11,338 research outputs found
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A review of microgrid development in the United States – A decade of progress on policies, demonstrations, controls, and software tools
Microgrids have become increasingly popular in the United States. Supported by favorable federal and local policies, microgrid projects can provide greater energy stability and resilience within a project site or community. This paper reviews major federal, state, and utility-level policies driving microgrid development in the United States. Representative U.S. demonstration projects are selected and their technical characteristics and non-technical features are introduced. The paper discusses trends in the technology development of microgrid systems as well as microgrid control methods and interactions within the electricity market. Software tools for microgrid design, planning, and performance analysis are illustrated with each tool's core capability. Finally, the paper summarizes the successes and lessons learned during the recent expansion of the U.S. microgrid industry that may serve as a reference for other countries developing their own microgrid industries
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An Assessment of PIER Electric Grid Research 2003-2014 White Paper
This white paper describes the circumstances in California around the turn of the 21st century that led the California Energy Commission (CEC) to direct additional Public Interest Energy Research funds to address critical electric grid issues, especially those arising from integrating high penetrations of variable renewable generation with the electric grid. It contains an assessment of the beneficial science and technology advances of the resultant portfolio of electric grid research projects administered under the direction of the CEC by a competitively selected contractor, the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment, from 2003-2014
Solar+Storage for Low-and Moderate-Income Communities: A Guide for States and Municipalities
The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) has produced a new report for states and municipalities on solar+storage for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities. The report explains how solar+storage can benefit LMI residents and describes a variety of policy tools for doing so, including grants, rebates, utility procurement standards, financing support, opening markets, and soft cost reduction
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Privacy In The Smart Grid: An Information Flow Analysis
Project Final Report prepared for CIEE and California Energy Commissio
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Determining Utility System Value of Demand Flexibility From Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings
This report focuses on ways current methods and practices that establish the value to electric utility systems of distributed energy resource (DER) investments can be enhanced to determine the value of demand flexibility in grid-interactive efficient buildings that can provide grid services. The report introduces key valuation concepts that are applicable to demand flexibility that these buildings can provide and links to other documents that describe these concepts and their implementation in more detail.The scope of this report is limited to the valuation of economic benefits to the utility system. These are the foundational values on which other benefits (and costs) can be built. Establishing the economic value to the grid of demand flexibility provides the information needed to design programs, market rules, and rates that align the economic interest of utility customers with building owners and occupants. By nature, DERs directly impact customers and provide societal benefits external to the utility system. Jurisdictions can use utility system benefits and costs as the foundation of their economic analysis but align their primary cost-effectiveness metric with all applicable policy objectives, which may include customer and societal (non-utility system) impacts.This report suggests enhancements to current methods and practices that state and local policymakers, public utility commissions, state energy offices, utilities, state utility consumer representatives, and other stakeholders might support. These enhancements can improve the consistency and robustness of economic valuation of demand flexibility for grid services. The report concludes with a discussion of considerations for prioritizing implementation of these improvements
State of the Art and Trends Review of Smart Metering in Electricity Grids
Climate change, awareness of energy efficiency, new trends in electricity markets, the obsolescence of the actual electricity model, and the gradual conversion of consumers to prosumer profiles are the main agents of progressive change in electricity systems towards the Smart Grid paradigm. The introduction of multiple distributed generation and storage resources, with a strong involvement of renewable energies, exposes the necessity of advanced metering or Smart Metering systems, able to manage and control those distributed resources. Due to the heterogeneity of the Smart Metering systems and the specific features of each grid, it is easy to find in the related literature a wide range of solutions with different features. This work describes the key elements in a Smart Metering system and compiles the most employed technologies and standards as well as their main features. Since Smart Metering systems can perform jointly with other activities, these growing initiatives are also addressed. Finally, a revision of the main trends in Smart Metering uses and deployments worldwide is included.his work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project TEC2015-67868-C3-1-R), the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) within the program for the specialization of the postdoctoral researcher staff, and Microgrids with Renewable Distributed Generation (MIGEDIR) (project 713RT0468), funded by the Science and Technology for Development Iberoamerican Program (CYTED)
Benchmarking Utility Clean Energy Deployment: 2016
Benchmarking Utility Clean Energy Deployment: 2016 provides a window into how the global transition toward clean energy is playing out in the U.S. electric power sector. Specifically, it reveals the extent to which 30 of the largest U.S. investor-owned electric utility holding companies are increasingly deploying clean energy resources to meet customer needs.Benchmarking these companies provides an opportunity for transparent reporting and analysis of important industry trends. It fills a knowledge gap by offering utilities, regulators, investors, policymakers and other stakeholders consistent and comparable information on which to base their decisions. And it provides perspective on which utilities are best positioned in a shifting policy landscape, including likely implementation of the U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan aimed at reducing carbon pollution from power plants
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China and the United States—A Comparison of Green Energy Programs and Policies
[Excerpt] China is the world’s most populous country with over 1.3 billion people. It has experienced tremendous economic growth over the last three decades with an annual average increase in gross domestic product of 9.8% during that period. This has led to an increasing demand for energy, spurring China to add an average of 53 gigawatts (gw) of electric capacity each year over the lastten years to its power generation capabilities.
China has set ambitious targets for developing its renewable energy resources with a major push of laws, policies, and incentives in the last few years. The wind power sector is illustrative of China’s accomplishments, as installed wind power capacity has gone from 0.567 gw in 2003 to 12.2 gw in 2008, and China surpassed the United States in 2010 with over 41 gw of installed wind power capacity. Notably, however, approximately one-third of that capacity is not yet connected to the power grid. Plans already exist to grow China’s wind power capacity to 100 gw by 2020. A similar goal exists for the solar photovoltaic power sector which China intends to increase generating capacity from 0.14 gw as of 2009 to over 1.8 gw by 2020. A hold on large and medium-scale hydropower project development has been lifted, with a virtual doubling of hydropower capacity planned. Most recently, China pledged ahead of the Copenhagen talks in 2009 that 15% of total energy consumption will come from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2020. The 12th Five Year Plan will encompass 2011 to 2015, and will further formalize the link to green energy with specific deployment goals and investment. China recognizes that developing its domestic renewable energy industry and building its manufacturing capacity will help it meet energy demands at home and win advantages in future export markets.
The key piece of legislation in recent years for advancing renewable electricity in China is the Renewable Energy Law of 2005. The law was designed to “promote the development and utilization of renewable energy, improve the energy structure, diversify energy supplies, safeguard energy security, protect the environment, and realize the sustainable development of the economy and society.” Renewable energy is subsidized by a fee charged to all electricity users in China of about 0.029 cents per kilowatt-hour, and was originally based on the incremental cost difference between coal and renewable energy power generation.
However, energy efficiency and conservation are officially China’s top energy priority. These are considered the “low-hanging fruit” in the quest to reduce energy use and cut demand. Energy conservation investment projects have priority over energy development projects under the Energy Conservation Law of 1997, with government-financed projects being selected on “technological, economic and environmental comparisons and validations of the projects.” China is the world’s largest market for new construction, and new building standards have been in development since 2005 with national energy design criteria for residential buildings. In the power generation sector, many smaller, less efficient coal-fired power plants have been closed.
In contrast to China, some argue that the United States does not have a comprehensive national policy in place for promotion of renewable energy technologies, with some observers saying that the higher costs of renewable electricity are not conducive to market adoption. However, for both countries, the reasons for increasing the use of renewable energy are diverse, and include energy security, energy independence, cleaner air, and more recently anthropogenic climate change, sustainability concepts, and economic development. Creating new, higher quality jobs could reasonably be said to be primary drivers of policy goals in both the United States and China
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