Rezachek & Associates'
Energy & Environmental Resources

Utility Integration of Renewables

Distributed Generation

Customer-Sited Photovoltaics Focusing on Markets that Really Shine: A Study Highlighting The Best Markets In The United States For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems Today—yes, today—cost-effective markets exist for customer-sited photovoltaics (CSPV)—that is, grid-connected PV applications located at residential and commercial customer sites. You don't need to wait for the future to find markets for customer-sited photovoltaics that are cost effective. Such markets exist now, and we have identified many others that have near-term promise. Exploiting these economic markets will hasten the commercialization of PV power that is connected to the utility grid.

Distributed Utility Documents relating to distributed generation, some of which can be downloaded or read on-line. Two formats are used: Adobe Acrobat PDF format and Word for Windows RTF.

Distribution Feeder Support With Photovoltaics The concept of supporting the transmission and distribution (T and D) system with photovoltaic (PV) distributed energy sources has gained increasing attention as the cost of PV energy has declined. Locating a PV system at a strategic point on the distribution feeder can enhance the overall T and D system performance and provide a source of renewable power generation. In such applications, the PV system peak output might range from a few percent up to about 20 percent of the peak feeder load. This article presents the results of one such study.

Economics of Cogeneration Cogeneration (sometimes called distributed power generation) is the generation, on site, of your own power and at the same time taking advantage of the exhaust heat from your gas turbine or other engine to meet on site heat needs. Heat can be used to heat buildings, heat dryers, generate steam through a HRSG (heat recovery steam generator), or to provide air conditioning through an absorption chiller. To determine whether you can save money with this approach a comparison of how electricity and heat are provided using the historic approach to the costs from a cogen approach is necessary.

Economics of Grid Tied Solar Electric Power Recently, there has been a lot of publicity about renewable energy, especially solar power. In our opinion, such things as "A million solar roofs" etc. have done more to muddy the issue and raise false hopes than they have helped. None of these seem to present the down side or the economic issues. Here we provide some of the actual numbers, and some things you may not know. Note that this page is mainly concerned with GRID TIED PV systems, where you are already connected to utility power, or it is readily available. Off grid (remote power) has a totally different set of economics because you then have to consider that power lines can cost up to $75,000 a mile to run, and using a diesel or gas powered generator can get pretty expensive in the long term.

Optimal Site Selection and Sizing of Distributed Utility-Scale Wind Power Plants Downloadable report in PDF format.

Pacific Energy Group Pacific Energy Group specializes in the analysis of renewable and distributed energy systems.

Photovoltaics for Supporting the Electricity Grid Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has completed its photovoltaic grid support system near Kerman, California. The 500 kW system was designed and built by Siemens Solar Industries as part of the Photovoltaics for Utility Scale Applications (PVUSA) programme. The purpose of the Kerman project is to evaluate the use of photovoltaics in a grid support application, where the system is placed in an actual utility operating environment. In a distributed generation system, a small amount of power carefully matched to a specific need is produced near the point of consumption. PG&E is leading a shift in utility practice toward better characterization of location and time-dependent costs.

Plug Power, L.L.C. Plug Power is a joint venture between DTE Energy Co., (the parent of Detroit Edison), and Mechanical Technology Inc.or MTI (an early developer of fuel cell technologies). Their goal is to develop and manufacture affordable fuel cell systems for both residential and automotive applications.

QuickScreen Software for Distributed PV Evaluation The QuickScreen software package is a planning tool to quickly find the best distributed resource (DR) sites within a given electric utility and determine economic feasibility. It is targeted for utility personnel who make resource and distribution planning decisions. Regulators and analysts may also find it useful to make informed policy decisions.

Reliability Benefits of Dispersed Wind Resource Development Downloadable report in PDF format

Small Distributed Residential PV Systems Norway has long had a strong market for small distributed residential PV systems with the large number of vacation cottages located off the power grid. There are presently more than 50,000 PV-powered vacation homes in Norway, with more than 8,000 new installations completed every year.

SMUD PV Pioneers The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), a customer-owned utility in Sacramento, California, has established itself as an innovator in the utility industry by deploying photovoltaic energy on residential and commercial rooftops to meet customer needs while accelerating the commercialization of this clean, renewable energy resource. SMUD's PV Pioneer Program is designed to forge a partnership with its current residential customers who are willing to volunteer their roofs as sites for generating solar electricity. Donald Osborn, Solar Program Project Manager at SMUD, cites two primary reasons for the utility's investment in solar technologies: (1) to develop the experiential base needed to successfully integrate PV as distributed generation into the utility system; and (2) to accelerate the cost reductions necessary for PV applications to be cost-effective for the utility market by about the year 2000.

Utility Integration of Distributed Photovoltaic Systems: An Analysis of Legal and Regulatory Issues Abstract of a paper by John P. Dwyer and Thomas A. Starrs.