The Global Cleantech 100 most innovative companies was announced at the Cleantech Forum
FORBES
America’s Best
Management Consulting Firms 2020
Forbes identified Enovation as one of the top companies from across an industry of thousands of firms, and over 600,000 professionals.
Established in 2013, Enovation Partners is one of the newest firms on the list. Enovation was selected as one of the seven top small firms by Consulting Magazine in 2017, and a 'Rising Star' in 2016.
Enovation was chosen by executives, consulting clients, and industry leaders across all industry segments and types of consulting
For the full report:
Forbes list - America’s Best Management Consulting firms
LCOS - Levelized Cost of Storage for energy technologies version 6.0 by Lazard utilizing the Enovation Analytics software platform and advisory .
Press Release
September 9, 2019
Many regulators and political decision-makers are considering policy initiatives for reducing GHG emissions from the energy sector. But too often they seem to have tunnel vision on the various technology pathways available to achieve GHG emission reduction goals, favoring a particular set of technologies above others.
The Western Energy Institute, a prominent industry organization including all major electric utilities, gas utilities and pipelines in western North America, recently hosted a panel discussion on the topic of "What are the best decarbonization pathways for our customers?" The discussion was featured on the cover Western Energy magazine this spring. The article summarizes and draws conclusions on points of policy consensus across the utility industry on the decarbonization set of issues.
Panel:
Bill Kemp, Enovation Partners
Mike Backstrom, Southern California Edison
Greg Caldwell, ATCO
Sharon Tomkins, Southern California Gas Company
For more information, contact: Bill Kemp
Intelligent Gas Pipeline Inspection Implementation Results Case Study of Gas Utility pipeline inspection, predictive analytics, and benchmarking operations risk for industry compliance.
FORBES
America’s Best
Management Consulting Firms 2019
Enovation was identified as one of the top 216 companies from across an industry of thousands of firms, and over 600,000 professionals.
Established in 2013, Enovation Partners is one of the ten newest firms on the list. Enovation was selected as one of the seven top small firms by Consulting Magazine in 2017, and a 'Rising Star' in 2016.
Forbes surveyed more than 8,500 executives - consulting clients and industry leaders - asking participants for the best consultancies across 16 industry segments and 16 types of consulting.
For the full report:
Forbes list - America’s Best Management Consulting firms 2019
LCOS - Levelized Cost of Storage for energy technologies version 4 by Lazard in collaboration with Enovation Partners.
Ancillary Services and Energy Storage Markets
Ancillary services – Frequency Regulation, in particular – has been critical to achieving desired hurdle rates among front-of-the-meter storage projects in deregulated markets. However, given finite size and price sensitivities in these markets, what will be the impacts for developers? We have extensive thoughts on the topic here at Enovation Partners, and, suffice to say, “the devil is in the details” when considering the answer.
The structure and rules of many ancillary service markets are complex, leading to unforeseen outcomes and disruptions when a new technology bursts on to the scene. If ancillary services products are configured with storage in mind (e.g. discharge duration, compensation for speed), there is a great fit with current storage capabilities.
However, markets are small:
Hinderances to storage adoption
Further obstacles to storage adoption come from each market’s complex pricing mechanism. In many cases, there is no simple price-setting mechanism in terms of supply/demand, and in other cases there is very little competition or price transparency.
Examples:
PJM’s frequency regulation rules from 2012 encouraged a boom in storage, during which time owners and operators of storage benefitted from favorable market rules and compensation mechanisms (e.g. pay-for-performance). Commitment to net neutral signals for storage and limits on sustained signal durations leading to batteries acting out of harmony with system needs, and – at least from the Market Monitor’s perspective – overcompensation for Frequency Regulation resources following the Reg D signal.
In 2017, PJM changed its rules around neutral signals, signal intensity, and settlement mechanisms in a manner that left storage owners with significantly less revenue and, for some, substantially accelerated battery degradation. These rule changes were struck down after in an April 2018 ruling leading to a correction in pricing and signal. FERC has requested a technical conference for late 2018, and thus the wheel of time continues for PJM Reg D.
In New York, a potential state mandate of 1.5 GW of storage would create a market disconnect by injecting new, potentially uneconomic supply to meet a largely unchanging demand.
Frequency regulation market price declines by 90% following the installation of a 100 MW Tesla battery in South Australia - frequency regulation products were previously priced by units with highly volatile variable prices
Conclusion
We expect markets to struggle when there are swift changes to underlying technologies in a Regulation supply stack. Storage’s innate ability to provide ancillaries faster and cheaper than current price setting units will drive a step change in clearing prices as storage usurps gas-fired generation as the marginal unit.
At Enovation, we expect price drops to reflect the delta in the units’ marginal prices to provide ancillaries. As a result, market sensitivity to dramatic price changes in the near-future as storage projects could have dramatic implications for future development decisions by Independent Power Producers and investors. Prudent developers should have a clear idea of how additional market entry can impact pricing, and hedge by configuring systems to earn other revenue streams.
What does this mean for the economics of storage projects? How will overall storage penetration be affected? Are mandates achievable? Enovation Partners’ expertise and analytics capabilities guides our clients through issues like this everyday
Bridge fuel or foundation fuel?
The long-term future of natural gas debated at the World Gas Conference
Advances in gas technologies are reducing GHG emissions according to an Enovation Partners study
Bill Kemp of Enovation Partners presents at WGC2018
Gas: Bridge Fuel or Long-Term Strategy
Harnessing Predictive Analytics to do More with Less. Digital Gas Operations
Commercial and Industrial (C&I) energy intensity has declined for a decade
Is residential electric demand next?
