Advanced Energy United, SEPA, RMI
Angela Navarro is Advisor to Advanced Energy United. Lesley Jantarasami is Vice President of Research and Industry Strategy at Smart Electric Power Alliance. Lauren Shwisberg is Principal at RMI.
The U.S. has entered a new era of load growth. This transition brings opportunities to build a cleaner and more reliable grid, accelerate economic development, and mitigate ratepayer burdens by spreading system costs over a growing customer base. Maximizing these opportunities will require innovative and better coordinated approaches to electricity regulation, grid planning, and infrastructure deployment.
This article presents a high-level overview of emerging regulatory innovations, focusing on the intersection between tariff design and integrated planning. Other articles in this series will present views on additional innovations underway as load growth reshapes the electricity landscape.
The Rise of Large Load Tariffs
Large load tariffs are rate structures designed to interconnect large load customers — those with high demand and high load factor — while minimizing operational and ratepayer risk. Across the United States, at least sixteen proceedings are currently underway.
Advanced Energy United and RMI reviewed these proceedings and released a set of common principles for consideration in the design of large load tariffs. As new filings continue to emerge, SEPA and the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center are compiling a forthcoming public catalog of large load tariffs.