Publications

This report covers key lessons learned for the rapid decarbonization of power sectors, emphasizing best practices in planning, building, and operating electricity systems. Decarbonization covers all greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. The intended audience of this report consists of energy ministers and other high-level energy sector decision makers.

September 2022 This report covers key lessons learned for the rapid decarbonization of power systems, emphasizing best practices in planning, building, and operating power systems. This report is the result of a collaborative effort among various Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) workstreams and partner initiatives. The contents are not intended to be comprehensive of all power sector topics, and there may be overlap between content in each section due to the nature of this first-of-its-kind collaborative effort to deliver unified messaging on power sector decarbonization to energy ministers. This work is intended to complement other work at the CEM and offers options for consideration, not specific policy recommendations.

This report aims to present perspectives on the main issues in future grid development, covering both supply and demand. It focuses on the lessons learned through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the 21st Century Power Partnership Initiative's studies of the U.S. power sector that have measured the impacts of high-penetration variable renewable energy and tested strategies for enhancing grid flexibility and reliability. As such, this report is limited in its scope and does not attempt to review or summarize all power system literature. Although it refers to relevant external literature to provide context when needed, this study is primarily a summary of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Century Power Partnership Initiative's research over the past five years on five topics, which each correspond to the five chapters in the report.

The REZ transmission planning process is a proactive method to plan, approve, and build transmission infrastructure that connects high-quality and large-scale renewable resources to the power system. This presentation was developed for a technical side event focused on transmission systems to facilitate the rapid decarbonization of power systems at the Clean Energy Ministerial Senior Officials Meeting in March 2023. This document contains a synthesis of key REZ case studies throughout the world and is intended as a resource for policymakers and energy planners.

This publication highlights policy findings and experiences in implementing CEM workstreams during the Power System Flexibility Campaign.

Demand management and distributed generation could transform how consumers interact with the electricity grid and manage energy. Energy consumers may be shifting to view themselves as both consumers and increasingly as suppliers - with renewable energy generation on-site and demand response capability. This new consumer model and the concept of a distributed energy system may be disruptive to the traditional utility model.

This webinar focused on the use of capacity expansion models in long-term planning and how they ensure "enough" capacity is built if significant quantities of variable renewable generation exist. NREL's capacity expansion model, ReEDS (Regional Energy Deployment System), is described. It also describes the concept of capacity value and different techniques used to quantify it .

This webinar summarized key lessons, trends and best practices associated with integrating utility-scale VRE into grids, with a special in-depth case study from India

This report focuses on China’s options for a low-carbon energy transition through 2050, and the short-term actions needed to remove obstacles for renewable energy development.

This study used specially designed weather and power system modeling to identify how India’s power system balances generation and demand throughout the year. Read the overview to learn more.