Equitable Resilience: Opportunities to Advance Solar Paired with Battery Storage in Historically Marginalized Communities

The number of solar and battery storage installations nationwide is increasing year-over-year. Yet, these technologies remain largely inaccessible to historically marginalized communities, including low-income communities, communities of color, and environmental justice communities. As power outages continue to increase in occurrence and severity – due, primarily, to more extreme weather events and the failure of outdated fossil-fuel polluting energy infrastructure – the economic, reliability, and resilience benefits of battery storage will be more important than ever.  

This report by Clean Energy Group (CEG) presents findings resulting from the Resilience, Storage and Grid Benefits Community of Practice, an effort through the Equitable …

Grid Flexibility Study

Resurgent electricity consumption growth challenges grid reliability according to NEMA-PA Consulting Grid Flexibility study:
– The electroindustry is at the forefront of a nationwide drive to improve the reliability and resilience of the power grid ahead of growing power demand from data centers, e-mobility, building electrification, and manufacturing reshoring
– After two decades of stagnant power demand growth and scant transmission and distribution additions, power gap risks are expected to rise during peak demand events

Reliability risks are rising:
– Demand growth is likely to increase twice as rapidly over the next 25 years compared to the last quarter century, …

Turning Data Centers into Grid and Regional Assets: Considerations and Recommendations for the Federal Government, State Policymakers, and Utility Regulators

Over the last two years, America’s demand for electric power has surged thanks to the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing and the emergence of—and demand for—generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which relies on power-hungry data centers. The emergence of these two substantial new electric loads is unprecedented, and policymakers must address this dual challenge rather than viewing industrial growth and data center growth as competing priorities that require choosing one over the other.

A promising solution is to transform data centers into grid and regional assets that offer flexible demand powered by carbon-free electricity. These centers can reduce energy consumption during grid …

SEPA Resilience Playbook for States and Utilities

SEPA’s Resilience Planning Playbook provides state energy offices and utilities with a starting point to address the role of distribution system resilience in the clean energy transition. This playbook utilizes traditional electric utility best practices (e.g., system reliability and capacity planning) and emerging best practices (e.g., environmental justice, energy equity, and critical infrastructure considerations) to help states and utilities understand the tools needed to ensure resilience in light of changing customer needs and demands. It introduces various tools for improving resilience planning (e.g., grid modernization, grid hardening, and distributed energy resources).

In 2020, the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) developed …

Affordable Housing and Energy Resilience in Lynn, Massachusetts

Community land trusts and community microgrids present an opportunity for low- and moderate income (LMI) communities in Lynn, Massachusetts to take ownership of their neighborhood, provide affordable housing, and create family and community wealth through home ownership. Community land trusts and microgrids advance equitable affordable housing approaches through organizational missions grounded in racial/ethnic and economic justice, sustainable development, community control, and intergenerational equity (see ES-Table 1). This Applied Economics Clinic report makes recommendations for policymakers in Massachusetts to assist in creating strategies for affordable housing creation and preservation and reduction of energy costs. Lynn needs strategies to address its growing …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Innovative Grid Deployment

Deploying the advanced grid solutions available today could cost effectively increase the capacity of the existing grid to support 20-100 GW of incremental peak demand when installed individually, while improving grid reliability, resilience, and affordability. The grid is becoming a bottleneck to greater economic development, decarbonization, and equity priorities. Customers are demanding more grid capacity as regional electricity demand grows substantially for the first time in decades to serve a rapid uptick in data center and manufacturing needs and broader end-use electrification.
At the same time, heightened threats and increased dependence on electricity increase the importance of reliability and resilience …

Meeting Clean Energy Goals Will Require the Grid of the Future

The transmission grid is the critical superhighway that connects energy supply and demand. But the grid was designed for the power plants of the past—not for the diverse range of resources and technologies of a clean energy future. Over 70 percent of the nation’s transmission infrastructure is more than 25 years old, and in many areas of the country constraints have already been an impediment to renewable power. To meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, it is needed to expand electric transmission systems by 60 percent by 2030 and possibly triple the capacity of these systems by 2050. The Inflation Reduction …

Exploring Non-Traditional Resilience Investments in the Utility Business Model: A Case Study with Baltimore Gas & Electric and Pepco

In 2021-2022, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) collaborated with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) on a project focused on enhancing grid investment decisions with an emphasis on resilience and equity. The project aimed to identify grant opportunities and explore unconventional distribution upgrades. BGE and PHI were also engaged in efforts to strengthen grid infrastructure and implement innovative clean energy solutions to meet sustainability and resilience objectives at the state and utility levels in Maryland.…

Exploring Non-Traditional Resilience Investments in the Utility Business Model: A Case Study with Baltimore Gas & Electric and Pepco

In 2021-2022, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) collaborated with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) on a project focused on enhancing grid investment decisions with an emphasis on resilience and equity. The project aimed to identify grant opportunities and explore unconventional distribution upgrades. BGE and PHI were also engaged in efforts to strengthen grid infrastructure and implement innovative clean energy solutions to meet sustainability and resilience objectives at the state and utility levels in Maryland.…

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 …