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Move beyond worst-case distribution planning with DER adoption forecasts and probabilistic planning
Distribution engineers today are responsible for designing the future of a critical infrastructure system, yet uncertainty pervades the process. Traditional methods of load forecasting and system planning are becoming less tenable due to the growth of distributed...
Strategies for managing multiple DER programs
In spite of the industry definition of distributed energy resources (DERs) continuing to evolve, consumers are increasingly adopting DERs—often more than one. This means that for utilities, DER program management such as interconnection doesn’t end at “permission to...
New SolarAnywhere® bankable data, expanded geographic coverage, model validation and more
Clean Power Research has officially released SolarAnywhere® Data version 3.3, making it our most up-to-date bankable dataset for resource assessment, operational monitoring and forecasting solar PV. In the new version, 21 years of data are represented in the new...
PowerClerk®: The proven solution for more than one million DER applications
The past two years have seen key milestones for distributed energy resource (DER) adoption in the U.S., including: Passing one million total residential solar installations in 2017. All solar generation (including residential, commercial and utility scale) in 2018...
Make the most of your DER interconnection data: virtual metering
In a previous blog post, we detailed the responsibility of distributed energy resource (DER) interconnection managers to capture DER system specifications for their system planners and distribution engineers. Since then, even more U.S. utilities have turned to...
Curtailment of low-cost renewables a cost-effective alternative to ‘seasonal’ energy storage
Last month, Utility Dive highlighted one of the major findings from our recent Minnesota Solar Pathways work: Minnesota study finds it cheaper to curtail solar than to add storage. In this article, we explain how some curtailment of low-cost renewables such as solar...
Demystifying battery storage for residential energy customers: solar self-consumption (Part 2)
Grid-connected battery storage is an exciting, new and rather mysterious technology. This blog is the second in a series that will help equip utilities to demystify battery storage for their residential customers. The first blog post discussed ways residential...
Video: Residential electrification with a Solar+ home (real-life example)
What can a typical residential customer that doesn’t live in a new home do to address greenhouse gas emissions? Electrification of energy consuming activities such as transportation, space and water heating, lighting and refrigeration is an affordable option—even for...
Demystifying battery storage for residential energy customers: an overview (Part 1)
Grid-connected battery storage is an exciting, new and rather mysterious technology. The press is particularly interested in the solar + storage technology bundle. Headlines declare how inexpensive it is to bundle PV with batteries. Some articles even suggest that an...
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The solar value proposition part 2: Charting a new path using data and analytics
In Part 1 in our series on the solar value proposition, we looked at a new approach to valuing PV. With this new approach, there is a need to quantify deferred and avoided generation, as well as transmission and distribution capacity increases through peak-load...
The solar value proposition part 1: A fork in the road
Much like Kermit the Frog and Fozzie the Bear passing a fork in the road , the explosive growth of solar has many in and around the solar industry exclaiming in Kermit-like fashion, "I don't believe it." No longer is solar relegated to being the energy option when no...
2014 solar trends episode 3: Solar Financing – A New Hope
Financing has been with solar since its earliest days. Before the lease and the power purchase agreement (PPA), residential solar customers would often purchase systems with cash. Cash payments are a form of financing, as the customer is choosing to purchase a solar...
Flexibility meets reliability: PVWatts and NSRDB now available through Clean Power Research API services
In keeping with our mission of powering intelligent energy decisions, Clean Power Research is introducing a 10 km Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) dataset for use in Clean Power Research API services. Programmatic access to this high-resolution dataset and the...
Growing solar beyond California: financial intelligence for every state
Solar is rapidly growing beyond California. As described in the Men’s Journal article “Why Now Is the Time To Go Solar,” this growth is being driven by the availability of inexpensive panels, tax breaks, and options to lease or buy PV systems. While a recent...
Georgia blazing new trails with its value-based FiT
California and New Jersey are known for solar policy innovation, while the states of the Southeast have tended to stay on the sidelines despite having abundant sunshine. Until now, that is. Georgia is quickly emerging as a solar power innovator. Over the past 12...
USC 2013 insights: illuminating key utility solar issues
The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) Utility Solar Conference (USC) was held last month in Portland, Ore. This was convenient for our Kirkland, Wash., software team, so we sent four people down to join Tom Hoff from our Napa, Calif., office at the event. It was...
Electric vehicles + solar: an idea whose time has come
You’ve likely heard about the partnerships springing up between electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers and solar (PV) system providers. Most recently, Honda and SolarCity announced a plan that allows Honda customers to install solar with a low upfront cost and see an...
Top 2013 trends part 2: the NEM debate
Last week we identified the first of three big trends for the solar industry in 2013: soft cost reduction. This week, we look at the next big trend: a re-evaluation of net energy metering (NEM). While discussions about NEM aren’t new, they’ll be accelerating in 2013....
