Copy edit improvements #55

_executive_summary.qmd

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-The objective of this work is to provide regulators, legislators, and other energy stakeholders with a holistic look at recent trends in electrical generation. The first impetus for this report is a lack of combined reporting on electricity generation across the state that extends to federally and non-federally regulated electric utilities. The second impetus for this report is to aid in decision-making processes surrounding Alaska's energy future.
+The objective of this work is to provide regulators, legislators, and other energy stakeholders with a holistic look at recent trends in electrical generation. The first impetus for this report is a lack of combined reporting on electricity generation across the state that extends to federally and non-federally regulated electric utilities (most of Alaska's electric utilities do not meet the minimum threshold for federal reporting requirements). The second impetus for this report is to aid in decision-making processes surrounding Alaska's energy future.
 
-With uncertainty in natural gas sources on the Railbelt, changing technology, and lower-cost alternatives, understanding trends in the state's capacity, generation, consumption, and prices is vital to more informed decision-making.
+With uncertainty in natural gas sources on the Railbelt, technological advancements in generation technology, and improvements in the affordability of technologies, understanding trends in the state's capacity, generation, consumption, and prices is vital to more informed decision-making.
 
 In this report, we present data collected from federal, state, and local sources supplemented by correspondence with utilities. We show trends for capacity, generation, consumption, and prices. The capacity and generation trends include data from 2011 to 2021, and the consumption and prices trends are data limited to 2019. More information on sources and methods are provided in the subsequent sections throughout the report. This report uses data visualizations as the primary mode for presenting the trends. To accommodate this presentation style, we present trends as simplified regions of the state as opposed to the Alaska Energy Authority energy regions.
 

_key_takeaways.qmd

@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@
 - We have seen significant increases in the usage of utility-scale battery storage.
 
 ### Consumption
-- Electricity consumption has fallen for all customer classes, with residential customers seeing the most reductions.
+- Electricity consumption overall has fallen for all customer classes, with residential customers seeing the most reductions.
 - The number of customer accounts have continued to increase throughout the state.
 - Per capita consumption for the residential sector is highest in the Coastal region and lowest in the Rural Remote region.
 
 ### Prices
 - Residential electricity rates increased on average across Alaska after adjusting for inflation, the PCE subsidy, and population weighting.
-- The region that experienced the least residential rate gain was the Coastal region with a 6% increase.
-- The region experiencing the highest residential rate gain was the Railbelt with a 26% increase.
+- The region that experienced the least residential rate increase was the Coastal region with a 6% increase.
+- The region experiencing the highest residential rate increase was the Railbelt with a 26% increase.
 - Commercial and Other customers in the Coastal and Rural Remote regions saw rate decreases where Commercial customers in the Railbelt region saw price increases of about 15%.
 - PCE subsidies continue to dampen residential prices in the Coastal and Rural Remote regions.

about.qmd

@@ -10,14 +10,14 @@ cap-location: top
 
 This Alaska Electrical Trends Report (AETR) Web Book has been produced by the Alaska Center for Energy and Power ([ACEP](https://www.uaf.edu/acep/)) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks ([UAF](https://www.uaf.edu/uaf/index.php)). It is designed to be interactive and dynamically updated when new data becomes available. 
 
-Throughout the years, several agencies have prepared and published reports and data compilations on energy use in Alaska. AETR is complimentary to those prior reports, but is not a direct successor to them because it focuses on electricity only. 
+Throughout the years, several agencies have prepared and published reports and data compilations on energy use in Alaska. AETR is complementary to those prior reports, but is not presented in a comparable format. 
 
