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Public Utilities

Commentary

Getting (Solar) Electricity Pricing Right

Demand for rooftop solar panels is soaring among U.S. homeowners. Meanwhile, states are struggling to adapt a 20th-century electrical grid—and the corresponding cost structure for electricity rates—to this 21st-century reality. This is causing confusion and uncertainty.

Jul 24, 2017
Commentary

Getting the Lead Out of Pittsburgh's Water

Without an aggressive long-term strategy for replacing service lines, and collaboration among the water authority, public officials, and residents, lead in Pittsburgh's water will persist.

Jul 3, 2017
Report

Pittsburgh's Options to Address Lead in Its Water

Pittsburgh is struggling to manage and improve its aging water system, with a focus on elevated lead levels for many customers. What steps could help steer the city toward a permanent solution and protect future generations?

Jun 27, 2017
Commentary

Investing in Infrastructure? Don't Forget the Electric Grid

Leaving the future of America's electricity grid to chance should not be an option. To maximize the potential benefits of a multibillion-dollar smart grid investment, a closer examination of technology and policy is needed.

Dec 7, 2016
News Release

News Release

Twenty Percent of U.S. Households View Landline Telephones as an Important Communication Choice

The predicted death of the household landline telephone in the United States may be premature. While most Americans like their cell phones, twenty percent of American households still think having a landline phone is important.

Nov 17, 2016
Report

Twenty Percent of U.S. Consumers Still Consider Landlines Important

The predicted death of the landline telephone may be premature. Twenty percent of American households surveyed still think having a landline telephone is most important. Among the majority, mobile telephone service was considered the most important, followed by fixed internet service.

Nov 17, 2016
Report

Policy Options for Better Service Outcomes from the Future Electric Grid: A Stakeholder Symposium

This symposium's goal was to identify important policy questions related to the present and future electric power grid system. This convening aimed to identify problem areas that could benefit from stakeholder-driven objective research.

Apr 18, 2016
Journal Article

Journal Article

Community Effects on Elderly Health: Evidence from CHARLS National Baseline

There is increasing interest in neighborhood or area effects on health and individual development. China, due to its vast regional variations in health infrastructure and geography and relative immobility of older residents, provides a rare opportunity to study such effects.

Feb 4, 2016
Commentary

What Durban Can Teach Detroit: Getting Customers to Pay Their Water Bills

South Africa is proving that governments in poor cities can provide water and collect payment without turning off the water spigot. Detroit and Baltimore might consider exploring models like this that have been successfully tested in even more challenging settings.

Jul 29, 2015
Essay

How Smart Grids Can Change the Way We Live

A modernized, “smart” grid could change how much you pay for electricity, where it comes from, and how likely you are to lose it in a summer storm. But has the reality of the smart grid kept pace with the promise?

Apr 27, 2015
Commentary

The Clash of Internet Civilizations: Why Neither Side Should Prevail

The debate over net neutrality pits two opposing philosophies against each other — one pushing for the continued evolution of the Internet as an open information superhighway, the other asserting that the Internet's evolution needs to take more account of the many ways it is and will be used.

Apr 10, 2015
Report

The Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies

A smart grid for the United States could have large-scale benefits. There are technological, economic, and regulatory barriers, but new policies or changes to policy could help overcome them.

Jan 15, 2015
Journal Article

Journal Article

Sustaining Critical Social Services During Extended Regional Power Blackouts

This article outlines and estimates the incremental cost of a strategy that uses small distributed generation, distribution automation, and smart meters to keep a set of critical social services operational during a prolonged power outage that lasts for days or weeks and extends over hundreds of kilometers.

Jul 1, 2012
Report

Measuring Consumer Preferences for Postal Services in Europe

Different market segments have varying postal service needs, according to RAND Europe research conducted for the European Commission. All consumers value parcel services, reliability, and low levels of loss, but big businesses value letter services more than small or medium businesses or the public.

Jan 16, 2012
Report

Report

Characterizing the U.S. Industrial Base for Coal-Powered Electricity

Coal-fired electricity generating units (EGUs) provide about 46 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S., yet most of the existing coal-fired electricity fleet is 25–45 years old. Can the industry maintain the capability to design, construct, and operate coal-fired EGUs within reasonable cost, schedule, performance, environmental, and quality expectations?

Oct 27, 2011
Report

Near-Term Opportunities for Integrating Biomass into the U.S. Electricity Supply

Biomass is an increasingly important source of electricity, heat, and liquid fuel. One near-term option for using it to generate electricity is to cofire biomass in coal-fired electricity plants. Factors to consider are plant-site modifications, changes in operations, costs, and logistical issues with delivering biomass to the plant.

Jul 29, 2011
Journal Article

Journal Article

Informed Public Preferences for Electricity Portfolios with CCS and Other Low-Carbon Technologies

Public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other low-carbon electricity-generating technologies may affect the feasibility of their widespread deployment.

Sep 1, 2010
Research Brief

Research Brief

Natural Gas and Israel's Energy Future: Planning Amid Deep Uncertainty

Israel must control future electricity demand. It can build a secure energy infrastructure in which natural gas provides up to 40 percent of electric power generation but only by taking measures to limit supply disruptions.

Dec 22, 2009
Report

Report

Natural Gas and Israel's Energy Future: A Strategic Analysis Under Conditions of Deep Uncertainty

Israel must employ strategic alternatives to make the best use of domestic and imported natural gas. This report explores natural gas-utilization and supply-infrastructure strategies in the face of uncertainty.

Dec 10, 2009
News Release

News Release

Major Progress in Technology Needed for 25 Percent Renewable Energy Use to Be Affordable

Dramatic progress in renewable energy technology is needed if the United States desires to produce 25 percent of its electricity and motor vehicle fuel from renewable sources by 2025 without significantly increasing consumer costs.

Jun 24, 2008

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RAND Topic:
Public Utilities

Topic Synonyms:
Utilities

Research conducted by

RAND Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment