Implications of a regional resource adequacy program on utility integrated resource planning: Study for the Western United States
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB), Denver, CO (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
LBNL collaborated with the Western Interstate Energy Board and the University of Texas, Austin to investigate the implications of a regional resource adequacy (RA) program on utility integrated resource planning. This report is focused on an active policy discussion to develop a novel voluntary program to share capacity resource and improve RA in the Western Interconnection. This report identifies two RA components of IRP that will be highly impacted by a regional RA program: resource capacity accreditation and RA targets. There are at least four resources that will require specific attention for their capacity credit calculation: (1) variable renewable resources, (2) demand-side resources, (3) hydropower, and (4) contracts. It will then be necessary to decide on a RA target reliability metric (e.g., a planning reserve margin) that is at least the minimum requirement in IRPs to ensure consistency in RA requirement calculations. The report finds that load forecasting and transmission expansion analyses will be moderately impacted, but that most of IRP components will not be significantly impacted. The report includes (i) a review of traditional resource adequacy practices in IRP; (ii) a case study of an existing regional RA program that interacts with IRP (Southwest Power Pool) and (iii) an overview of the NWPP regional resource adequacy proposal that is the object of this work. This paper does not (1) advocate for or against a regional RA program for the NWPP, (2) make detailed design recommendations for this program, or (3) assess its benefits and costs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB), Denver, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Electricity (OE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1733347
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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