Transcript PowerPoint

Wind & Transmission:
The Clean Energy Superhighway
Mark Lauby
Manager, Reliability Assessments, NERC
“The Clean Energy Superhighway”
 Industry Focus
 Keeping Reliability in the
Balance
• Integrating Renewables
• Climate Change Legislation
 Working Together
Challenges to Reliability

NERC’s 2007 forecast projects load will grow 20% over
the next ten years

The grid is being operated closer to the edge than ever
before

Rising dependence on natural gas for generation just
as North American demand begins to exceed on-shore
supply

New transmission needed to support wind and other
renewable development

On the cusp of dramatic change as climate change and
carbon legislation are considered
2008 Emerging Issues
 Greenhouse gas reductions & carbon legislation
 Fuel storage & transportation
 Rising global demand for energy & equipment, increased
off-shore manufacturing of raw & finished materials
 Modeling increasing adoption of demand-side and
distributed generation resources
 Replacing and upgrading transmission infrastructure for
the 21st century
 Water usage
 Mercury emissions
2009 Scenario Analysis
 Accommodate a minimum of an additional 15% of
total energy from new renewable sources by 2018
• No more than 5% made up from energy efficiency /
demand response
 “Stretch case”
Keeping Reliability in the Balance

Bulk power system reliability must be maintained, regardless of
the generation mix

All generation must contribute to overall bulk power system
reliability

Standards and criteria established must be fair, transparent and
performance-based

Planners and operators must understand the challenges presented
by large scale integration of variable generation

Wind and other variable generation must effectively integrate into
planning and operations practices to ensure reliability

New Planning/operating tool requirements will be described in
terms of bulk power system reliability performance
Integrating Renewables:
Transmission as Ultimate Enabler
 Moving power from the source to demand
centers
• “Clean Energy Superhighway”
• We need just as much support for transmission
development as we do for renewables
• States must work together to bring these clean
resources from areas where renewable resources
exist to areas where they don’t
Situation in Texas Today
Where We Want to Be Tomorrow
Integrating Renewables:
Operational Tools
 Operational models & wind forecasting tools
• Use geographic diversity & varying wind patterns
 Strong transmission back bone
 Demand-side management
 Interconnection facilitators
• Low-voltage ride through
• Dispatchability
Integrating Renewables:
Innovation
 New technologies are needed to manage
variable generation integration. For example:
• Storage
 Compressed Air Energy
 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
 Flywheels & battery
• Smart Grid
 Better visibility leads to higher productivity, efficiency, &
flexibility
smart grid
innovate
storage
Climate Change Legislation:
Results
 Drives higher penetration of demand response
and energy efficiency
 Accelerated retirement of less efficient coal
plants
• 59 planned coal plants cancelled or deferred in 2007
 Environmental dispatching of existing generation
to achieve emissions targets
 Further expansion of natural gas
Climate Change Legislation:
Analyzing Reliability Impacts
 Need transmission
 Power flow implications resulting from
geographical disbursement of gas plants vs.
coal plants
 Possible strain on gas pipeline system
 NERC to take active role in shaping legislation,
making sure voice of reliability is heard
Moving Forward: Collaboration
 NERC-EPRI joint effort to define reliable
integration and identify technology requirements
 Industry Challenges are bigger than any one
organization
 Requires cooperative, industry-wide action
 Accelerated investment is required
“The Clean Energy Superhighway”
 The time is now
 We need renewables, & we need
the transmission to move the
power they generate
• Industry-wide collaboration required
to support this effort
 Operational issues exist, but
emphasis must be on solving
them
Thank you
Questions &
Answers