Expert perceptions of enhancing grid resilience with electric vehicles in the United States

This paper examines expert perceptions of enhancing grid resilience with electric vehicles in the United States.

Electricity and transportation systems in industrialized countries are undergoing transformations that, if coordinated, could improve the resilience and environmental performance of energy systems. The electrification of transportation and the expansion of renewable electricity can be leveraged by the bidirectional smart charging of electric vehicles, called “vehicle-grid integration” (VGI). Studies to date have focused on simulations and pilot studies to estimate the technical potential of VGI. We survey members of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee using a Delphi approach to assess VGI’s …

New Governors’ Resilience Playbook

During the next four years, every Governor will likely grapple with critical resilience issues in their state – from extreme weather events and natural disasters to crumbling infrastructure and cyber threats. The human and economic toll of not being prepared is highly consequential to your state’s residents, communities, and the economy. Finding ways to mitigate these costs and threats through effective resilience and climate preparedness strategies are therefore an essential responsibility for Governors.

The USCA Resilience Working Group, co-chaired by California and Massachusetts in collaboration with resilience leaders from eight other states, has worked to create a Resilience Playbook for …

BEYOND THE FENCE LINE: Strengthening Military Capabilities Through Energy Resilience Partnerships

The Department of Defense (DoD) is increasingly reliant on electric power for critical national defense missions. Domestic
military installations are connected to the civilian electric grid, which is under threat from more frequent and extreme
weather events, aging and outdated infrastructure, and cyber and physical attacks from determined adversaries. In response,
DoD and the military services have issued strong energy resilience policies and developed dozens of energy resilience
and distributed energy projects.

In order to scale the deployment of energy resilience projects to secure critical missions, DoD will have to continue and expand partnerships with states, communities, regulators, utilities and …

Climate Change Resilience

Chevron faces a broad array of risks, including market, operational, strategic, legal, regulatory, political and financial risks. We undertake an enterprisewide process to identify major risks to the company and ensure that appropriate mitigation plans are in place. As part of this process, we conduct an annual risk review with executive leadership and the Board of Directors.

Our company’s foundation is built on our values, which guide our actions to deliver results. We conduct our business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, respecting the law and universal human rights, in order to benefit the communities where we work. Chevron’s …

Power System Resilience: A Primer

The issue of ‘resilience’ of the power system—including how to best define, measure, and ensure it—has
garnered substantial attention in recent months. The energy policy community turned its collective focus
to resilience issues following the devastating electric grid failures in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane
Maria, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) September 2017 proposal of the Grid ResiliencyU
Pricing Rule. DOE submitted the proposed rulemaking to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with the stated purpose of expeditiously bolstering the grid’s resilience and reliability. The proposal called for tariff changes to ensure the recovery …

Issue Brief: FERC’s Decision on the DOE’s Proposed Grid Resilience Rule

This 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…

Small Modular Reactors: Adding to Resilience at Federal Facilities

Small Modular Reactors: Adding to Resilience at Federal Facilities (this “Report”) expands on the January 2017 report entitled Purchasing Power Produced by Small Modular Reactors: Federal Agency Options (the “Initial Report”). The Initial Report focused on assisting federal agencies to identify options to participate in the purchase of power produced by small modular reactors (“SMRs”), the structure and issues with financing an SMR, and the unique issues that federal agencies face when making power purchase decisions. The Initial Report identified how federal agencies can purchase SMR-produced power through long-term agreements (over thirty (30) years) by using the Utah Associated Municipal …

The Department Of Energy’s Grid Resilience Pricing Proposal: A Cost Analysis

On September 28, 2017, the US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR), proposing significant changes to the nation’s wholesale markets for electricity. The NOPR directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop new tariffs to compensate unregulated units with a 90-day on-site supply of fuel for their “operating and fuel expenses, costs of capital and debt via debt relief companies, and a fair return on equity and investment.”2 The full text of the memo makes clear that the rule is intended to apply to coal and nuclear facilities, which it mentions as having …

DOE study: Markets and infrastructure key to electric reliability and resilience

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) new report on the U.S. electric grid makes valuable recommendations for expanding access to reliable, low-cost electricity by streamlining approval of electric transmission infrastructure and using markets to procure essential reliability services. As a low-cost source of energy that can provide reliability services as well as or better than conventional power plants, wind energy will flourish with the expansion of markets and infrastructure…

Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation’s Electricity System

Americans’ safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex “cyber-physical” system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system’s reliability and resilience can …