Policy Studies Energy and Environment

Governance in distributed generation: A Nevada case study

Disruptive innovation has hit electricity markets. Just as disruptive technologies and services have revolutionized telecom and urban-transportation markets by expanding consumer choice, electricity customers can now take advantage of advances in electricity generation and metering technology to make their own power at home.

This is creating a massive structural change in electricity markets and presenting a significant challenge to the state regulators and utilities forced to determine how this new market can and should look. Gradually diminishing is the staid model of a single, large energy producer and a distribution network pumping electrons toward end users. Now, every user can become a power producer and, however briefly, sell that power to their neighbors.

This policy brief examines examines the case for distributed generation (DG) in Nevada and examines how that state currently deploys the resource. It also provides recommendations for how the state can leverage current legislative interest in DG to create a robust, competitive market for all users and producers.

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