Featured in T&D World: Proactive Distribution Planning—A Tool for Achieving Clean Energy Goals

For utilities of every size, the goal of distribution planning is to meet today’s energy demands while preparing for tomorrow’s growth. This is typically achieved through forecasting load and integrating distributed energy resources (DER).  

However, things are moving quickly. Customers and developers are increasingly inquiring about load/DER capacity, such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and electric vehicle (EV) charging. In the past, utility investments in new capacity have primarily been “just in time,” waiting until there was near certainty that the additional capacity would be necessary to serve new customer loads. In fact, this is a prudency requirement for regulatory bodies approving capital investments: to demonstrate that the investment is reasonable and necessary.  

While the typical “just in time” approach works well for ensuring prudency, it does not get the utility out in front of what’s coming––and that is the rising demand for energy. To enable more forward-looking, proactive capacity investments––without compromising on investment prudency––requires a new approach and new structures: a proactive investment framework.  

Removing Roadblocks to Clean Energy Goals 

It’s understandable to want to minimize the risk of underutilized investment and allow for costs to be allocated effectively by waiting until the specific driver for a capacity investment is known. Unfortunately, there are also risks to waiting that must be considered.  

Large utility capacity investments, such a new substation, may be 5 years or more in the making, when you consider acquiring land and right-of-way rights, ordering custom components with long lead times, and civil and electrical construction. For customers looking to electrify their fleet or developers deploying EV charging hub infrastructure, the prospect of waiting several years to connect is generally not workable. Similarly, from the state regulatory perspective, lack of available capacity for new connections creates a significant barrier to achieving clean energy goals. Proactive planning and investment can be an effective tool for improving customer outcomes and achieving state policy goals.

Read the full T&D World article here.