In collaboration with the Tennessee Valley Authority Southern Company, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the California Independent System Operator, and other partners, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will develop high-penetration solar future scenarios in the southeastern U.S., distribution grid-feeder clustering and characterization, models for solar generation hosting capacity, and power production simulation. These tools, processes, and studies will be used to assess the full breadth of operational and business impacts posed by high levels of solar generation and to formulate associated strategic plans for the southeastern U.S. that ensure both system reliability and utility financial health.
High penetrations of rooftop and utility scale solar generation in a power system impacts most utility functions. Increasing societal desire for sustainable energy and falling solar photovoltaic (PV) costs, along with various potential federal and state energy policies provide the potential for significant deployment of solar generation even in “non-traditional” solar regions. This project combines development of new tools and techniques with the application of existing and recently developed methods which are needed to understand the implications of high levels of solar PV for utilities and consumers. The project is focused on the Southeastern US, while also leveraging experience and production simulation modeling underway for the high solar penetration area of California.
This project will result in an end-to-end strategy and operations project that leverages prior efforts, including DOE-funded projects, and provides a pathway for successfully integrating large amounts of solar generation. This project will further disseminate analytical results, operational tools, and strategic planning processes to allow for replication that advances PV integration beyond simply the traditional “sunny” regions.
Orlando, FL Convention Center with Solar Panels
This project consists of detailed modeling, simulation and analysis. The outcomes from these analyses will be used to develop strategic plans for utilities to accommodate higher PV penetrations in an economically sustainable way. Advanced transmission and distribution system operational simulation tasks will help with the assessment of the potential effects of PV integration and evaluate and suggest solutions which mitigate any negative effects or amplify solar generation’s positive contribution to provide greater understanding and capability to system operators in reliably accommodating solar generation.
This project will:
- Enable utilities to develop long-term strategic plans and support for the implementation of specific actions to reliably and economically integrate high penetrations of solar generation
- Provide transmission and distribution operators and planners with the operational simulation capability needed to analyze the potential effects of solar generation, evaluate potential solutions, and prepare for high penetrations
- Equip transmission and distribution system operators with the necessary control room tools and processes to operate the grid reliably with high renewable penetration
At the end of this project, the project team will collect and make available in the public domain to be easily viewed and downloaded all data that was generated as part of the scope of this project, including data generated using federal and cost-share funds, such as, but not limited to, solar irradiance and power output together with name of city as a minimum location, electricity grid/feeder models developed in this project, strategic plans developed for solar integration, databases of feeder characteristics and results of clustering, composite load levels and outputs from screening tool. This data set is not yet available.