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.
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The Biden Administration has proposed investing in reliable, efficient electric power lines that deliver more renewable energy. In the “American Jobs Plan,” released on March 31, the Administration laid out a plan for investing in American jobs and renewable energy, as well as strengthening the resilience of the electrical grid. However, the United States needs a national power grid in order to increase its energy security and resilience to extreme weather events. By improving electricity transmission, a national power grid would also make the transition to clean energy easier and cheaper. The Administration should seek to better integrate the United …
View Full ResourceElectric utilities are facing new challenges in the United States. Here in the West, we are beginning to experience the direct impacts of climate change, through extreme weather, droughts, reduced snowpack, and wildfires. A hotter, drier climate intensifies wildfire risk and severity. Electric utility infrastructure—like high-voltage transmission lines—have always posed fire risks, but those risks are now much greater than when those facilities were initially constructed. This has led utilities to commence preventative emergency disconnection of electricity service as a tool to mitigate the risk of utility infrastructure sparking deadly and devastating wildfires. These interruptions in service, while reducing wildfire …
View Full ResourceCalifornia’s electricity infrastructure is entering a period of profound change. From a policy perspective, the state is moving toward goals of 60 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent zero-carbon power by 2045, while state and local governments are striving to electrify more buildings and vehicles. At the same time, climate change is destabilizing these efforts, as extreme heat waves and record-setting wildfires are leading to electricity demand spikes, public safety power shutoffs, and questions about the reliability and resilience of an increasingly renewable-powered grid.
As the grid becomes more defined by flexible, distributed assets that generate, store, and …
View Full ResourceIn fall 2019, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) initiated a joint Microgrids State Working Group (MSWG), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE). The MSWG aimed to bring together NARUC and NASEO members to explore the capabilities, costs, and benefits of microgrids; discuss barriers to microgrid development; and develop strategies to plan, finance, and deploy microgrids to improve resilience. Based on member input, the MSWG developed two companion briefing papers to answer key questions about microgrids: (1) User Objectives and Design Approaches for …
View Full ResourceThis report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights the crucial role of smart renewable mini-grids infrastructure. Grid-connected mini-grids can increase power system resilience and reliability, while facilitating the integration of solar and wind power. Renewable mini-grids far off the main grid, meanwhile, can provide reliable electricity access for remote areas and islands.…
View Full ResourceThe Critical Consumer Issues Forum (CCIF) today released a new report, “Planning for the Electric System of the Future: The Path to a More Resilient Energy Grid.” The report was released at a virtual event during which participants shared their insights and takeaways from CCIF’s year-long dialogue on the important topic of energy grid resilience. CCIF is a collaborative that includes members of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), who work together to develop solutions to meet customer needs.
CCIF’s latest report features …
View Full ResourceImproved resilience has emerged as a top priority for the U.S. power grid. Efforts to mitigate wildfire risk in Northern California last year led to hundreds of thousands of electricity customers being disconnected from the grid. During hurricane season, customers in the Eastern and Southern U.S. often face the associated threat of multi-day power outages. In many other parts of the country, portions of the local power grid are susceptible to interruptions due to a variety of other factors. Improved resilience would reduce or avoid those outages, allowing industries, businesses, and households to maintain their uninterrupted supply of electricity.
Resilience …
View Full ResourceAdvancing Electric System Resilience with Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies addresses the role of state regulators in electricity system resilience, the relationship of distributed energy resources to resilience and how states can implement policies to expand DER deployment to improve resilience.…
View Full ResourceIn states across the nation, the electricity system is changing, presenting challenges and opportunities for the delivery of reliable, clean, and affordable power to America’s homes, businesses, and institutions. As variable renewable generation and distributed energy resources (DERs)—including energy efficiency, demand response (DR), onsite generation, energy storage, and electric vehicles (EVs)—grow, the management of electricity is becoming more complex.
Fortunately, advancing technologies open the prospect for more flexible management of building and facility energy loads to benefit occupants, owners, and the grid. Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs) take advantage of these new capabilities to optimize energy management by using sensors, analytics, …
View Full ResourceResilience is a topic receiving much attention in relation to energy systems, with particular attention being paid to the supply of electricity. Within the context of the electricity system, definitions of resilience encompass holistic concepts that emphasize preparing for, absorbing, adapting to, and recovering from interruptions in electricity supply (White House 2013; DHS 2013; Hotchkiss and Dane 2019; Watson et al. 2014; Stankovic and Tomsovic 2018). Recent research has focused on understanding the resilience of the electricity sector to a core set of disruptions, which reflects (1) the economy’s increased dependence on electricity, (2) multiple emerging threats to the system …
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