Energy Innovation has laid out 20 state policy proposals, including new regulations to accelerate sustainable energy as well as tried-and-tested ways.
Energy Innovation, a think tank, has identified 20 policy initiatives governments could use to speed up renewable energy implementation, for a more affordable energy system.
The measures might be adopted by state governors, state legislatures, and utility regulators.
The proposals are accompanied by an Energy Innovation study that details how sustainable energy may fulfill increased power demand from data centers and other users while saving consumers money.
While EI’s research includes 20 policy proposals, it is not exhaustive, since it does not include other measures suggested by others that may foster distributed solar and storage.
For example, last year the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap” offered 39 proposals to enhance distributed resource interconnection.
The EI suggestions were divided into many categories:
Ambitious Aims
EI thinks other states might potentially establish similar regulations since 28 states already have renewable energy standards or clean energy standards.
Beyond that, in jurisdictions where utilities establish clean energy objectives of their own, state lawmakers might codify such goals.
If the State Allows
Local restrictions on renewable energy construction remain a significant barrier, with 24% of U.S. counties currently having some form of limitation on solar and wind construction. Some states have already passed legislation to expedite renewable energy permits, and others may follow suit.
System Design
When a utility develops an integrated resource plan, EI recommends that the state require the use of existing, market-based cost assumptions in the planning process with chances for outside parties to provide input.
If fuel prices increase, EI’s recommendation is for the utility (not the consumer) to pay the increased fuel cost via decreased utility earnings.
EI supports competitive all-source procurements for new resources to support market-based planning, which are now an important part of Colorado’s utility planning and procurement process.
On clean energy and new loads, EI highlights a new strategy to allow big customers to be directly served by clean energy projects in regions without corporate power purchase agreements. PPAs are often confined to locations where producers are competing to sell energy into a wholesale market, EI notes, but a “clean transition tariff,” like the one created in Nevada by Google and NV Energy, is an option that can be replicated in other markets.
Grid Consumption
EI supports initiatives in Indiana, Maryland and Virginia to compel utilities to identify spare capacity at underutilized points of interconnection, which would allow solar or wind installations without battery storage to connect more quickly.
Resources That Are Distributed
EI applauds the 22 states that have established integrated distribution system planning procedures, some of which have integrated such planning into generation and transmission planning as a strategy to decrease grid costs.
EI provides many mechanisms via which governments may promote virtual power plants that aggregate dispersed resources to supply energy, capacity, and ancillary services as needed.
EI’s study also highlights:
- Enabling flexible connectivity of dispersed generators
- High-performance conductors and other advanced transmission technologies
- Brownfield clean energy development, which has been problematic in New York State
- Rooftop solar permit automation and remote inspections
Delaware recently adopted the model interconnection standards of IREC. EI’s proposals have much in common with proposals supported by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council to promote distributed solar and storage, including smart inverter standards, accurate hosting capacity maps, and baseline standards for the interconnection of distributed resources. Other supporters have suggested certain smart inverter settings that would optimize hosting capacity.
EI study “Let the sun in: Clean Energy is the cheapest way to meet rising demand—Policy companion report”
