Distribution Planning, Performance Measurement
Paul Alvarez leads the Wired Group, a consulting practice dedicated to unleashing latent value in distribution utility businesses.
Dennis Stephens EE is a Senior Technical Consultant at the Wired Group specializing in grid planning, operations, and investment.
Sean Ericson is a Wired Group Associate and PhD candidate at the University of Colorado who specializes in energy industry econometric analyses.
Legislators and regulators in some states appear increasingly obsessed with grid modernization. Legislators are ordering regulators to provide incremental economic incentives for extraordinary/modern grid investments.
Regulators are busy evaluating large grid investment proposals from utilities or establishing requirements for grid investment proposals that are outside the routine course of business. Some regulators are even overseeing the creation of new distribution planning processes involving stakeholders, similar in nature and features to Integrated Resource Planning as demonstrated by Alvarez in a November 2014 PUF article.
But regulators have little access to technical experts with objective perspectives. As leading evaluators of grid modernization plans for consumer, business, and environmental advocates, and with extensive experience in IOU distribution grid planning and operations, the authors share their perspectives on distribution planning in this editorial.