Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Advancing energy technology, increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, and climate change concerns are forcing a transformation of the electricity grid. And, this transformation is making the economic inefficiency of the current rate designs increasingly more apparent. Today's typical rate designs not only fail to provide efficient price signals for electricity consumption, leading to inefficiently high capital expenditures and air pollution, but also fail to incentivize distributed energy resources, such as solar panels and energy storage, in a socially beneficial manner. As a result, reforming rates to accurately reflect the underlying costs, including external costs related to the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, is becoming an urgent endeavor.In this Article, we first explain how current electricity rate designs hamper economic efficiency because they break the link between price signals and underlying costs, especially the costs related to environmental externalities. Based on an economic framework, we highlight how better rate designs would improve economic efficiency, provide accurate price signals for distributed energy resources, and advance the seemingly conflicting interests of the relevant stakeholders. We provide a historical context to show that for almost 140 years of electricity rate design discussions, economic efficiency principles have mostly been ignored; yet, problems that stem from inefficient rate designs have continued to be salient. We then argue that the electricity sector is at a critical juncture, and that a shift to a paradigm with a long-term vision with better, economically efficient rate designs is necessary if we want to realize the clean energy future that the modern grid promises us.

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Advancing energy technology, increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, and climate change concerns are forcing a transformation of the electricity grid. And, this transformation is making the economic inefficiency of the current rate designs increasingly more apparent. Today's typical rate designs not only fail to provide efficient price signals for electricity consumption, leading to inefficiently high capital expenditures and air pollution, but also fail to incentivize distributed energy resources, such as solar panels and energy storage, in a socially beneficial manner. As a result, reforming rates to accurately reflect the underlying costs, including external costs related to the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, is becoming an urgent endeavor.In this Article, we first explain how current electricity rate designs hamper economic efficiency because they break the link between price signals and underlying costs, especially the costs related to environmental externalities. Based on an economic framework, we highlight how better rate designs would improve economic efficiency, provide accurate price signals for distributed energy resources, and advance the seemingly conflicting interests of the relevant stakeholders. We provide a historical context to show that for almost 140 years of electricity rate design discussions, economic efficiency principles have mostly been ignored; yet, problems that stem from inefficient rate designs have continued to be salient. We then argue that the electricity sector is at a critical juncture, and that a shift to a paradigm with a long-term vision with better, economically efficient rate designs is necessary if we want to realize the clean energy future that the modern grid promises us.

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 59

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent advances in technology and the consequent decline in manufacturing costs are making energy storage systems a central element of energy and climate change policy debates across the nation. Energy storage systems have the potential to provide many benefits such as lower electricity prices at peak demand times, deferred or avoided new capacity investments, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, both federal and state policymakers are enthusiastically encouraging more energy storage deployment with the belief that energy storage systems will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by making intermittent and variable renewable energy resources such as solar and wind more attractive. This Article challenges this common assumption that increased energy storage will necessarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We first explore the conditions under which energy storage systems can cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions contrary to the intent of the policymakers. As policymakers start to rely more heavily on energy storage systems to achieve clean energy goals, this insight is crucial to inform the stakeholders in the energy and climate policy debates. Furthermore, we show that the current regulatory and policy landscape falls short of providing sufficient incentives for a desirable level of deployment of energy storage or sufficient safeguards to ensure that more energy storage deployment is indeed beneficial. We suggest policy reforms that can correct these inefficiencies and discuss the jurisdictional roles between state and federal regulators in implementing these reforms.

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid

Managing the Future of the Electricity Grid PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
As distributed energy generation is becoming increasingly common, the debate on how a utility's customers should be compensated for the excess energy they sell back to the grid is intensifying. And net metering, the practice of compensating for such energy at the retail rate for electricity, is becoming the subject of intense political disagreement. Utilities argue that net metering fails to compensate them for grid construction and distribution costs and that it gives rise to regressive cost shifting among its customers. Conversely, solar energy proponents argue that the compensation should be higher than the retail rate to account for other benefits that distributed generation systems provide, such as the resulting climate change and other environmental benefits, as well as the savings resulting from not needing to build new installations to provide additional capacity. This ongoing debate is leading to significant changes to net metering policies in many states. This Article provides a thorough analysis of the benefits and the costs of distributed generation and highlights the analytical flaws and missing elements in the competing positions and in all the existing policies. We propose an alternative approach that properly recognizes the respective contributions to the electric grid of utilities on the one hand and of distributed generators on the other. We show, however, that this policy is second-best as a result of certain constraints on how electricity can currently be priced. For the longer run, when these constraints might no longer be present, we discuss the need to consider net metering as part of a more comprehensive energy reform that would ensure the efficient integration of all distributed energy resources into the electricity grid. These reforms are needed to secure our Nation's clean energy future.

Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System

Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309463076
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.

