2023 State of Reliability Technical Assessment

This year’s State of Reliability (SOR) is comprised of two publications: the 2023 State of Reliability Overview, which is a high-level summary of the important findings, and this 2023 State of Reliability Technical Assessment, which provides NERC’s detailed comprehensive and annual technical review of BPS reliability for the 2022 operating (calendar) year.

The 2023 State of Reliability Overview replaces the executive summary normally found in NERC reports. This 2023 State of Reliability Technical Assessment provides detailed descriptions of key findings and key occurrences for 2022 along with in-depth analysis of risks and resilience, grid transformation, grid performance, and the status …

Leveraging Rail-Based Mobile Energy Storage to Increase Grid Reliability in the Face of Climate Uncertainty

This paper examine the potential to use the US rail system as a nationwide backup transmission grid over which containerized batteries, or rail-based mobile energy storage (RMES), are shared among regions to meet demand peaks, relieve transmission congestion and increase resilience. We find that RMES is a feasible reliability solution for low-frequency, high-impact events and quantify its cost effectiveness relative to reliability-driven investments in transmission infrastructure and stationary capacity. Compared to new transmission lines and stationary battery capacity, deploying RMES for such events could save the power sector upwards of US$300 per kW-year and US$85 per kW-year, respectively. While no …

A Guide for Improved Resource Adequacy Assessments in Evolving Power Systems: Institutional and Technical Dimensions

“This paper identifies and evaluates issues in traditional resource adequacy (RA) assessment practices, and how adjusting these practices may affect and depend on existing institutional arrangements for planning and procurement. The paper proposes a technical-institutional roadmap that would allow regulators in vertically-integrated jurisdictions and system planners and operators in restructured jurisdictions to revise RA practices across a range of components.First, we compile a critical review of current RA assessment practices based on (1) interviews with RA practitioners and (2) a review of recent technical literature. We find that (i) RA may need to expand beyond capacity adequacy to ensure energy …

U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap

Given its potential to help address the climate crisis, enhance energy security and resilience, and create economic value, interest in producing and using clean hydrogen is intensifying both in the United States and abroad. Zero- and low-carbon hydrogen is a key part of a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to achieve a sustainable and equitable clean energy future. The United States is stepping up to accelerate progress through historic investments in clean hydrogen production, midstream infrastructure, and strategically targeted research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) in this critical technology.

This report sets forth the “U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap.” …

Energizing Innovation in Fiscal Year 2024

The Biden administration’s FY 2024 budget request (PBR) for the Department of Energy (DOE) calls for an 18 percent increase in investment in clean energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) over FY 2023-enacted levels. The 117th Congress passed three landmark bills—the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS), and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—that are reshaping energy innovation in the United States. But despite boosts from these bills, the requested levels for many energy RD&D programs trend below the levels that the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the Center on Global Energy …

Integrate to Zero: Policies for On-Site, On-Road, On-Grid Distributed Energy Resource Integration

To meet decarbonisation goals, global renewable power capacity will need to more than triple by 2030, according to leading energy agencies. Centralised renewable generation will not deliver this level of change on its own, nor should it. Distributed energy resources (DERs) such as heat pumps, electric vehicles, small-scale solar generation and battery storage are essential to ensuring that clean power is the most affordable and reliable option for all countries.

Distributed energy resources must be effectively integrated with the grid if they are to fulfil their potential. Integration allows them to be used flexibly to draw power from or feed …

Power of Place: Clean Energy Solutions that Protect People and Nature

The United States needs to build an unprecedented amount of clean energy to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Power of Place-National lays out a vision and recommendations that steer energy planners and policymakers towards thoughtful net-zero strategies that benefit climate, conservation, and communities.…

Real Reliability: The Value of Virtual Power

Maintaining power system resource adequacy is a major investment. Over the past decade, the U.S. added over 100 GW of new capacity intended largely to maintain resource adequacy. This amounted to over $120 billion of capital investment, primarily in gas-fired generators and lithium-ion batteries.

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are an emerging alternative to conventional resource adequacy options. A VPP is a portfolio of actively controlled distributed energy resources (DERs). Operation of the DERs is optimized to provide benefits to the power system, consumers, and the environment. Within a decade, analysts forecast an inflection point in the trajectory of DER ownership. …

Looking Forward: A Guide to Climate Risk Scenario Analysis Design for California’s Insurance Regulator

California’s insurance industry faces significant risks from climate change, including both the transition risks facing all financial institutions as the global economy shifts toward decarbonization and the singular combination of physical risks—wildfire, drought, coastal hazards, extreme heat—that threaten California’s communities and businesses. Accurately assessing and mitigating these risks will be vital to ensuring the long-term viability of the insurance market in California, the availability and affordability of insurance for California residents and businesses, and the state’s physical and financial resilience in a changing climate.

This report explores the field of climate risk scenario analysis—a key instrument to assess financial risk …

Carbon Confidence in Climate Finance: CarbonCount 2.0

First developed in 2013 by the climate investment firm HASI, CarbonCount is a decision tool that evaluates investments in U.S.-based carbon-free energy, energy efficiency, and climate resilience projects to determine how efficiently they reduce CO2 equivalent emissions per $1,000 of investment. CarbonCount scores reflect a quantitative impact assessment of the avoided emissions of a project by integrating forward-looking project assumptions, emissions factors, and capital investment.

HASI recently released a new and improved CarbonCount 2.0 to give a more precise assessment of avoided emissions via newly available locational marginal emissions (LME) factors that reflect the grid composition specific to each project’s …