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The following task forces currently have a variety of activities and projects underway within our member-driven working groups, including the development of topical reports, white papers, fact sheets, technical and policy briefs,  tutorials, webinars and blogs, etc.

High Share of Inverter-Based Generation – The objective of this task force is to develop an understanding of system need and the options for stable operation of future power systems with a very high share of inverter-based generation like wind, solar and storage, and a roadmap for making the transition from the power system of today to a future one dominated by inverter-based generation, working with research organizations, OEMs, and system operators to build a consensus.

Current work underway includes:

  • Next Step: Exploring needs and capabilities for integration of planning processes and studies

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Julia Matevosyan, ESIG

Hybrids and Emerging Flexible Resources (HyFlex) – The purpose of this task force is to create a working community to develop concepts around emerging co-located, hybrid and highly flexible resources. These approaches are rapidly growing for digitally-controlled, integrated technologies such as PV solar with battery storage, but the concepts may apply broadly to combined technologies, aggregated distributed energy resources, and hierarchies of devices on both transmission and distribution systems.

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy

Transmission Benefits Valuation – This task force is examining transmission valuation processes at RTO’s and examining a transmission valuation framework that balances impact of a full-range of benefits with ease of use. It aims to move beyond production cost savings to understand the broader reliability, capital cost savings, and environmental benefits of transmission.

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Daniel Olsen, formerly of Breakthrough Energy

Best Practices for Modeling Weather, Extreme Events, and Climate Trends – The energy transition is shifting the impact of weather on grid planning and operations, from one where weather (chiefly temperature) plays a primary role in modulating peak load and its timing, to one where weather is instrumental in driving system risks across multiple interconnected dimensions. Impacts include: wind and solar generation, load shape and magnitude, storage charge/discharge, and drivers of traditional system outages. This task force seeks to convene a cross-disciplinary group of system engineers and atmospheric scientists to advance the application of weather data in power systems planning and operations. The focus will be on better use of existing weather inputs in resource adequacy analysis, including for capacity expansion and production cost modeling, and upon determining what is needed from a “next generation” dataset that will serve the needs of the sector throughout the energy transition.

Our main objectives are:

  • To establish best practices for using currently available weather data which typically imperfect and not applied in scientifically defensible ways.
  • Developing a detailed description of what is needed from a national power systems weather database in a format that can be translated into a request to DOE, FERC, or other entity for funding.
  • To provide recommendations on how high-impact, low-probability (HILP) events are likely to evolve and what planning should be done to prepare for such events.
  • To consider to what extent power systems modeling should endogenously simulate weather impacts with concurrent weather timeseries data, versus the current generally approach of managing weather impacts exogenously using typical or specific weather scenarios.

Task Force Lead: Justin Sharp, Sharply Focused

Macrogrid Design Studies – The purpose of this task force is to provide technical support to a macrogrid initiative across the continental US which would help accelerate the clean energy transition underway by removing transmission constraints to enable the expansion of renewable energy in a reliable and cost effective fashion.

Current work underway includes: This task force is scoping a series of national-level transmission studies to decarbonize the electricity system. These studies include:

  • Macrogrid design
  • Reliability studies
  • Resilience studies
  • Operations and operability
  • Economic analysis

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Bob Zavadil, EnerNex

Proactive Planning – The goal of this task force is to conduct quantitative, technical analysis on a proactive, planned interconnection approach to transmission, compared to the current approach of individual generator interconnection facilities.

Current work underway includes: This task force kicked off in November and is currently scoping analysis to quantify the costs of interconnection of large amounts of variable renewables under a proactive, planned approach versus an incremental, piecemeal approach.

Task Force Lead: Bruce Tsuchida, Brattle

Redefining Resource Adequacy – The purpose of this task force is to consider new methods and considerations for resource adequacy, capacity accreditation, and reliability planning for systems with increasing shares of renewable energy and energy limited resources. The Task Force considers recommendations for new metrics and improved insights into resource adequacy results. The Task Force will also convene on topics related to best practices for weather modeling for power system planning.

Current work underway includes:

  • Best practices for probabilistic modeling
  • Review of alternatives to the capacity accreditation and reliability procurement
  • Weather modeling recommendations and improvements

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy

DER Open Networks (An Open Networks Project for the United States to Facilitate Reliable, Efficient Integration of DERs into the Electric Power System) – The Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) DER Working group task force seeks to educate and facilitate collaborative thought leadership amongst the electric power industry to better integrate distributed energy resources (DERs) into planning and operations to fundamentally unlock the benefits of DERs providing services to the grid. The initiative is fostering a dialogue between grid operators, distribution utilities, DER providers, FERC, and state regulators to facilitate reliable, efficient integration of DERs into the electric power system. The task force is assessing DER integration issues across a variety of jurisdictions in the US, with particular attention to integration of DERs into wholesale markets, in light of FERC Order 2222. Another component of the initiative is evaluating lessons learned from the UK and Australia Open Networks approaches to determine what may be applicable to the US. The task force includes a broad set of experts that span grid operations, distribution system operations and planning, technology developers, and regulatory issues.

Current work underway includes:

  • An assessment of the lessons learned from the UK and Australian open networks initiatives for DERs
  • The development of a roadmap for long term integration of DERs into US markets
  • The task force has been meeting on a monthly basis for detailed technical discussions on the above efforts

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Priya Sreedharan, GridLab

Flexibility Resources – Emerging flexibility resources such as hydrogen and industrial electrification will become important as we look to meet decarbonization goals. In this task force, the focus is on understanding the role of and integration of future flexibility resources (including industrial electrification, hydrogen and low/zero-carbon fuels), and to reach a common understanding of how to assess and integrate these new flexibility resources. The TF is reviewing international experiences, and identifying gaps and challenges in integration of new flexibility resources.

Current work underway includes:

  • Developing policy brief
  • Developing blog post

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Aidan Tuohy, EPRI

Aligning Retail Pricing and Grid Needs – The goal of this task force is to explore how we can align price signals and incentives for customers with grid needs to maintain reliability. Our future grid will need flexibility and retail pricing is a powerful way to get flexibility from demand. The task force will bring together retail pricing experts and grid experts to see what types of solutions make sense in a future that is highly decarbonized, as well as a nearer term transition to that future.

Task Force Lead: Carl Linvill, Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)

Capacity Accreditation – This task force seeks to evaluate the state of the art practice for capacity accreditation. It will evaluate novel capacity accreditation methods and procurement mechanisms necessary for system planning and reliability with a changing energy mix, new technologies, and decarbonization goals.

Current work underway includes:

  • Summaries of ongoing capacity accreditation reform at ISO/RTO markets
  • An evaluation of capacity accreditation for all resources, including thermal generation, transmission, and hybrid resources
  • Consideration of alternative market designs for reliability and firm capacity

Task Force Lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy

Transmission Planning for 100% Clean Electricity – The work of this task force is complete. Please click on the links below for the final report of the task force along with all associated materials.

Completed work includes: