Evolving Role of the Power Sector Regulator: A Clean Energy Regulators Initiative Report

Abstract

This paper seeks to briefly characterize the evolving role of the power sector regulator. Given current global dynamics, regulation of the power sector is undergoing dramatic changes. This transformation is being driven by various factors including technological advances and cost reductions in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and demand management; increasing air pollution and climate change concerns; and persistent pressure for ensuring sustainable economic development and increased access to energy services by the poor. These issues add to the already complex task of power sector regulation, of which the fundamental remit remains to objectively and transparently ensure least-cost service delivery at high quality. While no single regulatory task is trivial to undertake, it is the prioritization and harmonization of a multitude of objectives that exemplifies the essential challenge of power sector regulation. Evolving regulatory roles can be understood through the concept of existing objectives and an additional layer of emerging objectives. Following this categorization, we describe seven existing objectives of power sector regulators and nine emerging objectives, highlighting key challenges and outlining interdependencies. This essay serves as a preliminary installment in the Clean Energy Regulatory Initiative (CERI) series, and aims to lay the groundwork for subsequent reports and case studies that will explore these topics in more depth.

An approach to targeting cryptocurrency mining loads for energy efficiency enhancement

“…However, as can be seen, due to the slight difference in the IRR of CMDs with classes Cl.19, Cl.20, and Cl.21, there is not enough incentive for customers to use state-of-the-art technology of these devices that have high power efficiency. Therefore, to encourage customers to participate more in the energy efficiency programs, a penalty-reward structure to be implemented in the electricity tariff of cryptocurrency mining load can be proposed FIGURE 5 The relationship between CMDs' power efficiency and IRR considering the proposed sales tax rebate for energy-efficient CMDs FIGURE 6 The proposed penalty-reward structure of electricity rate for CMDs according to their power efficiency in 2021 FIGURE 7 The relationship between CMDs' power efficiency and IRR considering the proposed sales tax rebate along with the proposed penalty-reward structure by the PSR, as shown in Figure 6 for 2021. In the proposed penalty-reward structure, it is assumed that the power efficiency of class Cl.20 is considered as a dead zone, the maximum amount of penalty/reward to be applied on the electricity price rate is 25%, and the 𝜂 MEER is 15 GHash/J.…”

“…The government or the power sector regulator (PSR) develops the energy efficiency programs to achieve the aforementioned benefits. With the technological advancement and the emergence of new electricity-consuming equipment, loads, and consumption patterns in the power grid, the government/PSR concerns resulted in the development of energy efficiency programs that are constantly improving [5].…”