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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This 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 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 ResourcePart One of the Grid Modernization Briefing Series
What’s in the brief?
There is a major paradigm shift occurring in the electric power industry around system planning driven largely by grid modernization and the proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs). This paper outlines best practices for utilities and regulators for enabling a stakeholder-informed system planning process necessary to accommodate non-wires alternatives (NWAs) using DERs. SEPA’s experts have laid out an NWA planning approach that will establish a market for customers and third parties to work alongside the utility to integrate DERs onto the grid without sacrificing system safety, affordability and …
View Full ResourceThe share of wind and solar power in the U.S. electricity mix grew from 1% in 2008 to 8% in 2018. Wind and solar are variable renewable energy (VRE) sources. Unlike conventional sources, weather variability creates uncertainty about the availability of VRE sources. This uncertainty could potentially result in a lack of reliability.…
View Full ResourceElectricity is the lifeblood of the modern U.S. economy, yet much of America’s electric grid is outdated and in dire need of investment and expansion to bring it into the 21st Century. The American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave America’s electricity infrastructure a mark of “D+,” and grid congestion and power outages cost American businesses billions of dollars each year.
To better understand the best way to update and invest in the grid, and any associated consumer benefits, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) undertook a literature review that examines building out the country’s transmission infrastructure. This paper finds …
View Full ResourceInterest is rising in clean energy microgrids, especially within healthcare, higher education, government and business.
What’s the attraction? All microgrids offer greater electric reliability. But the clean energy microgrid does more. It also reduces carbon emissions and helps organizations reach sustainability goals – an achievement increasingly valued by the healthcare community, business customers, government constituents, and college students, parents and donors.…
View Full ResourceU.S. Representative Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN-8) hosted a Discussion at OurEnergyPolicy.org (OEP) on his bill, the Electricity Reliability and Fuel Security Act (H.R. 5270). Below is a summary of the perspectives offered by OEP’s diverse community of energy professionals.
“The national and economic security of the nation depends on the availability of reliable and affordable electricity. This legislation will continue to ensure that Americans will have secure electricity when they need it most.”
– Representative Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN-8)…
View Full ResourceMicrogrids are now emerging from lab benches and pilot demonstration sites into commercial markets, driven by technological improvements, falling costs, a proven track record, and growing recognition of their benefits. They are being used to improve reliability and resilience of electrical grids, to manage the addition of distributed clean energy resources like wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and to provide electricity in areas not served by centralized electrical infrastructure. This review article (1) explains what a microgrid is, and (2) provides a multi-disciplinary portrait of today’s microgrid drivers, real-world applications, challenges, and future prospects.…
View Full ResourceThis issue brief provides a summary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s decision
on the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Proposed Rule on Grid Reliability and Resilience Pricing. The
proposed rule provided cost recovery to coal and nuclear power under the guise of promoting grid
resilience with preference for a 90-day supply of on-site fuel. On Jan. 8, 2018, FERC issued an order
to terminate the rulemaking proceeding and established a new proceeding to gather additional
information on resilience. FERC’s decision was a 5-0 unanimous agreement, with concurring
opinions by Commissioners Cheryl LaFleur, Neil Chatterjee and Richard Glick. The independent…
Digitization means applying recent advances in digital technology such as electronic devices or data and information systems, to improve the technical and economic performance of real activities, systems, businesses, and organizations. The Bipartisan Policy Center launched the Digitizing the Power Sector initiative to better understand the challenges and opportunities of digitization as applied to one of our nation’s most complex and vital infrastructure systems: the electricity grid.
The electric power sector is changing rapidly, enabled by digitization. Government officials at all levels are grappling with how to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs. The goal of this paper is …
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