The Glass Half Full for Utility Customer Service
The Glass Half Full for Utility Consumer Service
EcoPinion Consumer Survey Report #32
The Annual State of the Customer Survey tracks changing perceptions and tests assumptions in the industry.
Utility Customer Research Consortium (UCRC) Workshop
Los Angeles, California. December 13-14, 2017
Jamie Wimberley, CEO, Distributed Energy Financial Group, LLC
The Global Cleantech 100 most innovative companies was announced this year at the Cleantech Forum San Francisco
Eric Selmon and Hugh Wynne of Enovation Advisory
Report - Impact of Section 201: Solar Tariff Determination
What are the consequences of this ruling?
- How will the tariff alter the total installed cost of solar and the balance-of-system (BOS) cost per watt?
- What impact will the ruling have on demand, how will it compare to historic rates and trends?
- Who wins and who loses in this scenario?
Eric Selmon
Hugh Wynne
Eric Selmon and Hugh Wynne of Enovation Advisory
Tax Reform Implications for Investors and Developers
Click for full report
What impact will the 2017 tax cuts have on the renewable energy industry?
- What are the key provisions of the legislation impacting renewable energy?
- What are the impacts to wind and solar financing costs?
- How do impacts vary across the renewable developer, IPP, and utility sectors?
Eric Selmon
Hugh Wynne
Overview of enhancements and modifications to the 3.0 version of Lazard's LCOS study
LAZARD RELEASES ANNUAL LEVELIZED COST OF ENERGY AND LEVELIZED COST OF STORAGE ANALYSES
– LCOE 10.0 shows continued cost declines for solar energy –
– LCOS 2.0 shows declining but widely variable battery storage costs –
NEW YORK, December 15, 2016 – Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ) has released its annual in-depth studies comparing the costs of energy from various generation technologies and of energy storage technologies for different applications.
Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 10.0) shows a continued decline in the cost of generating electricity from solar technology, with lesser cost declines in other forms of renewable energy. Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Storage Analysis (LCOS 2.0) shows cost declines in most battery storage technologies, but with wide variations depending on the type of application and battery technology.
In addition, LCOS 2.0, conducted with support from Enovation Partners, builds on the inaugural LCOS study conducted in 2015 with a refined methodology and the addition of new analysis that illustrates and compares the economics of “real-world” energy storage applications.
“Our studies continue to demonstrate that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in energy generation or storage,” said George Bilicic, Vice Chairman and Global Head of Lazard’s Power, Energy & Infrastructure Group. “The demands of a developed economy will continue to require both traditional and alternative energy sources as the technologies driving renewable energy evolve.”
“The economic viability of commercial energy storage systems varies widely by application and on a regional basis,” said Jonathan Mir, Head of Lazard’s North American Power Group. “As manufacturers and customers identify optimal technologies for different use cases, we expect further innovation and a continued drop in costs, which will help drive increased use of renewables.”
The two studies offer a variety of insights, including the following selected highlights:
LCOE 10.0
- The cost of generating energy from solar photovoltaic (PV) technology continues to decline: The median levelized cost of energy from utility-scale PV technologies is down approximately 11% from last year, and rooftop residential PV technology is down about 26%, although the latter is still not cost competitive without significant subsidies and other policy support.
- The cost of generating energy from renewable sources other than solar, such as onshore wind, geothermal, and biomass, declined only at the margins from last year, reflecting both the maturing of technology in those areas and a relatively low level of investment. The median cost of generating energy from offshore wind generation declined approximately 22%, but remains substantially more expensive than onshore wind facilities, especially in the U.S.
- Even though alternative energy is increasingly cost-competitive and storage technology holds great promise, alternative energy systems alone will not be capable of meeting the baseload generation needs of a developed economy for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the optimal solution for many regions of the world is to use complementary traditional and alternative energy resources in a diversified generation fleet.
LCOS 2.0
- Due to refined methodology for LCOS 2.0, we recommend against making broad cost comparisons to the LCOS 1.0. However, the direct comparisons that can be made show that storage costs are generally dropping. For example, the median cost of using lithium-ion technologies decreased versus last year by approximately 12%, 24% and 11% for peaker replacement, transmission investment deferral and residential use cases, respectively, partially attributable to declining capital costs, among other factors.
- “Behind-the-meter” merchant energy storage systems, which are sited at factories, universities and hospitals, among other high energy use locations, show great promise. However, their economic viability depends greatly on local market structure and incentives, among other factors. For example, a battery-based storage system that is economically viable in Pennsylvania may not be viable in Texas.
- Industry participants continue to expect increased demand for energy storage to result in enhanced manufacturing scale and ensuing cost declines. If industry projections materialize over the next five years, cost-effective energy storage technologies will have increasingly broad applications across the power grid, such as providing an alternative to conventional gas-fired peaking plants in certain areas, as well as extending the usefulness over the course of the day of renewable generation such as wind and solar farms. LCOE 10.0 and LCOS 2.0 reflect Lazard’s approach to long-term thought leadership, commitment to the sectors in which it participates, and focus on intellectual differentiation. The two studies are posted at www.lazard.com/perspective.
Lazard’s Global Power, Energy & Infrastructure Group serves private and public sector clients with advisory services regarding M&A, financing and other strategic matters. The group is active in all areas of the traditional and alternative energy industries, including regulated utilities, independent power producers, alternative energy and infrastructure.
About Lazard
Lazard, one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 42 cities across 27 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. With origins dating to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, strategic matters, restructuring and capital structure, capital raising and corporate finance, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments and individuals. For more information on Lazard, please visit www.lazard.com