Recent Projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently requested input on its Energy Storage Grand Challenge, which is a program aimed at expanding the development and proliferation of energy storage systems in the U.S. electric power system. We submitted comments explaining what tools and policies are necessary to ensure that energy storage systems are accurately valued and can participate fully in the market.

The Brattle Group developed a resource adequacy scenario analysis for the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), which is considering how to best meet its electricity generating capacity and resource adequacy needs. We submitted comments encouraging the PSC to consider several questions that Brattle’s analysis does not examine in depth.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) asked for comments on its straw proposal for the benefit-cost test that BPU would employ pursuant to the 2018 Clean Energy Act, which requires energy efficiency and peak demand reduction programs to satisfy a benefit-cost test. We submitted comments encouraging BPU to include avoided greenhouse gas emissions among the non-energy benefits it credits to energy efficiency and peak demand reduction projects. We also suggest that BPU adopt a tool and methodology for assessing the benefit of avoided local air pollutants that is more sensitive than those identified in the proposal. 

In 2022, New Mexico’s largest utility company will retire the San Juan Generating Station, a coal-burning power plant that has operated since 1973. In light of the decision, the state’s Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) has adopted a plan to replace the plant’s power output with 100 percent renewable energy and battery storage. The plan is a significant victory for the community groups and environmental advocates that have pushed to expedite the clean energy transition, and our efforts helped pave the way for this decision.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission asked for input in advance of developing a rule for energy storage deployment. Our comments note that energy storage deployment can increase emissions from the electricity sector, even if those deployments also facilitate the integration of variable renewable resources. We urge the Commission, under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, to adopt a rule ensuring that energy storage resources are deployed and operated in ways that reduce net emissions.  

The Department of Energy (DOE) asked for input on conducting its national impact analysis, including on market failures, its emissions analysis, and monetization of benefits of emissions reductions. We submitted comments suggesting that DOE continue to monetize the full climate benefits of emissions reductions using the best available estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gases. 

The Department of Energy (DOE) asked for input on conducting its national impact analysis, including on market failures, its emissions analysis, and monetization of benefits of emissions reductions. We submitted comments suggesting that DOE continue to monetize the full climate benefits of emissions reductions using the best available estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gases. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposed changes to its electric transmission incentives, which aim to spur the deployment of technologies that enhance reliability, efficiency, and capacity of transmission facilities. We submitted comments identifying significant problems with the proposal, including its reliance on a benefit-cost ratio for project selection.