3SVv2de #ExperienceORISE #Energy @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Oregon and Washington vowed to pioneer green energy—but almost every other state is beating them Despite being known as liberal bastions, the Pacific Northwest states have added only 1 renewable project over the last 10 years.

Our @josephrand.bsky.social is quoted on how the interconnection process is going in the Pacific Northwest.

www.fastcompany.com/91339696/ore...

Enhanced Geothermal Systems: A Promising Source of Round-the-Clock Energy A Q&A with Geothermal Systems Program Lead Eva Schill, who discusses the potential of Enhanced

Our geothermal #energy experts are studying how to make the most of new tech to stimulate activity that exists in natural #geothermal systems-hoping to help advance affordable & readily available geothermal-electricity generation.
newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/04/10/e...

@eesaberkeleylab.bsky.social

Renewing The Mandate To Safeguard The Energy Grid The US power grid is highly susceptible to cyberattacks, EMP, natural disasters, and physical threats, all of which could have disastrous results.

Research by @berkeleylab.lbl.gov for @energygov.bsky.social shows that data centers' power consumption has tripled in the last ten years and may triple again by 2028.

Researcher @josephrand.bsky.social from @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social was named one of the Top 50 Data Changemakers in the Energy Sector for 2025 by Chief Data Officer Magazine! His report on U.S. interconnection queues earned him this honor. Congrats, Joe! 🌟
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eta.lbl.gov/news/berkele...

Another Berkeley Lab report out, this time on electricity rate design + tariffs for large loads (read: data centers)!

eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/defaul...

#energysky

The comprehensive breakdowns of all the different rate structures utilities are creating for large load data centers thus far:

2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report | Energy Technologies Area

#Energysky

The congressionally mandated 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Data Center Energy Usage Report is out!

eta.lbl.gov/publications...

A thread of some of the results:

Grid connection barriers to renewable energy deployment in the United States Bulk-power grid connection is an emerging bottleneck to the entry of wind, solar, and storage but has been understudied due to a lack of data. We crea…

Great piece from @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social summarizing grid interconnection trends, costs and deployment barriers: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Some new insights and possible solutions to grid interconnection issues in this new (free, open access) journal article from our team at @berkeleylabemp.bsky.social
We're also actively working on an update to the annual Queued Up report. Stay tuned! #energysky

For even more information, see our landmark research on the interconnection queues, in the report Queued Up. Find also recorded webinars, interactive data sets, and more, at emp.lbl.gov/queues. /END

Policymakers are actively working with stakeholders to improve procedural rules for interconnection but commonly cite the lack of data and transparency as a gap to evidence-based decision-making. We hope these data will shed light on the process. 8/x

These findings suggest the need for continued interconnection reforms, tighter links between long-term transmission planning and project-level interconnection processes, and more interconnection outcome transparency. 7/x

A big factor is the cost of network upgrades, which are often billed to project developers to overcome transmission constraints. The wide range of interconnection costs across the country and by situation illustrates the uncertainty and lack of uniformity of the process. 6/x

Interconnection service can either be firm (capacity) or as-available (energy). One would expect that as-available service would cost less, be approved more quickly, and be less likely to trigger grid upgrades, but our evidence suggests that is often not the case. 5/x

Wind and solar are seeing the highest costs, whether completed or not. While wind and solar projects that completed the interconnection study process saw interconnection costs making up 6-8% of total project costs, withdrawn projects faced costs of 30-37% of total. 4/x

Interconnection costs have risen over time. Projects withdrawn in recent years had costs 23% greater than the preceding 5 years and more than double those before 2014. Costs are much greater for withdrawn projects ($373 per kW) than for those that completed interconnection studies ($73 per kW). 3/x

Massive growth in solar and battery development has led to the queue backlog. Since 2010 the queue has grown >5X and the process length has nearly doubled. To get more details about what’s going on, we analyzed 5000 interconnection studies to create a first-of-a-kind cost database. 2/X