2022 Long-Term Reliability Assessment

This 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 …

Winter Energy Market and Reliability Assessment

U.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 …

Economic, Reliability, and Resiliency Benefits of Interregional Transmission Capacity

The 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 …

Demand Flexibility and Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings 101

Demand 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 …

The Potential Impact of Climate Change on the Efficiency and Reliability of Solar, Hydro, and Wind Energy Sources

Climate 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 …

Retaining Diablo Canyon: Economic, Carbon, and Reliability Implications

California’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 …

Grid Codes for Renewable Powered Systems

This report contains the latest developments and good practices to develop grid connection codes for power systems with high shares of variable renewable energy – solar photovoltaic and wind. The analysis is an update of the 2016 IRENA report Scaling up variable renewable power: The role of grid codes.

There is an urgent need to adopt clean energy solutions to cope with growing demand for energy and replace existing polluting generators. The inclusion of variable renewable energy introduces challenges to system operation. As renewable energy is variable, uncertain, location constrained and inverter-based, replacing conventional synchronous generation technologies. Furthermore, the …

Valuing Resilience for Microgrids: Challenges, Innovative Approaches, and State Needs

The United States depends on the delivery of reliable, affordable, clean, and safe electricity. Electric utilities invest billions of dollars each year in generation, transmission, and distribution assets to meet this need. However, experiences with recent natural disasters of increasing frequency and duration demonstrate the shortcomings of this approach in the face of modern threats. Further, as customers rely on electricity for a broader range of important needs, such as transportation, as well as critical life-saving services and mission critical facilities such as water treatment, medical care, shelters, telecommunications, and more, the need to minimize the likelihood and impacts of …

The Black Box of Blackstart: Electricity Reliability and Interdependency Considerations for State Energy Offices

Most electricity outages in the United States are localized and do not expand outside of state or regional borders or a utility’s service territory. However, when large parts of or the entire electricity system are failing (due to an extreme weather event, a cyber-attack or other natural or man-made hazards), blackstart capable generation resources are crucial to restarting the electricity grid. Blackstart resources can be started without electricity from the main grid, thus providing the initial energy needed to repower the larger electricity grid. Without operational blackstart units, restoration time would be significant and impacts of a …

The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts

This report recounts the factors contributing to disruptions in electricity and natural gas service in Texas during Winter Storm Uri, with a particular focus on blackouts on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid during the period from February 15-18, 2021. Our goal is to create a common basis of fact to educate the debate over strategies to avoid similar problems in the future. We specifically limited the scope of this report to the events during February 2021, a comparison of the February 2021 event to the previous energy system disruptions in 1989 and 2011 during winter storms, and …