New York’s efforts to revamp its electric utility industry are like a ravenous monster that only wants one thing: Data. Data plays a major role in many of state’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceedings, representing a key factor in creating a more distributed and responsive grid. To that end, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has been working to develop a “Utility Energy Registry” to provide aggregated load data. Last week, the Public Service Commission gave the project final approval. Combined with other available system platform tools, like distribution forecasts, identification of system constraints and hosting capacity, officials say the UER will assist third party developers in their market research. And it can make placement of distributed resources more efficient, particularly if the registry can be combined with local building stock databases. “Ready access to information regarding customer energy usage is vital to the success of […]