A municipal guide to least cost utility planning
The recent track record of traditional'' electricity planning, which entails selection of supply side resources to meet forecasted demand, has not been good. There are numerous examples of utilities incorrectly forecasting demand and over-building generating capacity while others underestimated growth and have had to cut demand and find alternate power sources to avoid outages. A potential solution to this problem is the continuing development of Least Cost Utility Plannning (LCUP). Regulatory commissions, consumer advocates and utilities are increasingly relying an LCUP as the most responsible way to avoid construction of new capacity and alleviate anticipated shortages caused by cancellation of construction projects, load growth, or natural replacement of aging capacity. The purpose of this report is to provide municipalities a starting point for evaluating their servicing utilities or states' least cost plan. This was accomplished by: Identifying key issues in LCUP; reviewing examples of the collaborative and classic approaches to LCUP in Illinois, California, New York State and Michigan; cataloging municipal authorities and strategies which can influence or support LCUP activities. Results of the project indicate that through a basic understanding of LCUP processes and issues, municipalities will be in a better position to influence plans or, if necessary, intervene in regulatory proceedings where plans are adopted. Constraints to municipal involvement in LCUP include statutory limitations, resource constraints, and a lack of knowledge of indirect authorities that support the LCUP process.
- Research Organization:
- Urban Consortium for Technology Initiatives (United States). Energy Task Force; Public Technology, Inc., Washington, DC (United States); Chicago Dept. of Environment, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-78IR05106
- OSTI ID:
- 7141237
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/IR/05106-T161; ON: DE93005624
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
PLANNING
POWER DEMAND
RECOMMENDATIONS
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
FORECASTING
DEMAND
PUBLIC UTILITIES
320603* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Municipalities & Community Systems- Public Utilities- (1980-)
240700 - Power Transmission & Distribution- Economic
Industrial & Business Aspects- (1990-)