Living on the Grid

Living on the Grid PDF Author: William L. Thompson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 149179044X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book Here

Book Description
There’s probably a good chance that you’ve turned on your television, computer, or an appliance without giving much thought about the electric grid. But when there’s a power outage, it’s a different story. Suddenly, you’re asking yourself questions such as: What is the electric grid and who owns it? Who controls the grid and how is it controlled? What causes a grid blackout? What is the future of the grid? William L. Thompson, who retired from Dominion Virginia Power after thirty-eight years in the electric business, answers those questions and many more in this book for anyone curious about the electric grid and how it works. In plain, simple language, he reveals what goes on behind the scenes at grid control centers across the country. He also explains how electricity is generated through renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. He also examines the causes behind the largest blackout in United States history and how global warming and technological developments could permanently change Living on the Grid.

The Future of the Grid

The Future of the Grid PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric power transmission
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Energy Switch

The Energy Switch PDF Author: Peter Kelly-Detwiler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1633886670
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
The energy industry is changing, and it’s far more than just solar panels. Electric vehicles look to overtake gasoline-powered cars within our lifetimes, wind farms are popping up in unlikely places, traders are transforming energy into a commodity, and supercomputers are crunching vast amounts of data in nanoseconds while helping to keep our energy grids secure from hackers. The way humans produce, distribute and consume power will be cleaner, cheaper, and infinitely more complex within the next decade. In The Energy Switch, leading energy industry expert Peter Kelly-Detwilerlooks at all aspects of the transformation: how we got here, where we are going, and the implications for all of us in our daily lives. Kelly-Detwiler takes readers to the frontlines of the energy revolution. Meet Steve Collins, an executive from Commercial Development Corporation, the company that blew up two $570-million-dollar concrete cooling towers to create a staging ground for the new $70 billion U.S. offshore wind industry; Rob Threlkeld, a General Motors executive who convinced the auto giant to sign multiple 20-year renewable energy contracts worth hundreds of millions; Kevin McAlpin, a Texas homeowner who buys the power for his home on the electricity spot market – where prices can soar from less than one cent a kilowatthour to $9.00 over the course of a single day; Dr. Kristin Persson, who oversees a supercomputer that can process data at 30 quadrillion calculations per second, in the quest for better renewable energy and battery technologies; and John Davis, a Texas rancher who can keep his land intact, with help from the royalty payments from seven turbines spinning on his range. Energy creation and distribution has driven society’s progress for centuries. Today, people are increasingly aware that it is imperative that humans move towards a cleaner, digitized, and democratized energy economy. The Energy Switch is about that multi-trillion dollar transformation, told from the perspective of those leading us to that bright future.

Smart Power Anniversary Edition

Smart Power Anniversary Edition PDF Author: Peter Fox-Penner
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781610915892
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Few industries in the U.S. are as stuck in the past as our utilities are. In the face of growing challenges from climate change and the need for energy security, a system and a business model that each took more than a century to evolve must now be extensively retooled in the span of a few decades. Despite the need, many of the technologies and institutions needed are still being designed or tested. It is like rebuilding our entire airplane fleet, along with our runways and air traffic control system, while the planes are all up in the air filled with passengers. In this accessible and insightful book, Peter Fox-Penner considers how utilities interact with customers and how the Smart Grid could revolutionize their relationship. Turning to the supply side, he considers the costs of, and tradeoffs between, large-scale power sources such as coal plants and small-scale power sources close to customers. Finally, he looks at how utilities can respond to all of these challenges and remain viable, while financing hundreds of billions of dollars of investment without much of an increase in sales. Upon publication, Smart Power was praised as an instant classic on the future of energy utilities. This Anniversary Edition includes up-to-date assessments of the industry by such leading energy experts as Daniel Estes and Jim Rogers, as well as a new afterword from the author. Anyone who is interested in our energy future will appreciate the clear explanations and the in-depth analysis it offers.

The Future of Electric Power in the United States

The Future of Electric Power in the United States PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780309684446
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Electric power is essential for the lives and livelihoods of all Americans, and the need for electricity that is safe, clean, affordable, and reliable will only grow in the decades to come. At the request of Congress and the Department of Energy, the National Academies convened a committee of experts to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the U.S. grid and how it how it might evolve in response to advances in new energy technologies, changes in demand, and future innovation. The Future of Electric Power in the United States presents an extensive set of policy and funding recommendations aimed at modernizing the U.S. electric system. The report addresses technology development, operations, grid architectures, and business practices, as well as ways to make the electricity system safe, secure, sustainable, equitable, and resilient.

The Power Grid

The Power Grid PDF Author: Brian D’Andrade
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0081009526
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Power Grid: Smart, Secure, Green and Reliable offers a diverse look at the traditional engineering and physics aspects of power systems, also examining the issues affecting clean power generation, power distribution, and the new security issues that could potentially affect the availability and reliability of the grid. The book looks at growth in new loads that are consuming over 1% of all the electrical power produced, and how combining those load issues of getting power to the regions experiencing growth in energy demand can be addressed. In addition, it considers the policy issues surrounding transmission line approval by regulators. With truly multidisciplinary content, including failure analysis of various systems, photovoltaic, wind power, quality issues with clean power, high-voltage DC transmission, electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic interference, privacy concerns, and data security, this reference is relevant to anyone interested in the broad area of power grid stability. Discusses state–of-the-art trends and issues in power grid reliability Offers guidance on purchasing or investing in new technologies Includes a technical document relevant to public policy that can help all stakeholders understand the technical issues facing a green, secure power grid