Review of Integrated Resource Planning and Load Forecasting Techniques in India

Accurately forecasting electricity demand in India is imperative for governments, utilities and industries when it comes to investment and planning decisions. Over the years, forecasting has becoming even more challenging as planners must take into account changes in technology, load profiles, consumer energy end-use, and economic growth. The changes are the leading cause of uncertainty when it comes to future electricity demand.

In Review of Integrated Resource Planning and Load Forecasting Techniques in India, the authors provide an overview of India’s system of load research and integrated resource planning (IRP), describe related experiences in other developing countries, and deliver recommendations that could strengthen the process in India. The goal is to enable India’s power sector to reliably, efficiently and sustainably meet the country’s demand for electricity.

Power Outage Rapid Response Toolkit

Interruptions in electricity supply – ‘the lights going out’ – make for arresting headlines and capture public attention. Yet it is strikingly rare for any kind of electricity generation shortfall to trigger blackouts: major reliability events are nearly always the result of grid failure incidents such as wires frying or being damaged by trees.

Furthermore, none of the recent events that have occurred in markets with high shares of renewables have been caused by over-reliance on renewables to provide sufficient electricity supplies. In spite of this, the fossil energy industry has a track record of seizing on any opportunity to promote the narrative that more fossil generation is needed and that the growing shift to renewables is undermining and driving up the cost of secure supplies.

To dispel many of the myths surrounding the causes of recent significant power outages, the toolkit looks at four case studies: Texas 2021, California 2020, Great Britain 2019 and South Australia 2016.

These case studies prove it is important that advocates for a clean energy transition can set the record straight quickly, credibly and substantively. This package equips advocates with information and tools to respond quickly to the misinformation that spreads rapidly in the wake of power grid reliability events, and in particular:

• introduces the advocate to reliability events, and their causes and consequences; 
• provides a checklist for advocates to understand and analyse emerging reliability events (a separate, interactive checklist can be downloaded here: Power Grid Rapid Response Checklist);
• provides holding lines for advocates during the information vacuum that normally proceeds a reliability event;
• explains why large-scale reliability events are almost always caused by network failures and not renewable electricity generation.

Collaborating for Gas Utility Decarbonization

Beginning in late 2021, RMI and National Grid jointly convened a series of facilitated collaborative workshops with stakeholders from the nonprofit and utility sectors across several regions, including RAP. This roundtable group explored what it may take to decarbonize the gas distribution system in the United States and the customer end uses it serves today, with a focus on the nation’s residential and commercial buildings.

This report, the roundtable’s final product, describes how the process was designed and conducted and lays out a set of guiding principles and strategies to inform decarbonization of the gas utility and corresponding end uses. Because participants had widely divergent perspectives on an array of issues, the report seeks to reflect initial areas of consensus and does not necessarily reflect the specific policy positions of any individual participating organization. This report is meant as a first step to inform further discussion and action for policymakers and regulators, primarily at the state level.

The RAPPORT, U.S. Edition, September 2022

Utility Regulation in the US: A Brief Introduction

​In a webinar for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network, David Farnsworth explored the power industry and how it is regulated in the public interest.

Performance-Based Regulation (PBR): An Overview

​In a workshop for the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, John Shenot and Camille Kadoch provided an introduction to performance-based regulation as a key tool for aligning utility, ratepayer and public interests.

Nu Vlaamse Energieleverancier failliet is: waar let je op bij keuze nieuwe leverancier? En mijd je jonge spelers?

Performance-Based Regulation (PBR): An Overview

​​In a webinar for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, Camille Kadoch, Elaine Prause and Rick Weston provided an introduction to performance-based regulation as a key tool for aligning utility, ratepayer and public interests.

Building a Next-Generation Mix of Energy Resources: Procurement Best Practices

Regulators have been thinking for decades about how competition can support an energy resource mix that best aligns with the public interest. Now, the landscape for competitive utility procurement is changing in many ways. Lower-cost renewables, increased electrification, decarbonization targets, and equity and affordability goals all present new opportunities — and challenges — for regulators and utilities.

In an interactive webinar, panelists discussed a “next-generation” approach to utility procurement and evolving best practices, based in part on recent work done by RAP and RMI. The webinar offered recommendations on how to design clear rules for procurement processes that consider all available resources, are aligned with both utility and public-policy objectives, and result in outcomes that offer the “least regrets.”

Anatomy of the Texas power outage: Where do the facts lead so far?

In February 2021, an energy crisis in the U.S. state of Texas dominated the news around the globe. Citizens in homes unequipped for freezing temperatures struggled without power for days. The world watched in dismay as the situation grew more disastrous by the hour. Only in the wake of the event have the enormous financial costs of the failures in both the electricity and fossil gas sectors become clear.

Nearly four months later, debates rage on about the causes of the event and the best ways to prevent similar tragedies for consumers and other power system stakeholders. On 23 June 2021, the Electrification Academy welcomed power system reliability expert Michael Hogan of the Regulatory Assistance Project to peel back the layers of speculation and disinformation about the fateful event. He shed light on little-known facts and shared the best of the learnings so far.