State Utility Regulators Explore Solar Grid Resilience and Security
Dec. 19, 2024 by Kiera Zitelman, NARUC
A Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN) Round 1 project team—led by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)—shares the project's energy resilience impacts since concluding in 2019.
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As grid resilience remains front and center for the energy sector, state regulators are examining a wide range of resilience solutions, including solutions such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and battery storage. In 2018 and 2019, during the first round of SEIN, nine teams developed new ways to improve the affordability, reliability, and resiliency of solar energy on the electric grid while moving toward ambitious solar adoption goals.
About the Project
The Solar PV for Advanced System Resilience and Restoration SEIN Round 1 project, led by NARUC in partnership with Converge Strategies LLC and PJM Interconnection, explored the feasibility of solar PV paired with battery storage to provide reliability services and contribute to system restoration during high-impact, low-frequency events stressing the power grid.
The initiative convened state regulators, a grid operator, and relevant stakeholders addressing barriers to resilience investments by regulated utilities. This SEIN project team discovered the absence of a standardized method to calculate the benefits of resilience investments enabling regulators to compare costs and benefits of deploying solar PV and battery storage.
The team held workshops to seek input on investment barriers, ultimately developing three publications:
The Value of Resilience for Distributed Energy Resources: An Overview of Current Analytical Practices, NREL Subcontract Report (2019)
Advancing Electric System Resilience With Distributed Energy Resources: A Review of State Policies, NREL Subcontract Report (2020)
Advancing Electric System Resilience With Distributed Energy Resources: Key Questions and Resources, NREL Subcontract Report (2020).
NREL staff developed a companion report titled, Blackstart of Power Grids With Inverter-Based Resources (2020).
Continued Efforts
Following the conclusion of SEIN Round 1, this work led to continued efforts at NARUC to further explore and enhance state regulatory decision-making on resilience investments. These discussions have taken place through multiple avenues.
NARUC and the National Association of State Energy Officials formed a Microgrids State Working Group, funded by the DOE Office of Electricity, to support states in designing programs and regulations to facilitate the deployment of microgrids for resilience objectives. In 2022, updating the work developed by NARUC and CSL during SEIN Round 1, the State Working Group released a report, Valuing Resilience for Microgrids: Challenges, Innovative Approaches, and State Needs, NARUC (2022).
Under the Defense Community Partnership between NARUC and the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, CSL authored multiple reports on defense energy resilience and defense critical electric infrastructure:
Regulatory Considerations for Utility Investments in Defense Energy Resilience, NARUC (2021)
Defense Energy Resilience Key Resources Guide, NARUC (2022)
Defense Energy Resilience Engagement Framework for Utility Regulators. NARUC (2024).
These partnerships provided an opportunity for significant civilian-military collaboration around defense energy resilience topics.NARUC worked with the DOE Grid Deployment Office on additional resilience resources, particularly to support states in using federal funding to enhance energy resilience. Under this work, CSL authored a NARUC Guidebook for Federal Funding Opportunities that focused on disaster preparedness and community resilience. NARUC also developed a Grid Resilience Framework and an ongoing Energy Resilience Reference Guide.
The project team also supports the use and improvement of resilience valuation methodologies, such as the Interruption Cost Estimate Calculator, Customer Damage Function Calculator, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s (LBNL’s) Power Outage Economics Tool. These tools are particularly important in the 14 states that require regulated utilities to submit resilience plans to their regulators, as described in an LBNL article. NARUC’s work on resilience valuation directly informed subsequent SEIN projects.
On the grid operator side, PJM facilitates a robust stakeholder process through its committee structure and groups like NARUC's Organization of PJM States to ensure that proper incentives are in place to attract resilient and diverse energy resources to the PJM footprint.
Stakeholders and Partners
As threats to the grid proliferate and advance, resilience remains a critical topic for state regulators, regulated utilities, grid operators, and stakeholders such as the United States military and large energy customers. NARUC and CSL have grown their initial partnership since SEIN Round 1, producing numerous DOE-funded resources for state regulators.
By leveraging the opportunity to explore resilience improvements with experts from NREL and facilitation support from RMI during SEIN Round 1, NARUC and CSL established a strong foundation to address evolving needs in energy resiliency. The project team has also enjoyed seeing the growth of SEIN in subsequent rounds and commends NREL and DOE for fostering the network.
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