West vs. south: Why change the orientation of your solar PV system
Originally published in the March/April issue of Solar Today. Within the solar industry, it's common knowledge that the optimal orientation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the Northern Hemisphere is typically south, to maximize electricity production over the...
UVIG technical achievement award presented to Tom Hoff
Last week, the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group (UVIG) recognized Tom Hoff, Clean Power Research founder and president of Research and Consulting, with an award for his ongoing contributions to solar forecasting. The ability to forecast the output of tens...
When it comes to solar resources, 2014 was anything but average
Solar resources naturally vary from year to year, and 2014 was no exception. While the 2014 average monthly solar resource map shows expected patterns, with the greatest energy output in the southwest, the real story is revealed by the PV power variance map. The PV...
Solar forecasting goes “EPIC”
Itron and Clean Power Research are embarking on the next phase of research that will lead to high-fidelity distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) forecasts, and integration of those forecasts into net load forecasts for the California Independent System Operator (ISO)....
Understanding PV variability: Affects of the 2014 California monsoon
While we all know that the energy production of solar PV systems can vary temporally on the short term (e.g., hourly and daily basis), monthly to annual variability can significantly affect the ongoing status of a developed PV solar asset. For developers and owners of...
Using ground plus satellite solar irradiance data to reduce risk, increase project profitability
If you stopped by the Clean Power Research booth (#118) at the most recent Solar Power International (SPI) Conference in Las Vegas, you would have noticed a tall metal frame supporting some measurement equipment. While this structure could have passed for a new-age...
Solar fleet modeling part 3: Balancing the variability of PV
In our previous two posts, we described how to incorporate PV diversity (diversity in both design configuration and geography) in fleet-level modeling, and how to generate high frequency fleet power data with 60-second temporal resolution. In this post, we will show...
Planning for solar part 2: High frequency data
Our previous post discussed how to produce solar PV production profiles for fleets of PV systems. In it we highlighted the importance of including both system diversity (tilt, orientation, shading, etc.), and geographical diversity (system locations and relative...
Planning for solar part 1: Solar fleet modeling
With the proliferation of grid-connected solar—whether from a few large, utility-scale systems, or from thousands of small, behind-the-meter systems—utilities are grappling with integration of these distributed, variable power generation resources. Over the next three...
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Version control: Your bankable signpost in a digital world
If you own an iPhone, you’ve seen the familiar message “iOS 9.3.3 is available for your iPhone and is ready to install.” If you’re like me, you hit “Remind me later” a few dozen times before you actually install the update. Call me paranoid, but I always have to take...
Paradigm shift for U.S. utilities: “Energy” efficiency, not “electric” efficiency
Stagnant load stinks If you're a regulated utility in the United States, stagnant or declining load stinks. Policies like decoupling help a little, but like any other business, no utility really wants to face the economics of declining use of their product. If one...
Should I wait for Tesla’s Model 3?
Tesla announced the release of the Model 3 on March 31, 2016, and several hundred thousand reservations have been made. This has demonstrated a strong market demand for an electric vehicle (EV) that has three attributes: It’s attractive, has a decent range, and is...
Build trust with your customers by facing electric rate changes head-on
By now it’s old news that the utility business model needs to change. According to Utility Dive’s 2016 State of the Electric Utility Survey, only 3% of utility respondents feel the utility business model does not need to evolve. Unsurprisingly, utilities are investing...
Three ways utilities can prepare for high solar growth in the wake of the ITC extension
While extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is expected to relieve some of the pressure for new solar photovoltaic (PV) interconnections in 2016, the long-term outlook is for overall stronger growth for all types of projects, including residential PV. As a...
Prescription for avoiding angry customers as net energy metering caps approach
As recently reported by GTM Research, the volume of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on American homes and businesses is continuing its rapid climb—with the residential solar market growing 66% in 2015 over 2014. This growth can be attributed to a variety...
Are utilities the key to kick-starting electric vehicle sales in 2016?
After three years of strong growth, plug-in electric vehicle (PEV or ‘EV’) growth fell in 2015. Lower gas prices and consumers waiting for the new 2016 Nissan Leaf (and its longer range) were part of the reason for the decrease in sales, but likely these factors don’t...
2016: The year of enhanced energy price competition
You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about the price of oil. While in past years that often meant oil prices were skyrocketing, today, oil is threatening to hit 20-year lows (in inflation adjusted dollars). Right now, oil demand is so low, and supply is so...
The proof is in: Integrating PV into the grid is better with behind-the-meter solar forecasts
In recent years, Clean Power Research created a solar forecast method to accurately predict power production of “invisible,” behind-the-meter PV systems—typically those found on homes and commercial buildings. In our approach, forecasts are generated by simulating the...