Eastern Interconnection public utility commissions and state energy directors met throughout 2010 to 2015 to discuss trends in transmission planning at the inter-regional level. This is an archive of the resources that EISPC developed with sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council (EISPC) facilitated a project to support interstate communication on energy-environmental issues affecting the Eastern Interconnection and the country. The workgroup created resources as a starting point for coordinating States' implementation plans for EPA's Clean Power Plan. This document compiled resources and ideas from the workgroup’s efforts.
Three documents are included: a multistate planning checklist, a legislative language examples checklist, and a sample memorandum of understanding for multistate coordination.
This EISPC paper explores the challenges facing electric utilities and their state regulators as they grapple with the various questions inherent in advancing the public interest during a transition to higher reliance on DG. It begins by highlighting DG’s recent developments and future prospects, and enumerating DG’s unique features as a source of electric power and related grid services; concerns it has raised; and its relationship to the smart grid.
Seams are the interface between two wholesale electricity control areas, systems, and markets; where there are seams, inefficiencies arise that prevent the economic transfer of capacity and energy between neighboring wholesale electricity markets largely as a result of incompatible market rules or designs and this primer examines seams issues through the lens of three current and contested regulatory matters before state and federal regulatory commissions.
This EISPC paper explores NTAs - electric utility system investments and operating practices that can defer or replace the need for specific transmission projects. NTAs can lower total resource cost by reliably reducing transmission congestion at times of maximum demand in specific grid areas, and can be identified through least-cost planning and action for managing electricity supply and demand.
This EISPC white paper is a primer on the use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment for transmission planning to help transmission planners and state regulators better understand the risks of uncertainties impacting power system reliability and economics and to offer guidance on how to incorporate risk analysis into the planning of transmission and other resources.
This EISPC paper highlights concepts introduced in a Risk Assessment White Paper. EISPC engaged EPRI to conduct three separate case studies that demonstrate how the use of probabilistic risk assessment analyses can complement traditional transmission planning.
(Webinar Recording) The accompanying EISPC paper provides a primer on fundamental concepts and best practices in long term load forecasting, and a real-world demonstration of the load forecasting techniques and methodologies through three case studies with three power companies including an ISO, an IOU, and a Co-op, together covering 10 states in the U.S. Eastern Interconnection.
This EISPC paper aims to provide regulators and the community an overview of load forecasting techniques, particularly the opportunities that smart grid technologies bring. The complex concepts, terms, and statistics that are used in load forecasting are explained, as well as demonstrated through three case studies.
This paper describes and explains additional insights from the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) Study concluded in 2012. Topic 14 explores changes in key inputs between 2011 and 2014 including capital costs, distributed solar, demand projections, and environmental policies. Additionally, it addresses the applicability of the additional information to specific regions of the Eastern Interconnection, as well as to the broader Interconnection. Lastly, it provides guidance on how states might incorporate the additional information into their planning processes
Between 2010 and 2012 the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) conducted a major long-term resource and transmission study of the Eastern Interconnection (EI). With guidance from a Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) that included representatives from the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) among others, the project was conducted in two phases. The results from Phase 1 and 2 provided a wealth of data that could be examined further to address energy-related questions. A list of 14 topics was developed for further analysis, covering topics such as cost comparisons, regional evaluations, wind curtailment, demand response, and impacts of various environmental and technology parameters.
This white paper is intended to provide EISPC Members with an assessment of the potential for using the Energy Zones Mapping Tool (EZMT), developed for EISPC primarily by Argonne National Laboratories, to assist in the evaluation process for siting transmission in sensitive areas such as National Trails. More specifically, EISPC wants to better understand how the EZMT might be used to enhance processes for assessing transmission development in environmentally sensitive areas.
This EISPC report aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the potential long-term infrastructure requirements for the electric and natural gas industries, including integration of the operational constraints of both industries into the development of natural gas and electric infrastructure.
This EISPC paper is intended to help policymakers understand the basic technology, economics, and regulations that underlie the planning of today’s electric transmission system. It is written primarily for those who are new to electric transmission issues.
This report describes the work conducted in support of the EISPC’s Energy Zones Study and the development of the Energy Zones Mapping Tool (EZMT) performed by a team of experts from three U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories. The multi-laboratory effort was led by Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Two documents were produced together, a study and a white paper. The study examines various coal technologies in the context of demand for electricity, the diversity of resources, and environmental requirements, and is intended to be a foundational resource for future EISPC modeling efforts. The EISPC white paper explores the market forces and environmental regulations that pose significant challenges to new and existing coal-fired generation in the Eastern Interconnection. The report examines various coal technologies in the context of demand for electricity, the diversity of resources, notably natural gas, and new environmental requirements. It includes a summary exploring the incentives and disincentives faced by coal-fired generating resources.
Read the study & white paper
This study serves as a primer on the development of nuclear power in the United States, identifying current issues facing the industry, and providing an overview of future nuclear technology. This assessment of the nuclear power industry combines the findings of a Locational Study for new and existing nuclear power plants with a white paper analyzing state level policies that encourage or discourage the continued development of nuclear power.
This EISPC paper reviews measures of resource adequacy as used in different parts of the US power system, how reserves are measured, and uses a risk-based analysis to measure trade-offs between the costs of relatively larger capacity targets with reduced energy and societal costs experienced as a result. It explores resource mix sensitivities and recommends ways that states can positively influence resource adequacy levels in power systems in both vertically integrated utility regions as well as in regions with organized wholesale markets.
The goal of this EISPC analysis is to provide a forecast of the adoption of demand-side resources, such as demand response (DR), and the associated impact on electricity demand in terms of three factors: resource capacity; annual energy impact; and peak load impact.
The report includes identification of State-by-State Existing and Potential for:
This white paper provides an orderly compilation of information, a comparison of market structures, and an explanation of how differences in those market structures are likely to affect approaches to planning and resource development in the Eastern United States.