IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2019 - 20

disruptive to the conventional fleet,
and it will provide opportunities to developers well through the next decade.
Here are the unsubsidized costs Robo
anticipates early in the next decade:
✔ unsubsid ized new wi nd at
US$0.02-0.025/kWh
✔ u n s ub sid i z e d n ew s ol a r a t
US$0.025-0.03/kWh
✔ storage will add US$0.005-0.01/
kWh to the cost of solar
✔ the lowest average cost of a combined cycle gas plant will be
roughly US$0.04/kWh, which
does not account for fuel cost
uncertainty.
The funny thing is that these costs
are already being achieved in many
places today.
It's clear that renewable energy is the
way of the future. The incentive to decarbonize is strong, the evidence to support the need is overwhelming, and it's

ieee power & energy magazine

only a matter of time before it occurs.
In the absence of federal leadership
and with broad public
support, state policy
makers are leading
the way, and forwardlooking utilities are
right there with them.
Once society has spoken, our job as power
system engineers is
to design and operate systems that will
achieve society's goals
in the most economic
and reliable way possible. The articles in this issue provide
a status report from around the world
on what is being done to help facilitate
the transition to the new energy mix of
the future. From grid-forming inverters, to new sources of flexibility, and
the evolution of the electricity market

design, all of the things that we thought
we knew are being called into question
as we explore the path
to the future.
One of the interesting things about
this path is that it follows a similar route in
most of the countries
around the world. Although it is true that
some countries are at
different stages of development, everyone
considers a sustainable
energy future as their
end goal. Some may rely on fossil
assets longer than others, but the direction in which we are headed is undeniable. In the eight feature articles in
this issue of IEEE Power & Energy
Magazine, we are fortunate to have 80
authors from 11 countries share information and insights about what they
have found on their respective journeys. There is certainly diversity in
the approaches, and everyone has had
slightly different experiences and lessons learned, but we find we have more
commonalities than differences. We
invite you to open the pages and compare your own experiences with those
of the authors.
The first article, "Secrets of Successful Integration: Operating Experience With High Levels of Variable,
Inverter-Based Generation," is led by
Debra Lew, an independent consultant. It is truly amazing to see what is
already being achieved as well as the
plans for the future.
In the second article, "Transformation of the Grid: The Impact of Distributed Energy Resources on Bulk Power
Systems," a team of authors headed
by Ryan Quint of the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation examines the necessary steps for ensuring
bulk power system reliability. It is clear
that the power system of the future will
have significant amounts of generation and storage connected to the distribution system, and the impacts are
already being felt on the transmission
system today.

There is an
inexorable
movement
by society to
decarbonize the
energy supply.

november/december 2019

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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2019