The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
Resource Library
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Decarbonization and clean energy policy goals are fundamentally changing grid planning and operations. The two dominant grid planning challenges and cost drivers are now resource adequacy, to provide reliability during net peak load hours, and time shifting of renewable electricity from periods of excess generation to periods when it can be beneficially consumed. Rate designs established under the old paradigm are no longer aligned with marginal grid costs and are an impediment to realizing environmental goals. Aligning customer responses to retail rates with grid needs now requires more complex multi-part dynamic rates. Predictable and reliable impacts of these dynamic rates …
View Full ResourceThe U.S. electricity grid connects more than 11,000 power plants with around 158 million residential, commercial, and other consumers. Energy storage technologies have the potential to enable several improvements to the grid, such as reducing costs and improving reliability. They could also enable the growth of solar and wind energy generation.
GAO conducted a technology assessment on (1) technologies that could be used to capture energy for later use within the electricity grid, (2) challenges that could impact energy storage technologies and their use on the grid, and (3) policy options that could help address energy storage challenges.
To address …
View Full ResourceThe physics of an electrical grid requires that the supply injected into the grid is always in balance with the quantity consumed. If that balance is not maintained, cascading outages are likely to disrupt supply to all consumers on the grid. In the past, vertically integrated monopoly utilities have ensured that supply is adequate to meet demand and maintain grid stability, but with deregulation of generation, assuring adequate supply has become much more complex. The unique characteristics of electricity distribution means that there are immense potential externalities among market participants from supply shortfalls. In this paper, we discuss the institutions …
View Full ResourceThis event summary highlights key comments made by industry experts at an OEP webinar in March 2023. Featuring panelists from the Energy Choice Coalition, Edison Electric Institute, and C3 Solutions in a discussion on competition in energy markets and issues of cost, reliability and resiliency.…
View Full ResourceThis 2022 LTRA is the ERO’s independent assessment and comprehensive report on the adequacy of planned BPS resources to reliably meet the electricity demand across North America over the next ten years. This 2022 LTRA also identifies reliability trends, emerging issues, and potential risks that could impact the long-term reliability, resilience, and security of the BPS.
The findings in this 2022 LTRA are vitally important to understand the reliability risks to the North American BPS as it is currently planned and as it is being shaped by government policies, regulations, consumer preferences, and economic factors. Energy systems and the electricity …
View Full ResourceU.S. electricity markets are projected to have adequate amounts of generating capacity to maintain reliable operations this winter, though grid operators in certain regions may face challenges during periods of extreme weather, according to the FERC staff Winter Energy Market and Reliability Assessment.
This year’s report, presented to the Commission at its October meeting, notes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts above average temperatures this winter for most of the U.S., except for the Pacific Northwest and West-North Central region of the country.
Rising demand for natural gas, mostly for gas exports, and lower than average natural gas storage …
View Full ResourceThe United States electric grid is in a state of transition. The country is shifting towards lower carbon sources while facing more frequent extreme weather events that challenge the ability to keep the lights on. Greater grid flexibility is the key to reliable decarbonization in the face of uncertainty. One of the most cost-efficient forms of flexibility while maintaining resiliency is greater reliance on interregional imports and exports of electricity.
GE Energy Consulting (GE) knows the value of interregional flexibility from its own study experience. Back in our 2010 Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, GE and the National Renewable …
View Full ResourceDemand flexibility (DF)—the ability of buildings and equipment to adjust energy use dynamically in response to grid conditions—and its application in grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEB)—energy efficient, smart buildings that provide demand flexibility co-optimized to serve occupants and the grid— offer important capabilities for managing an increasingly complex electricity system. They will be key to address imperatives of energy affordability and equity, reliability and resilience, and environmental protection, including energy system decarbonization. The potential to align energy use in buildings and facilities with grid conditions to mutually support customer, grid, and societal needs has far reaching electricity policy, regulatory, and investment …
View Full ResourceClimate change impacts the electric power system by affecting both the load and generation. It is paramount to understand this impact in the context of renewable energy as their market share has increased and will continue to grow. This study investigates the impact of climate change on the supply of renewable energy through applying novel metrics of intermittency, power production and storage required by the renewable energy plants as a function of historical climate data variability. Here we focus on and compare two disparate locations, Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands and Cordova, Alaska. The main results of this …
View Full ResourceCalifornia’s SB 100 bill has committed the state to decarbonize its power grid, with a goal of 60% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% clean electric retail sales by 2045. Plans and resource procurements are falling into place to pursue those goals, including through the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) recent Mid-Term Reliability Procurement Order and the ongoing Integrated Resource Plan and Long Term Procurement Plan.
Using Brattle’s gridSIM model, we then compare the world with such an investment to one without. gridSIM is a state-of-the-art electricity capacity expansion and operations simulation model comparable to RESOLVE. We start with a …
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