Planning for low-cost renewable energy

Renewable energy is increasingly cost-competitive with conventional generation technologies. Traditional approaches to utility resource planning and resource investment and procurement (“acquisition”) will, however, prevent utilities from taking fuller advantage of low-cost renewable resources. This paper describes three areas where enhancements in utility resource planning can more accurately reflect the benefits and costs of renewable generation: (1) how operational uncertainties associated with wind and solar generation are characterized in planning models; (2) how reliability services provided by wind and solar generation are valued in planning models; and (3) alignment between cost assumptions used in planning and market conditions. The paper also describes three areas where enhancements in utility resource acquisition can better align decision-making with market outcomes: (1) reducing the time between planning-procurement cycles; (2) shifting from a needs-based to an opportunity-based approach to planning and acquisition; and (3) ensuring comparability among different technology and ownership options. Nascent efforts to resolve challenges in these six areas illustrate the need for utilities and state regulators to expand and upgrade their analytical capabilities.     

Integration of renewable energy resources from the perspective of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator: A review

Due to the abundance of wind resources in its footprint and favorable energy policies and economics, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator has seen an increase of wind energy to its fuel mix since 2006. With over 11,000?MW under its control and 7000?MW on the generation interconnection queue, MISO has begun to act with respect to understanding what higher levels of variable renewable energy resources would mean for its system.     

Beyond 100 % renewable: Policy and practical pathways to 24/7 renewable energy procurement

Corporations are increasingly shaping the future of the electric grid by pursuing 100 % renewable energy goals that seek to match their annual energy consumption with an equal volume of renewable energy. The challenge of achieving a 100 % renewable electricity grid, however, is not only a question of how much renewable energy is built, but rather whether renewables can supply electricity when it is needed. One emerging approach to address this challenge is “24/7" renewable energy, which requires matching a corporation’s hourly energy demand with renewable energy produced in the same region and hour. This paper explores the evolution of voluntary renewable energy procurement goals, presents a practical framework for 24/7 renewable energy procurement, and suggests policy developments that would support wider adoption of a time-matched renewables procurement approach.     

Kansas from 2007 to 2017: A decade of renewable energy development

In one decade, Kansas renewable energy growth created more than $10 billion dollars in capital investment. A battle over building a new coal fired generating plant would become the catalyst for advancing wind energy. Thrust into the national spotlight, Kansas utilized a coal plant compromise to advance a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that required state-regulated utility companies to invest in renewable energy. This effort ultimately led to Kansas becoming a leader in wind power development.     

The real substitution effect of renewable electricity: An empirical analysis for Germany

Renewable electricity is the backbone for a net-zero carbon society. This paper estimates the national and international emissions effect of German renewable electricity in the years 2017–2019 using a Random Forest algorithm, finding negative but heterogeneous effects on emissions demand. A fraction of the estimated emission reductions translate into allowance cancellations in the EU ETS and thereby reduce overall long-term emissions.     

Active management of renewable energy sources for maximizing power production

The continuous increasing penetration of Distributed Generation systems (DGs) into Distribution Networks (DNs) puts in evidence the necessity to develop innovative control strategies capable to maximize DGs active power production. This paper focuses the attention upon this problem, developing an innovative decentralized voltage control approach aimed to allow DGs active power production maximization and to avoid DGs disconnection due to voltage limit infringements as much as possible. In particular, the work presents a local reactive/active power management control strategy based on Neural Networks (NNs), able to regulate voltage profiles at buses where DGs are connected, taking into account their capability curve constraints. The Neural Network controller is based on the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm incorporated in the back-propagation learning algorithm used to train the NN. Simulations run on a real Medium Voltage (MV) Italian radial DN have been carried out to validate the proposed approach. The results prove the advantages that the flexibility of the proposed control strategy can have on voltage control performances, generation hosting capacity of the network and energy losses reduction.     

Willingness to pay for renewable electricity: A contingent valuation study in Turkey

Renewable energy sources are advised as an important alternative vehicle for dealing with a high rate of energy dependency and global warming. Turkey has also an ambitious national energy goal of minimizing energy import and producing 30% of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2023. However, it may not be easy to reach these goals. Willingness to Pay (WTP) thus plays a central role in directing appropriate policies for the country to realize its energy targets. This study reviews previous studies in the same literature as well as examines WTP of Turkish citizens for renewable electricity energy by using a stratified-sample and contingent valuation survey of 2500 households. The results from estimated models show that environmental conscience, membership to an environmental organization, age, education level, gender and income of households are significant determinants of WTP. In addition, the mean value of WTP for green electricity by Turkish households is estimated at around US$ 1 (with the exchange rate 5,3 TL/ US$) per month per household. A number of policy suggestions are further discussed.     

An evaluation of electricity system technology competitiveness metrics: The case for profitability

In this work we develop standardized functional forms for electricity technology competitiveness metrics and show how the mathematical relationship between value and cost can affect the robustness of the metric. We make the case to replace established metrics with economic profitability metrics – including a new profitability-based adjustment to LCOE. These profitability metrics are shown to be more robust for evaluating technology competitiveness by keeping comparisons on an equivalent monetary basis.     

Beyond net metering: A model for pricing services provided by and to distributed generation owners

With the status quo unsustainable in the face of the widespread adoption of distributed generation, the authors propose a new method of metering, compensating and charging customers who own DG resources. The authors encourage separate and granular gross DG output measurement and compensation (plus potentially charges), whether DG is exported to the grid or consumed locally, preferably reflecting locational and temporal value. They analyze the costs and benefits of net metering and their proposed alternative.     

Extending the reliability framework for electric power systems to include resiliency and adaptability

This article presents a reliability, resiliency and adaptability policy framework for power systems. Our proposed broad framework enables a cost-effectiveness analysis of reliability, resiliency and adaptability by incorporating the entire power system into the analysis, including common-cause failures, characterizing outages in a detailed manner, enhancing the concept of the loss of load probability, considering social costs beyond economic ones, and explicitly assessing the probability that the supply-demand mechanism succeeds. Our framework is applicable to all types of power systems, including those with liberalized wholesale electricity markets, or those with high levels of variable renewable energy. In the context of liberalized power systems, our analysis shows that it is necessary to consider explicitly the probability that the real-time energy market clears.