Aggressive policy goals have created a myriad of new challenges for utilities and system operators. Utilities face the pressure to bring on policy-driven resources while maintaining reliability and minimizing shareholder risk. Compliance with Renewable Portfolio Standards, integration of intermittent resources, potential new load from plug-in electric vehicles – all have substantial effects on operations and system planning. E3 can help with services that span the range from short-term assistance on transactions to long-term strategic planning.
E3’s experts continually track technology cost and performance data, state and federal policies, tax treatment, and financing of renewable and emerging technologies. We understand the realities of electric system operations and provide clients with analysis that is grounded in these realities. Our objective analysis, presented in an open and transparent way, has made E3 a trusted advisor on major policy initiatives facing the industry. For example, E3 is providing ongoing support to the CPUC through a stakeholder process to refine technical details in the calculation of the Market Price Referent (MPR), which is used to determine the level of RPS costs that will be added to utility revenue requirements.
The Renewables and Emerging Technology practice includes:- Renewable resource potential and costs
- Integration of intermittent generation
- Solar and Solar Thermal project evaluation
- Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)
- Storage technology
- Electric vehicles
Contact: Snuller Price or Arne Olson
Sample Projects +CPUC 33% RPS Implementation Analysis. E3 evaluated the costs and implementation challenges of meeting a 33% Renewables Portfolio Standard in California by 2020. As part of the project, E3 developed the 33% RPS Calculator, a spreadsheet model that selects resources from 51 resource zones in the Western Interconnection to meet a 33% RPS in California under several cases: a 33% RPS Reference Case, a High Wind Case, an Out-of-State Delivered Case and a High Distributed Generation Case, along with a 20% RPS Case. The model calculates the total, statewide revenue requirement for each of the cases based on assumptions about project ownership and financing costs.
EPRI Energy Storage. E3 analyzed the market for storage applications within the electric value chain, from wholesale energy markets to distributed energy storage applications. The project updated EPRI’s Energy Storage Valuation Tool (ESVT) which quantifies potential energy storage value streams in energy, capacity, and regulation markets. E3 expanded and improved upon an existing Excel-based modeling tool, performed a market analysis for a broad set of energy storage systems, and developed a white paper on market rule changes beneficial to the energy storage value proposition.
Western Electric Industry Leaders Group (WEIL). E3 developed a methodology for estimating the cost of procuring renewable energy resources to meet state-by-state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and greenhouse gas reduction goals throughout the Western Interconnection for a group of western utilities. As part of this project, E3 developed a load and resource model for each of eleven zones in the WECC, and calculated the costs of procuring renewable resources both locally (inside each zone) and remotely (allowing transfers of new renewables from zone to zone, including the cost of constructing new transmission capacity). In order to do this, E3 first developed renewable energy supply curves inside each WECC zone, based on resource capital costs, operating characteristics, generation interconnection, firming and integration costs.
PG&E Electric Vehicle Study. E3 developed a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) charging model and detailed financial and revenue requirements model that incorporates such factors as incentive mechanisms, decoupling, CO2 value, and cost of generation to show impacts on utility rates and revenues. The model produces hourly charging patterns for a portfolio of PHEV technology types and market segments and incorporates PHEV technology, driving patterns, charging locations, and rate structure to develop load and revenue forecasts.
CPUC Market Price Referent. E3 is supporting the CPUC in conducting stakeholder workshops and refining technical details in the calculation of the Market Price Referent (MPR). The MPR is used to establish a market based benchmark for the cost of renewable energy procured by the IOU’s pursuant to RPS legislation. E3 has facilitated workshop and stakeholder discussions gaining consensus on several issues including gas price forecast methodology, financing costs, hedging costs, capital cost estimates, collateral requirements and greenhouse gas adders. E3 currently leads the continuous development of the cash flow model used to estimate the fixed and variable costs of a natural gas combined cycle power plant selling long-term fixed priced electricity.
