Full Title: Get a Load of This: Regulatory Solutions to Enable Better Forecasting of Large Loads
Author(s): Jeff Sward, Lauren Shwisberg, Katerina Stephan, and Jacob Becker
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: February 27, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In the United States, electricity demand, or load, has begun to grow following several stagnant decades. This trend appears first in utility forecasts, the backbone of the utility investment plans that inform billions of dollars of infrastructure investments. The scale of projected load growth and its potential risks require regulators to ensure that load forecasts remain useful in guiding consequential decisions.
This report is a resource for regulators who wish to understand the current landscape of large load forecasting and explore options for how to evolve forecasting practices as large loads emerge in their jurisdictions.
Specifically, this report includes:
– Deep dives into different large load drivers and their unique characteristics that affect the grid.
– Concise best practices for load forecasting and case studies explaining how three utilities are forecasting large loads today.
– Actions that regulators can take to improve load forecasts that are limited, outdated, and opaque today, shown in the table below.
– Discovery-ready questions that regulators can leverage to ensure utilities are using robust large load forecasting practices.