The push for clean energy, development of new technologies, emerging “smart grid” investment, and other developments have increased electric industry focus on distributed resources. E3’s comprehensive electric industry expertise allows the firm to consider distributed resources in the context of industry developments, such as advanced metering infrastructure, electric vehicle development, and dynamic pricing opportunities.
E3’s Distributed Resources practice includes the evaluation of all sources of generation and storage located behind a customer’s meter as well as evaluation of automated and smart grid technologies.
E3’s expertise includes the evaluation of customer, utility, and societal perspectives of distributed resources. We assist clients with regulatory filings related to new utility programs and review the effectiveness of existing programs and policies.
The Distributed Resources practice includes:- Utility distributed resource program development
- Non-wires alternatives assessment
- Distributed generation
- Combined heat and power
- Distributed storage
- AMI and smart grids
Contact: Snuller Price
Sample Projects +California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research Program. E3 partnered with Electrotek Concepts to develop a joint engineering and economic assessment of renewable distributed generation (DG) for four California municipal utilities. The approach utilizes actual distribution system data and combines engineering and economic analysis to identify grid locations where DG has the most value, and to calculate the cost-effectiveness of various DG technologies at these locations.
California Public Utilities Commission, SGIP and CSI evaluation. E3 is supporting cost-effectiveness analysis of the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) and California Solar Initiative (CSI). E3’s analysis applies the cost-effectiveness tests in the California Standard Practices Manual. E3 is developing a methodology to incorporate market transformation effects of the SGIP and CSI incentives into the assessment of program cost-effectiveness. E3 is also assessing the local transmission and distribution capacity value of the SGIP and CSI programs.
PG&E. PG&E retained E3 to perform several major studies evaluating the technical requirements and economic viability of using distributed resources to mitigate the need for contentious transmission expansion projects.
Orange and Rockland Utilities. E3 evaluated numerous T&D expansion plans and provided due diligence analyses of DR-based alternatives. E3 helped ORU develop a multi-stage screening process that efficiently identifies areas with high economic and technical potential for DR solutions so that limited planning resources can be used most effectively.
California Energy Commission, CHP assessment. E3 developed a cost-effectiveness framework for CHP applications and evaluated costs and benefits to the DG owner, non-participating customers of the State's utilities, and California as a whole. The project’s assessment of CHP market opportunities informed the CEC’s 2005 Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR) and contributed to the State’s Energy Action Plan.
EPRI, Energy Storage Valuation Tool. E3 developed the Energy Storage Valuation Tool, a cost-effectiveness analysis tool for distributed energy storage. This tool allows a user to input performance characteristics of the energy storage technology, and the results show the maximum price point for the technology given costs on the utility system.
