By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
For all of Nevada’s struggles with solar energy – the inexplicable, precipitous shutdown of net metering that destroyed the rooftop industry for almost two years comes to mind – they are trying hard right now to bring about its renaissance.
First, they reinstated net metering. Now they’re on the verge of increasing the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) through a well-funded, seemingly popular ballot initiative. And today, the Public Utilities Commission (NPUC) adopted a framework that will require investor-owned utilities (IOUs)to create Distribution Resource Plans (DRP), which will determine what resources and grid upgrades the utilities will need to make to meet consumer demand for electricity.
Essentially, the PUC is requiring IOUs to be thinking about how to integrate more distributed resources on to the grid in ways that they haven’t before – which means more clean energy adoption in the future because the grid will be ready for it.
Starting in 2019, NV Energy (NVE) will be required to file these 3-year distribution plans as part of their triennial integrated resource plans, which will allow periodic opportunities for stakeholders to review, refine and determine the grid needs.
Over the past year, IREC, Vote Solar, and Western Resource Advocates participated alongside NVE, the Bureau of Consumer Protection and commission staff as part of the rulemaking to implement Senate Bill 146 – a bill that aimed to evaluate locational costs and benefits of distributed resources by adding the new DRP requirement for utilities.
The results from the collaborative effort established these principal components of the Nevada DRP process:
- load and distributed energy resource (DER) forecasting;
- locational net benefit analysis (LNBA) to identify high- and low-value grid locations for DER solutions;
- grid needs assessment (GNA) to prioritize and screen projects that will address identified grid needs; and
- hosting capacity analysis (HCA) to identify the available capacity for DER at particular points on the distribution network.
“IREC appreciates the commission’s forward-thinking approach to this process and setting forth a strong framework for Nevada’s distribution resource planning,” said IREC Regulatory Director Sara Baldwin Auck. “Nevada’s work will ensure consumer-driven clean energy resources are integrated and optimized on the grid for years to come.”
These four components will operate in tandem with the DRP. Each must function on its own as well as in conjunction with each other to ensure the DRP properly addresses identified grid needs with distributed energy resources and traditional resource solutions.
“A well-executed Distribution Resource Plan has the potential to create substantial benefits for families and businesses by leveraging solar, storage and demand response technologies in locations that will make the electric grid run more affordably and reliably,” said Ed Smeloff, director of grid integration at Vote Solar. “With the new regulations, Nevada is putting itself on the leading edge in Distribution Resource Planning.”