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Modeling the DOE’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program in Resource Planning

Modeling the DOE’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program in Resource Planning

Full Title: Modeling the DOE's Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program in Resource Planning
Author(s): Jesse Cohen, David Posner, and Gennelle Wilson
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: November 4, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a slate of federally funded tools to lower the cost of power sector investments. One of the most important of these tools is the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program, administered by the Loan Programs Office (LPO) of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The EIR can provide low-interest, guaranteed loans for qualified investments that “retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.”

There are two key factors that influence how much savings an EIR loan can deliver on a portfolio basis: the first is the composition of investments that are included in a utility’s EIR application, and the second is the financial structure for, and the regulatory treatment of, EIR financing. This brief focuses on the first factor, the composition of a truly least-cost resource portfolio. RMI covers how to integrate the EIR into the parameters for capacity expansion modeling.

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