Research

State Energy Offices can play a significant role in laying the groundwork for the consideration of advanced electric grid optimization solutions by engaging in studies or research. Some State Energy Offices have pursued studies diving deeper into advanced electric grid optimization solutions and how these technologies could work for their state. In other cases, entities such as National Laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy, and others have conducted state-specific studies, offering a benefit to the states evaluated and serve as a resource for states looking to pursue research of their own.

• In 2021, the Brattle Group produced a report, Unlocking the Queue with Grid-Enhancing Technologies, which models an optimal deployment of grid enhancing technologies using the Southwest Power Pool system in Kansas and Oklahoma and projects in the interconnection queue with signed interconnection agreements.
• The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (the State Energy Office) participated in the New York Power Grid Study, in collaboration with the New York Department of Public Service, the Brattle Group, and Pterra Consulting, which looks at system needs and the benefits that advanced grid approaches would realize to help meet state energy policy and needs. This report includes a detailed assessment of advanced electric grid optimization solutions that have been implemented in New York. It also includes in its Executive Summary a section on advanced electric grid optimization solutions, Recommendations for the Future Grid, which recommends that the state should encourage utilities and other transmission owners to evaluate and implement advanced transmission technologies.
• A 2023 study conducted by Idaho National Lab, Assessing the Value of Grid Enhancing Technologies: Modeling, Analysis, and Business Justification, evaluates a key interconnection point for new generation in southeastern Massachusetts and identifies dynamic line ratings and advanced power flow control to support reliability and reduce production costs. The study concludes that optimal deployment of these technologies reduced generation curtailment at the interconnection point by more than half and that these technologies would pay for themselves in less than a year.
• A U.S. Department of Energy study from 2022, Grid Enhancing Technologies: A Case Study of Ratepayer Impact, models dynamic line ratings and power flow control in upstate New York and found complementary value in the two technologies. Together, they avoided 42 percent of generation curtailments.