 
 ## Historical Timeline of Prior Reports {#sec-historic-timeline}
 
 ![Timeline of Energy Reports](images/energy_stats_timeline.png){#fig-report-timeline}
 
-Starting in 1969, the first electric power trends report was published by the Alaska Power Administration. During this time, the Alaska Power Administration was a federal agency housed within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Their first publication was known as the “First Annual Report” and covered data from the 1968 fiscal year. However, this became the “Alaska Electric Power Statistics Report” in 1971 and examined data from the 1960-1969 data years. The APA continued to produce intermittent reports until 1983 when the State of Alaska established the Alaska Power Authority (APA), which later became the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA). 
+Starting in 1969, the first Electric Power Trends report was published by the Alaska Power Administration. During this time, the Alaska Power Administration was a federal agency housed within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Their first publication was known as the “First Annual Report” and covered data from the 1968 fiscal year. However, this became the “Alaska Electric Power Statistics Report” in 1971 and examined data from the 1960-1969 data years. The APA continued to produce intermittent reports until 1983 when the State of Alaska established the Alaska Power Authority (APA), which later became the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA). 
 
 Under state direction, the APA/AEA continued to publish intermittent reports on electric power statistics until their final publication in 1992 which covered data years 1960 to 1991. To address the reporting gap, the Alaska Systems Coordinating Council in collaboration with the State of Alaska, Department of Community and Regional Affairs, Division of Energy continued generating reports until 1996 with their final report covering data years 1960 to 1995. Finally, the University of Alaska Anchorage, Institute of Social and Economic Research produced several reports with their last covering 1960 to 2012. Since then, there have been no electric power statistical reports. 
 

acronyms.qmd

@@ -18,10 +18,10 @@ These abbreviations are used throughout this report
 - ETI:  Energy Transitions Initiative, ACEP
 - FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
 - CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate
-- KW:  Kilowatts
-- KWh: Kilowatt Hours
-- MW:  Megawatts
-- MWh: Megawatt Hours
+- kW:  Kilowatt
+- kWh: Kilowatt-hour
+- MW:  Megawatt
+- MWh: Megawatt-hour
 - GW:  Gigawatts
-- GWh: Gigawatt Hours
+- GWh: Gigawatt-hour
 - UAF: University of Alaska Fairbanks

conclusions.qmd

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Electricity consumption (@sec-consumption) throughout the state fell on average.
 
 ### Prices
 
-Electricity prices (@sec-prices) across the state were variable but trended upward. After adjusting for inflation, PCE subsidies, and controlling for population, average residential electricity prices across the state increased. The largest residential rate increases from 2011 to 2019 were observed in the Railbelt region (26%), and the smallest were observed in the Coastal region (6%). Throughout the Coastal and Rural Remote regions, commercial and other customer classes saw rate decreases. Rate decreases were also observed on the Railbelt for commercial customers. We also observed that PCE subsidies were paramount to mitigating the cost of electricity for residential and community customers in the Rural Remote and Coastal regions.
+Electricity prices (@sec-prices) across the state were variable but trended upward. After adjusting for inflation, PCE subsidies, and including a population weight, the average residential electricity price across the state increased. The largest residential rate increases from 2011 to 2019 were observed in the Railbelt region (26%), and the smallest were observed in the Coastal region (6%). Throughout the Coastal and Rural Remote regions, commercial and other customer classes saw rate decreases. Rate decreases were also observed on the Railbelt for commercial customers. We also observed that PCE subsidies were paramount to mitigating the cost of electricity for residential and community customers in the Rural Remote and Coastal regions.
 
 ## Future Plans
 

consumption.qmd

@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ Plot.plot({
 })
 ```
 
-@fig-sales_per_capita <!--orig: The following table--> shows the average annual electricity consumption for each of the regions. The Coastal region led the state in consumption per capita, with an average of `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Coastal","Residential")` kWh per customer per year. This was followed by the Railbelt region with `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Railbelt","Residential")` kWh per capita and the Rural Remote region with `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Rural Remote","Residential")` kWh per capita. Overall, each region has seen reductions in consumption per capita, which may reflect improvements in energy efficient technologies and energy efficiency behaviors.
+@fig-sales_per_capita <!--orig: The following table--> shows the average annual electricity consumption for each of the regions. The Coastal region led the state in consumption per capita, with an average of `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Coastal","Residential")` kWh per customer per year. This was followed by the Railbelt region with `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Railbelt","Residential")` kWh per capita and the Rural Remote region with `r regional_consumption_per_capita("Rural Remote","Residential")` kWh per capita. Overall, each region has seen reductions in consumption per capita, which may reflect improvements in energy efficient technologies and energy efficiency/conservation behaviors.
 
