Associate Director
Jimmy Nelson

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Jimmy Nelson

Dr. Nelson advises utilities, system operators, and state agencies on the operations, economics, and planning of electricity systems with large amounts of variable renewable energy resources. He supports the California Public Utility Commission’s integrated resource planning process and was E3’s technical manager for the development of the CPUC’s 2019-20 Reference System Plan. His study Investigating the Economic Value of Flexible Solar Power Plant Operation received the Public Utility Fortnightly’s Top Innovators Award in 2018. He is a product manager of E3’s RESOLVE planning model and is a technical advisor to many E3 projects.

Prior to joining E3 in 2016, Jimmy was a Kendall Science Fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists and earned a Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Jimmy began his career in energy working to make solar panels cheaper when cost was one of the main barriers to adoption. More than a decade later, he is helping clients understand how to manage and use frequent surpluses of renewably sourced electricity.

Education: PhD, energy and resources, and MS, chemistry, University of California, Berkeley; BS, chemistry, Haverford College

Projects

Integrated Resource Plan Support | El Paso Electric, 2020-21

E3 provided a broad range of IRP support services for El Paso Electric (EPE) including developing resource options and data inputs, conducting a Planning Reserve Margin and ELCC study using RECAP, optimizing EPE’s portfolios over the 2021-2045 period reflecting New Mexico’s Renewables Portfolio Standard and Energy Transition Act as well as EPE’s own goal of 80% carbon reductions by 2035, studying the operability of EPE’s system under high levels of wind and solar generation, and developing regulatory strategies for cost allocation and procurement given EPE’s multi-state service area. E3 has also been heavily involved in EPE’s stakeholder outreach and communication strategy, leading multiple stakeholder workshops and contributing to a substantial improvement in EPE’s stakeholder relations.

Read the detailed project description.

Publications

Integrated Resource Plan | California Public Utilities Commission, 2021

E3 has provided comprehensive technical and advisory support to the Energy Division of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in its administration of the state’s IRP program, mandated by the passage of SB 350 in 2016.  E3 worked with CPUC staff to develop the structure of the IRP program including a three-year modeling cycle in which Staff prepares a system-wide plan that informs the California Independent System Operator (CAISO)’s annual Transmission Planning Process (TPP) and informs Load-Serving Entities integrated resource plans in alternate years.

E3 has helped the CPUC design an optimal “Preferred System Plan” for the combined utilities that incorporates the resource procurement plans of the LSEs and complies with the state’s clean energy policy requirements. In the 2020-2021 cycle, the policy requirements considered include a 60% RPS by 2030 and SB 100 by 2045, and a statewide greenhouse gas emissions target of 38 million metric tons (MMT) by 2030, while capturing the operational and reliability challenges encountered at high penetrations of variable renewable generation. E3 also supported the Energy Division’s development of a mid-term reliability order requiring the procurement of 11.5 GW of effective capacity by 2026. As part of this process, E3 evaluated dozens of scenarios reflecting alternative assumptions about load forecasts and electrification, resource costs, the availability of offshore wind and out-of-state wind, the ability of end-use loads to operate flexibly, and a variety of other input parameters.

Investigating the Economic Value of Flexible Solar Plants

Solar power has grown rapidly around the world, driven by steep cost reductions and increasing interest in carbon-free energy. In 2017, solar power was the second-largest source of new U.S. electric generating capacity, and in each of the last five years it has accounted for more than a quarter of all U.S. capacity additions. Significant strides have […]

Publications

Evaluating benefits of regional market participation | Multiple utilities, 2014–present

E3 has completed studies for more than 10 utilities on the costs and benefits of participating in the western energy imbalance market (EIM), a regional 5-minute balancing market that became operational in 2014. The EIM aims to lower costs for consumers and assist states in meeting renewable energy goals through more-efficient dispatch, which reduces the need to carry costly reserves and curtail renewable generation. For each study, we ran a production simulation grounded in a detailed representation of the utility’s system. Our work has informed decisions by PacifiCorp, Arizona Public Service, NV Energy, and other utilities to join the EIM, as well as Chelan County Public Utility District’s decision not to participate. Consistent with E3 findings, the California ISO estimated that participants saved more than $85 million in the 20 months after the EIM became operational. Several more studies for utilities are under way.

Publications


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