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Chirag Lala
Reports
Research note: Using RFIs to build project pipelines for clean energy
Read the full research note here. This research note by the Center for Public Enterprise and the State Support Center focuses on how RFIs can serve as a procurement strategy for public agencies with project finance, development, and/or ownership authorities. RFIs can be a valuable tool for state and municipal instrumentalities to (1) gather information […]
Research note: Evaluating the impacts from reducing equity in investor-owned utility capital stacks in California
Read the full report here. Investor owned utilities (IOUs) have often presented concerns that the public development and financing of critical energy infrastructure such as transmission would weaken their financial position resulting in higher customer costs. IOUs often argue that increasing the percentage of debt on their books or lowering their potential rate base will […]
Reimagining Economic Development: A Playbook for State Economic Development Agencies
Read the full report here. This report was written jointly with Charles Yang, Executive Director at the Center for Industrial Strategy. Sustained economic growth is the key driver for improving standards of living and national power. Levers for driving economic growth have received significant focus at the national level, such as through monetary policy and […]
The Dealer Always Wins
Read the full report here. In previous publications we have described the dynamics holding back investment into the enhanced geothermal sector—namely, that the sector’s lack of project finance slows deployment and that lack of deployment, in turn, slows the maturation of the industry required to make it attractive to project finance lenders. Project debt investors […]
Enhanced Geothermal Consortium for the Mountain West
Read the full report here. Next-generation geothermal technologies are at the frontier of energy development in the United States. Drawing on drilling techniques developed during the shale boom, enhanced geothermal drilling can open newer geologic formations with lower permeability to injected liquids. Heated liquid is then piped up to power turbines, generating a source of […]
Amortizing Public Capital: How to Advance Large Fixed Capital Projects
Access our new Elective Pay Model 3.0 here. Access the updated Elective Pay Model 3.0 Report here. The Center for Public Enterprise (CPE) is pleased to announce Version 3.0 of its Elective Pay model. It allows users to model publicly owned hydropower, nuclear, and geothermal projects (in addition to the solar, wind, and storage projects […]
Public developers
Read our report on public developers here. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) have greatly expanded the reach of the public financing of renewable energy through tax credits and public lending programs. The goal of these policies is to help reduce the cost of capital for energy projects by utilizing the […]
Revolving Loan Funds
Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) allow governments to speed up and reduce the costs of socially important investments by providing critical pieces of finance that private capital markets are unable to supply at an acceptable rate, while receiving sufficient enough returns to be self-sustaining. RLFs have a crucial role to play in accelerating the energy transition and catalyzing the potential of the Inflation Reduction Acts (IRAs) provisions to enable a greater public role in the energy sector.
Making the Most of SEFI: A Model RFI
A Model RFI for Engagement and Collaboration with the Loan Programs Office
CPE Elective Pay Model
The CPE Elective Pay Model is a tool developed in-house to help understand the financial considerations public utilities and other public agencies might face when making an elective pay investment in clean energy assets. Included here is report detailing the model, its assumptions, and results, a simulator tool (below) comparing tradeoff scenarios for the primary clean energy tax credits (Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit), and the financial model itself.
Cooling oil consumption to ease price pressures
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created a situation where it may be difficult in the near term for domestic supply of petroleum products to match domestic demand. This has led to record high gasoline prices. The use of strategic petroleum reserves has proved insufficient to bring supply up to the level of demand. But the other side, the demand for petroleum products, has not been directly addressed.
Posts
Accelerating speed to power
In September 2025, the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office released a request for information (RFI) entitled “Accelerating speed to power.” CPE submitted a response in November 2025. Our submission contributes to our team’s work designing business models that states and the federal government can use to finance and build out a coordinated bulk power […]
A comprehensive energy resource planning process for New York
The Center for Public Enterprise and Clean Air Task Force offer the following comments in answer to New York Department of Public Service's Solicitation Nos. 1468, 1482, and 1496 on the implementation of a Comprehensive Energy Resource Planning Process (CERPP). Repeated analyses confirm that New York's current energy resource development system is structurally unable to meet present and future needs.
The path forward for nuclear tax credit monetization
Nuclear developers have practical reasons to be concerned that the investment tax credit, large as it is, cannot easily provide them with upfront construction-period support.
One big beautiful blackout
It’s not just about cost—the bill text imposes new and perhaps insurmountable uncertainties on project developers and investors.
Updates on the Senate reconciliation bill
As of June 17, 2025, these are the changes Center for Public Enterprise is tracking in the Senate Finance Committee’s draft of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” They are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather important items to flag for the energy sector and public finance. Sources for this summary include the bill text, the […]
Credit due: A money market approach to Clean Energy Tax Credits
While there is quite a bit of uncertainty about the future of the IRA, the clean energy tax credits appear to be the most robust part of the law. They have extremely strong, bipartisan interest groups behind them. In addition, despite being the biggest line item in the bill, their budget impact is small compared […]
Drawing inspiration from state bond banks
This post was originally published in the the July 2024 edition of our monthly Capacity Factor newsletter. For the public sector to access all of the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment facilities, states and municipalities must develop or augment their legal and financial capabilities, including: filling out IRS tax forms, underwriting, project development, and strategic planning. […]
Pricing Problems & Solutions: the role of batteries in electricity markets
What happens to electricity prices when variable resources (VREs) like solar and wind become the grid’s dominant source of energy? Energy modelers have ideas, but no clear answers. Wind and solar are relatively unique compared to nuclear, gas, and coal systems because, despite having some upfront capital costs, they do not have fuel costs. This […]
Reacting to uncertainty
The Senate’s near-unanimous 88-2 passage of the ADVANCE Act to speed the permitting of the new nuclear reactors is a bipartisan victory for energy policy. Yet, while the Federal government deploys massive resources to support new nuclear—including a generous tax credit and low-cost loans—and tries to streamline the surrounding administrative process through this new law, […]
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Part 3: Public Options Support Public Finance
Entities seeded by the GGRF will have to change their strategy when governing the markets that they created: they will have to work to become public options that compete with and shape the behavior of other market participants. This is important not only because private investors may underbuild, but because they may deliver bad outcomes. Just because a market works does not mean it is not predatory or prone to faltering—look no further than rooftop solar.
Effective load carrying capacity
This post is republished from the March installment of our Capacity Factor newsletter. Subscribe here. Mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM recently published 2025-26 estimates of “effective load carrying capability” (ELCC) that show gas plants carrying more load (a measure of electricity demand), on average, than any of the four battery storage options during peak energy demand events. This […]