 ```{ojs}
 sales_per_capita_data = tidy(regional_consumption_data.filter((d) => d.class === "Residential"),

credits.qmd

@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ The Alaska Electrical Trends web book has been produced by the Alaska Center for
   <ol  style="padding-left: 1rem;">
     <li id="fn1"><p>Data and Cyberinfrastructure Management, ACEP, UAF.</p></li>
     <li id="fn2"><p>Energy Transition Initiative, ACEP, UAF</p></li>
-    <li id="fn3"><p>Project Manager, <a href="https://www.dowl.com/">DOWL Engineering</a></p></li>
+    <li id="fn3"><p>Project Manager, <a href="https://www.dowl.com/">DOWL</a></p></li>
     <li id="fn3"><p>Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, UAF</p></li>
   </ol>
 </footer>

index.qmd

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ author: "Alaska Center for Energy and Power"
 
 ## Welcome  {#welcome .unnumbered}
 
-This interactive report summarizes federal, state, and utility electricity data in the form of a web book. It provides an overview of electricity capacity, generation, consumption, and price trends from 2011 to 2021. A comprehensive report highlighting these trends has not been produced for the state of Alaska since 2013's _Alaska Energy Statistics Report_.
+This interactive report summarizes electricity data gathered from federal, state, and utility sources and presented in the form of a web book. It provides an overview of electricity capacity, generation, consumption, and price trends from 2011 to 2021. A comprehensive report highlighting these trends has not been produced for the state of Alaska since 2013's _Alaska Energy Statistics Report_.
 
 This web book is designed as 'best available' document for the 2011-2021 energy trends data and reports. This website will be updated when updates to the underlying 2011-2021 data or fixes become available. Future year trends reports will be tackled in a different context and reporting structure.
 

prices.qmd

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ echo: false
 
 Utilities in Alaska serve multiple customers, namely residential, commercial, industrial, government/municipal, and community customer classes. Each customer class experiences a different set of costs such as per kWh charge as well as monthly customer charges. In this section, we aim to highlight trends in electricity prices for the residential, commercial, and other customer classes across the Coastal, Railbelt, and Rural Remote regions. We again restrict the data years in this section to 2011 to 2019 due to concerns with data validity for 2020-21.
 
-In rural areas, many communities are eligible to participate in the PCE program (described in @sec-pce-description). It is important to note that the prices presented here reflect the post-PCE adjustment and are annualized averages based on the calendar year. Yearly average effective rates listed here reflect the calendar year and not the fiscal year, which will make them different from those reported in the AEA’s annual reports. 
+In rural areas, many communities are eligible to participate in the PCE program (described in @sec-pce-description). It is important to note that the prices presented here reflect the post-PCE adjustment and are annualized averages based on the calendar year. Yearly average effective rates listed here reflect the calendar year and not the fiscal year, which will make them different from those reported in the AEA’s annual reports. We also note that for PCE communities, the rates are reported in the original data. For data sourced from the EIA, rates were calculated by dividing total revenue by total kWh sold in each customer class - this may overestimate the rate as this would include revenue from customer charges.
 
 Note that all prices in this section have been adjusted for inflation over time to 2021 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all items in urban Alaska (BLS CUUSA427SA0). To our knowledge, there is no CPI that properly accounts for price changes over time in rural Alaska. However, the general trend shows that customer account-weighted prices have been relatively stagnant across all regions of the state.