RPS Collaborative Webinar: Altering the Load Shape to Accommodate More Solar and Wind

As more variable renewable generation comes online, the daily load shape to be served with utility resources changes and begins to resemble a duck with a high tail in the early morning hours, a huge depression in the middle of the (solar) day, and an even taller neck in the late afternoon, going into the evening. This “duck curve” has been given as a reason for limiting the amount of variable renewables. However, earlier this year the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) produced a report showing that there are readily available options that energy policymakers, regulators, and utilities can use to adapt to high penetrations of variable renewables and flatten the load curve.

In this webinar, the report’s author, Jim Lazar, Senior Advisor to RAP, will discuss 10 low-carbon strategies to address load shape. These strategies not only enable greater renewable integration, they also enhance system reliability, as well as reduce capital and fuel costs. These strategies metaphorically move the “duck” into its more flattened, streamlined flying position. As Lazar will demonstrate, the resulting load is easier to serve than the projected load would have been, even without the addition of renewable resources — a desirable outcome for almost any electric utility system, including those without significant renewable energy deployment issues.