UTILITIES: Pennsylvania regulators approve a plan for a Philadelphia-area utility to begin time-of-use rates in 2022 for residential customers to encourage them to use electricity during off-peak hours. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FOSSIL FUELS: A new study says most fossil fuel plants will reach their useful life spans by 2035 and replacing them will be less expensive than previously thought. (Energy News Network)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A New Hampshire state office that received $4.6 million of Volkswagen settlement funds in 2018 to build electric vehicle charging stations says it has not made any installations. (NH Business Review)
• A solar developer who installed arrays on a city’s buildings in New York now wants to provide free electric vehicle charging stations for municipal vehicles. (Recordonline)

OFFSHORE WIND:
• The development queue for offshore wind in New England becomes crowded as many projects are nearing their proposed in-service dates by mid-decade. (RTO Insider, subscription required)
• Orsted and a Maryland institute partner to create virtual training for mariners who would navigate ships through offshore wind arrays. (Baltimore Business Journal)
• The former CEO of the company that built the first U.S. offshore wind farm in Rhode Island takes over at an Italian-based developer that holds a lease off Maryland’s coast. (Recharge)

SOLAR:
• Electricity customers of a proposed Connecticut 20 MW solar farm back out of their agreement when the developer fails to meet a contractual deadline after state environmental officials raised objections. (News Times)
• A new report says small-scale solar installations have saved New England utilities and customers $1.1 billion over a 5-year period. (Solar Power World)

PIPELINES: New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio comes out against a natural gas pipeline through several Brooklyn neighborhoods that began construction in 2018. (New York Daily News)

MARKETING: Pennsylvania lifts some COVID-related restrictions on energy marketers shut down since March, but still forbids door-to-door sales pitches. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

COMMENTARY:
• An editorialist cites a report by an energy reliability non-profit that says New England faces a natural gas shortage during severe winter cold snaps due to a lack of pipeline capacity. (Delaware Valley Journal)
• A former environmental official in the Clinton administration says anti-clean energy actions by a federal energy agency could cost Maryland several hundred million dollars over the next nine years. (Maryland Matters)

Bill is a freelance journalist based outside Albany, New York. As a former New England correspondent for RTO Insider, he has written about energy for newspapers, magazines and other publications for more than 20 years. He has an extensive career in trade publications and newspapers, mostly focused on the utility sector, covering such issues as restructuring, renewable energy and consumer affairs. Bill covers Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire and also compiles the Northeast Energy News daily email digest.