Regional Electric System Planning

LBNL contributes technical and policy expertise to interconnection-wide and sub-regional planning efforts. Within the Western Interconnection, LBNL provides technical support to several regional planning bodies within the Western Governors' Association (WGA) and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), specifically focused on methods for incorporating demand-side resources into regional transmission planning and on emerging issues and trends in utility resource planning.

In this capacity, LBNL reviews and conducts comparative analysis of resource plans developed by electric utilities in the West, in order to inform regional planning activities. LBNL also collaborates with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to refine and improve a tool that can be used by utilities to identify the most economically attractive renewable resources within the Western Interconnection. The tool is called the Generation and Transmission Model and it focuses on the renewable resources identified in the Western Renewable Energy Zone (WREZ) initiative.

Related Projects

Incorporating Demand-Side Resources into Regional Transmission Planning

LBNL provides technical and policy support to the Western Governors’ Association and the Western Electric Coordinating Council in developing robust technical and policy analyses of the impact of energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed generation on regional transmission expansion needs in the Western Interconnection.

Interconnection-wide Transmission Planning Support

In an era of competitive electricity markets, merchant generation, long-distance transport of electricity from renewable sources, and policies that affect the planning and use of bulk power systems, transmission planning is taking on an important regional dimension. LBNL provides technical support to U.S. DOE on many aspects of regional transmission planning. This includes monitoring the progress of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded interconnection-wide transmission planning and related activities, and preparing technical analyses.

Utility Resource Planning Practices and Trends

LBNL reviews and analyzes resource plans developed by utilities in the Western Interconnection, in order to evaluate emerging trends and best practices in utility resource planning. Projects completed to date have included comparative analyses of the treatment of renewables and energy efficiency within western utility resource plans, and an analysis of the manner in which utilities manage risks associated with the uncertain cost of future carbon regulations. Resource planning data compiled and synthesized by LBNL also serves to support regional transmission planning and resource assessment efforts in the West, by informing scenario development and modeling assumptions in the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC)’s transmission planning studies.

Western Electricity Markets

LBNL provides support on a number of key issues for the Western Interstate Energy Board's (WIEB/WGA) Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC), as well as other regional groups. LBNL contributes technical and policy expertise to interconnection-wide and sub-regional planning efforts, specifically focused on methods for ensuring adequate electricity resources, emerging issues in regional resource assessment and system planning, and the creation of market monitoring institutions. LBNL also collects, reviews and conducts comparative analysis of resource plans developed by investor and municipal-owned utilities in the West in support of regional resource planning, resource assessment and portfolio management project activities in which CREPC participates.