A Perfect Match Of Distribute Energy And The Grid

Pushing the Limit: How Demand Flexibility Can Grow the Market for Renewable Energy Cara Goldenberg and Mark Dyson, February 14, 2018 (Rocky Mountain Institute)

“…Demand Flexibility: The Key to Enabling a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Grid…shows how demand flexibility can be a lower-cost, less-polluting alternative to natural gas-fired power plants for balancing renewable energy on the grid…[The use of demand flexibility across a large geographic area can] shift electricity consumption from times of the day with high demand but low renewable supply to times with high renewable supply…[It] can significantly reduce customer costs, curtailment of renewable energy, peak demand, and carbon emissions compared to relying on natural gas-fired generation…Due to its low operating costs, new renewable capacity often displaces more expensive generators on the grid, lowering wholesale clearing prices. Higher amounts of variable renewable energy on the system also creates a mismatch between energy demand and supply, increasing the risk of renewable curtailment…[The combination, coupled with inflexible thermal generation, can significantly lower the revenues of renewable projects…[RMI]shows how this] can be addressed by the deployment of control and communication technologies used to manage energy consumption…” click here for more

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