GridWiseTM: The Benefits of a Transformed Energy System

Abstract

The demand for electricity is expected to continue its historical growth trend far into the future and particularly over the 20-year projection period discussed in this report. To meet this growth with traditional approaches will require added generation, transmission, and distribution, costing up to $1.4 billion/GW ($1,400/kW in year 2000 dollars) on the utility side of the meter. The amount of capacity needed in each of these categories must supply peak demand and provide a reserve margin to protect against outages and other contingencies. The nameplate capacity of many power system components is typically utilized for only a few hundred hours per year. Thus, traditional approaches to maintaining the adequacy of the nation's power generation and delivery system are characterized by lower than desirable asset utilization, particularly for assets located near the end-user.