EarlyBird News

Over the past week, daily COVID-19 have been quickly increasing as Massachusetts slowly reopened businesses. This has seen a 300% increase in cases since Labor Day. Given this situation, Governor Charlie Baker has issued new orders and limits on face coverings, gatherings, and hours of operation for businesses. A state-wide mandate enforcing face coverings was […]

The utility regulators in Rhode Island have approved National Grid to increase natural gas rates in the state following the COVID-19 economic impacts of $30.7M. However, only half of the impact ($15.35M) will be transferred to ratepayers at first, and the rest will be deferred. On average instead of an average payment increase of $97 […]

Between September 22 and 24 Natural Gas prices experienced a 23% gain in prices closing at $2.248/mmBtu, the highest two-day gain since November 11, 2018. Part of this is attributed to increased usage, and lower buildup of storage. The average five-year build of storage for the week ending on September 1st has been of 80Bcf, […]

Recentlty CME Group, the world’s largest derivative exchange for different asset classes announced plans to launch the first ever water future. It is going to be based on the NASDAQ Veles California Water Index (NQH2) and is expected to be launched in late Q4 after regulatory approval. The initiative will serve as a tool for […]

Tidal Power What is tidal power? Tidal power is created by converting energy from the tides to electricity using turbines places underwater. Unlike the wind and the sun, tides are very predictable making it a very reliable method of harnessing energy. Recently, Verdant Power announced it is developing an $8M project to install tidal turbines […]

On July 14th 2020 the US Federal Appeals court decided to uphold Regulatory Commission Order 841 giving way for transmission grid operators to open their markets for participation of energy storage assets. Across deregulated regions in the U.S this means in a near future storage will be competing with other generation assets in the wholesale […]

On April 15, ISO-NE introduced a new proposal to the federal regulators of the Energy Security Improvements authority for improving reliability during shortages and winter months. Some of these initiatives include: Day-Ahead Replacement Energy Reserve (RER); Day-Ahead Energy Imbalance Reserve (EIR); Day-Ahead Generation Contingency Reserve (GCR). As mentioned, the main goal is of improving energy […]

Found in South Australia is what many claim to be the “world’s biggest battery,” or the Hornsdale Battery, built by Tesla and Neoen, originally built with a 100MW/129MWh capacity. Recently, Tesla completed the construction of an additional 50MW/64.5MWh component. Together this brings the capacity to a total of 150MW/193.5MWh. The Hornsdale Battery works in the […]

How COVID-19 is Affecting Peaks The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of how businesses of all sizes operate, most directly reflected by changes in their energy consumption patterns. Measures being implemented to flatten the hospitalization capacity curve, have also flattened peak energy consumption times as seen below, shaving off the peaks. This indicates […]

On February 26, 2020, Eversource announced a deal to purchase all $1.1B of Columbia Gas assets from their parent company NiSource, setting the stage for their operations to be managed by the largest energy player in the New England area. This means electric customers who also received Columbia Gas service will be controlled by a […]