Modeling Tools
LBNL developed and maintains eProject Builder (ePB), a secure web-based data standardization and tracking system for energy projects across the United States. ePB was the recipient of a 2018 R&D 100 award.
The FINancial impacts of Distributed Energy Resources (FINDER) model quantifies changes in utility costs and revenues, as well as the financial impacts to utility shareholders and customers with the addition of demand-side and distributed energy resources (DERs) like energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed solar. The model can also assess incremental changes to utility regulatory and business models, like alternative rate designs, revenue decoupling, and utility financial incentives, and the efficacy of such approaches to mitigate negative financial impacts due to increased DER adoption.
The Resource Planning Portal database gives users instant access to long-term planning information for dozens of load-serving entities (LSEs) across the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s territory. Users have the ability to conduct queries of information contained in the database, compare planning assumptions across LSEs, and download results in an easily-accessible format.
The Standardized Utility Pro-forma Financial Analysis (SUPRA) tool provides regulators, policymakers, utilities, and third-party development organizations in island and remote communities with a relatively simple and publicly accessible financial analysis tool to better assess island and remote community utility opportunities to manage, mitigate, and/or improve its financial situation, and quantify the financial impacts from pursuing changes to its regulatory and business model.
The Time-Sensitive Value Calculator is a publicly available, free, Excel-based tool by Berkeley Lab that estimates the value of energy efficiency and other distributed energy resource (DER) measures using hourly estimates of electricity system costs. The tool takes hourly profiles of up to six measures at a time and monetizes their value for six value streams, producing outputs in tabular and graphical formats.