Reconsidering Resource Adequacy, Part 2

Deck: 

Capacity planning for the smart grid.

Fortnightly Magazine - May 2010
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The one-day-in-10-years criterion for capacity planning is coming under scrutiny. Making the most of the smart grid and demand management requires a less conservative approach. Markets and prices rather than administrative rules will ensure resource adequacy in a more efficient way.

Resource adequacy planning in the United States has rested upon a very conservative criterion (“one day in 10 years;” perhaps an order of magnitude more conservative than can be justified by marginal benefits) that also has been applied conservatively, as explained in Part I of this article (see April 2010 Fortnightly). Why has electric resource planning been so conservative? If there was a rationale for this practice in the past, is the rationale still applicable today, and for the future? How must resource adequacy practices be adapted for the coming smart grid?

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