“Walking the Walk” of Distributed Utility Planning: Deploying Demand-Side Transmission and Distribution Resources in Vermont’s “Southern Loop”
AUTHORS:
John Plunkett, Green Energy Economics Group
Francis Wyatt, Green Energy Economics Group
Jonathan Kleinman, Optimal Energy, Inc.
Bruce Bentley,Central Vermont Public Service Company
PUBLISHED IN:
2006 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings
ABSTRACT:
Although Vermont’s distribution utilities were relieved of responsibility for system-wide efficiency resource planning and acquisition with the establishment of Efficiency Vermont, they remain responsible for planning and acquiring additional targeted DSM if it would form part of a least-cost solution for meeting transmission and distribution (T&D) requirements. To meet least cost planning requirements, Vermont statute and regulation obligate utilities to demonstrate that any proposed wires solutions constitute the lowest-cost alternatives among a full range of alternative resource configurations, which must include localized demand-side management and distributed generation options.
Served by Central Vermont Public Service Co. (CVPS), Vermont’s “Southern Loop” stretches from southwestern to southeastern Vermont. CVPS and the state’s transmission utility, Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), have found that reliability solutions are needed imminently at current loads, and that reliability needs intensify under continued load growth. CVPS used a distributed utility planning (DUP) scoping tool to assess potential for additional DSM to defer need for T&D upgrades. Preliminary analysis found that while additional DSM could not solve immediate reliability problems, it could potentially defer need for subsequent T&D investment to meet future reliability needs. Subsequently, CVPS and VELCO engaged consultants to gain better estimates of the potential costs and contributions from distributed resources to meet the region’s future reliability needs. This paper reports the findings of this research and analysis. It presents the methodology used to refine estimates of localized electricity savings, the market strategies that would be deployed to procure additional DSM savings, to verify such savings, and findings and conclusions on the likely role of DSM in meeting future reliability needs in the Southern Loop.
Tags: ACEEE, DSM, electric, Northeast, paper, T&D, Utility Planning, Vermont