IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2022 - 4

Barry Mather and Steve Widergren
competing choices
planning infrastructure investments
R
4
RECENT ISSUES OF POWER &
Energy Magazine reviewed the transformational
implications of high variable
renewable energy penetration.
This, coupled with the emerging ability
to coordinate the operation of smart
devices and systems at the distribution
and customer levels of the grid bring a
new perspective to the future of power
system planning and operations.
Microgrids, smart buildings, electric
vehicle (EV) charging, batteries,
and load management
contribute to the notion
of harnessing flexibility
from distributed energy
resources (DERs) to
address a host of system
operations challenges.
Not the least of these
is planning investments
in the electricity delivery
infrastructure. The
capital devoted to transmission
and distribution
equipment and the complexity
of siting substations
and lines figure
into the challenge.
The sizing of the
portunities to coordinate the management
of local supply and demand that
can influence the calculus. This issue
explores initiatives that are underway
that value the operational flexibility
from DERs to make future investments
in the delivery infrastructure
more cost-effective.
The sizing of
the electricity
delivery system
to satisfy peak
periods has
historically
resulted in
poor asset
utilization
characteristics.
electricity delivery system
to satisfy peak periods
has historically resulted in poor
asset utilization characteristics. As the
delivery system expands and changes
through this transformation, power system
operating organizations have opDigital
Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2021.3134117
Date of current version: 21 February 2022
ieee power & energy magazine
In This Issue
Nondairy creamer, nonfiction books,
and nonalcoholic beer-sometimes,
things are best explained
by what they are not. So
it is with nonwire alternatives
(NWAs), meaning
approaches that provide
a solution without
the need for traditional
grid upgrades (e.g., not
requiring more or higher-capacity
" wires. " )
This issue provides an indepth
look at the NWA
landscape where the
NWA solution involves
DERs, including distributed
battery energy
storage systems and controlled
EV charging.
This topic is of parright
ticular
interest
now
as DER deployment continues to
grow at a considerable pace and opportunities
for them to provide grid services
develop. The potential to implement
DER-based NWA solutions to lower
costs and increase overall system flexibility
is a reality in some service territories
and being piloted and considered
in many more. The first five articles in
this issue discuss the following topics:
✔ an overview of U.S. DER-based
NWA activities by state, including
legislation and other initiatives
as well as a discussion of
how NWAs are being integrated
into distribution planning
and operations
✔ a detailed look at NWA opportunities
in California and the valuation
methodology for NWAs for
both distribution and transmission
systems, along with a view
of the changes needed in regulatory
policy to fully capture DERbased
NWA value
✔ a case study from northern California
of the costs and overall
value of using DERs capable of
flexible demand, such as controlled
EV charging, to avoid
traditional distribution grid upgrades,
including an introduction
to the new distribution planning
approaches needed to assess
NWA benefits
✔ the challenges of determining
the value of NWAs that are highly
location-dependent as well as
the presentation of a methodology
and results of determining
the locational marginal value of
DERs to mitigate distribution
system constraints
✔ the findings from a project that
sought to evaluate the effectiveness
of using auctions to procure
NWAs to overcome capacity, energy,
and reserve requirements.
march/april 2022
editors' voice
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2022
