The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a study entitled "Modeling the Integrated Expansion of the Canadian and U.S. Power Sectors with the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS)”. Funded by OE, this study documents a development effort that created a robust representation of the combined capacity expansion of the U.S. and Canadian electric sectors in the NREL Regional Energy Deployment System model. The development effort, building on previously published work, comprehensively updated a number of model assumptions, such as fuel price and load projections, existing fleet specifications (including expected retirements and new builds), renewable energy cost and performance projections and resource characterizations, and existing regulation and policy suites.

Results of the study showed a significant increase in wind generation in both the United States and Canada with a gradual retirement of coal and nuclear energy, as well as large investments in transmission capacity across the border, almost doubling the existing capacity of transmission lines. In addition, the exchange of energy appears to be regionally-driven. ISO-NE and NYISO import energy throughout the analysis period. In the Western Interconnection, NREL observed increasing imports to Canada from the United States, whereas the exchanges with MISO switch directions. Future studies will enable a more exhaustive search of the parameter space and will provide important insights into identifying deployment trends and drivers resulting from the integrated planning of the U.S. and Canadian power systems.

The complete report is now available for downloading.