Factsheets and White Papers

Analysis of state policy interactions with electricity markets in the context of uneconomic existing resources: A critical assessment of the literature About the Report: In this report, we provide a critical assessment of recent studies on the topic of subsidies for uneconomic nuclear generating resources, and identify a number of problematic assumptions and modeling choices that tend to drive their findings and policy recommendations. In the context of two fundamental principles of market Read More

Resilience—the electric grid’s ability to resist, absorb, and recover from high-impact, low-probability external shocks—is an important, yet wide-ranging and potentially amorphous concept. Many different actions can help the grid defend against, absorb, or recover from high-impact, low-probability shocks. However, some potential actions will do little to address specific threats and have been suggested for what appears to be political reasons. Moreover, many actions that can significantly Read More

BY SONIA AGGARWAL ● AUGUST 2018 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed directing power grid operators to purchase electricity for a period of two years to prevent the retirement of certain power plants. DOE’s May 29 memo does not explicitly specify which power plants it would affect, but it implies large coal and nuclear facilities, similar to those targeted by the 2017 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, originally issued by DOE and later rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Read More

In July 2017, the Natural Gas Council (NGC) released “Natural Gas Systems: Reliable and Resilient” (NGC Report), a report detailing the characteristics of the U.S. natural gas industry that contribute to its reliability and resilience to weather-related interruption of service, including the ability to compensate for any operational issue and to recover rapidly. Most notable from the July 2017 NGC Report was the finding that the gas pipeline industry exhibited a 99.79 percent reliability in Read More

The Trump Administration has responded to continued retirements of coal and nuclear units by proposing policies intended to prevent any further retirements of the traditional “baseload” fleet, under the premise that such retirements impair grid reliability, “resilience” and, more recently, national security. The first attempt at imposing a policy designed to deter retirements occurred when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a rule for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Read More

 “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – Former U.S. President John Adams (December 1770)   HOW FUELS PERFORMED WINTER 2018: MYTHS VS. FACTS  Competitive wholesale power markets, such as those in the PJM Interconnection, are under false attacks by vested interests that are seeking to regain the market share they lost to their more affordable Read More