Topics covered by this working group include system operation and operating practices, including critical interfaces among electric, thermal and fuel systems; market design and operation; and operational forecasting.
Members of the System Operation & Market Design Working Group are encouraged to interact with one another via Groups.IO, an online discussion platform and community network. The ESIG Resource Library is also a valuable tool for those seeking information on System Operation & Market Design, as well as other topics.
Links to both can be found below:
(Please note: only members of ESIG may participate in the Working/Users Groups. If you are interested in membership, please email us at info@esig.energy)
Working Group Co-Chairs: Aidan Tuohy & Erik Ela, EPRI
Aidan Tuohy is a Senior Program Manager at EPRI, where he is the program manager for the research program on Bulk System Integration of Variable and Distributed Energy Resources.
Erik Ela is Principal at EPRI, performing research in various areas of electric power system operations, planning, and wholesale electricity market operations.
Markets for 100% Clean Electricity Task Force
Electric power systems are undergoing major transformation. Organized electricity markets may play a key role on these systems of the future and achieving a system that can meet climate goals while still maintaining our everlasting goals of affordability and reliability.
Linked below is a summary of conversations from a workshop on electricity markets under deep decarbonization held from February 28 to March 1, 2023, in Washington, DC. Sponsors were the Energy Systems Integration Group, Electric Power Research Institute, Argonne National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, and the Department of Energy. The workshop convened a set of experts to listen and debate the existing market designs and their effectiveness, solutions that have been explored and their effectiveness, and the possible actions necessary to bridge remaining gaps.
Task Force Lead: Robin Hytowitz, NextEra Analytics
Robin Hytowitz is an Energy Management Advisor at NextEra Analytics.
Flexibility Resources Task Force
Emerging flexibility resources such as hydrogen and industrial electrification will become important as we look to meet decarbonization goals. In this task force, the focus is on understanding the role of and integration of future flexibility resources (including industrial electrification, hydrogen and low/zero-carbon fuels), and to reach a common understanding of how to assess and integrate these new flexibility resources. The TF is reviewing international experiences, and identifying gaps and challenges in integration of new flexibility resources.
Completed work includes:
- Assessing the Flexibility of Green Hydrogen in Power System Models (Report & Executive Summary – April 2024)
- Increasing Electric Power System Flexibility: The Role of Industrial Electrification and Green Hydrogen Production Report
- Webinar: Electrification and Industrial Sources of System Balancing Flexibility
Task Force Lead: Aidan Tuohy, EPRI
Aidan Tuohy is a Senior Program Manager at EPRI, where he is the program manager for the research program on Bulk System Integration of Variable and Distributed Energy Resources.
Redefining Resource Adequacy
This task force initially evaluated the state of the art practice for capacity accreditation and novel capacity accreditation methods and procurement mechanisms necessary for system planning and reliability with a changing energy mix, new technologies, and decarbonization goals. In 2024, the task force released a new report, outlining the need for, and a path toward, the use of a multi-metric criteria approach in resource adequacy analysis.
Completed work includes – RA Criteria (2024):
- New Resource Adequacy Criteria for the Energy Transition: Modernizing Reliability Requirements Report
- New Resource Adequacy Criteria for the Energy Transition: Modernizing Reliability Requirements Executive Summary
Completed work includes – Capacity Accreditation (2023):
- Ensuring Efficient Reliability: New Design Principles for Capacity Accreditation Report
- Ensuring Efficient Reliability: New Design Principles for Capacity Accreditation Executive Summary
Task Force Lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy
Derek Stenclik is the Founding Partner of Telos Energy, an engineering and analytics firm specializing in renewable integration and power system planning. He has over a decade of experience helping clients across the electric power industry navigate evolving markets, adapt to rapidly changing technologies, and accelerate clean energy integration.
COMING SOON! Large Load Task Force
*Led by Reliability Working Group with support from the System Planning Working Group and System Operation and Market Design Working Group
The Large Load Task Force will focus on large loads (also called step loads) and the challenges and solutions associated with ensuring these loads are planned efficiently and operated in ways that are economically efficient and support grid reliability. These new loads include data centers, hydrogen production, industrial heat electrification, EV fleet charging and others. This is a hot issue for utility planners who are struggling to forecast future load, for transmission planners who are struggling to build infrastructure in a timely fashion, for system operators who are seeing large loads disconnecting during a fault and potentially causing instabilities, for large load owners struggling through the interconnection and transmission planning process or who want access real-time prices, etc. This Task Force will address load forecasting, interconnection processes, interconnection performance requirements, modeling requirements, transmission planning, market participation models and resource adequacy.
Recently Completed Work
Aligning Retail Pricing and Grid Needs
The goal of this task force is to explore how we can align price signals and incentives for customers with grid needs to maintain reliability. Our future grid will need flexibility and retail pricing is a powerful way to get flexibility from demand. The task force will bring together retail pricing experts and grid experts to see what types of solutions make sense in a future that is highly decarbonized, as well as a nearer term transition to that future.
Completed white papers include:
“Aligning Retail Pricing and Grid Needs: Introduction to a White Paper Series” by Debra Lew, Erik Ela and Carl Linvill
“Treating Demand Equivalent to Supply in Wholesale Markets: An Opportunity for Customer, Market, and Social Benefits,” by Richard O’Neill, Debra Lew and Erik Ela
“Leveraging Locational and Temporal Flexibility in Transportation Electrification to Benefit Power Systems,” by Jennifer Chen
“Tapping the Mother Lode: Employing Price-Responsive Demand to Reduce the Investment Challenge,” by Michael Hogan
“Why Is the Smart Grid So Dumb?: Missing Incentives in Regulatory Policy for an Active Demand Side in the Electricity Sector,” by Travis Kavulla
“Rate Design for the Energy Transition: Getting the Most out of Flexible Loads on a Changing Grid,” by Arne Olson and Lindsay Bertrand
“Heat Pump–Friendly Cost-Based Rate Designs,” by Sanem Sergici, Akhilesh Ramakrishnan, Goksin Kavlak, Adam Bigelow, and Megan Diehl
Task Force Lead: Carl Linvill, Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)
Carl Linvill is a principal with the Regulatory Assistance Project. With his expertise in power sector markets, procurement, and planning, he leads RAP’s work on renewable energy integration and transmission planning in the Western United States.
Weather Datasets Project Team
The energy transition is shifting the impact of weather on grid planning and operations, from one where weather (chiefly temperature) plays a primary role in modulating peak load and its timing, to one where weather is instrumental in driving system risks across multiple interconnected dimensions. Impacts include: wind and solar generation, load shape and magnitude, storage charge/discharge, and drivers of traditional system outages. This task force seeks to convene a cross-disciplinary group of system engineers and atmospheric scientists to advance the application of weather data in power systems planning and operations. The focus will be on better use of existing weather inputs in resource adequacy analysis, including for capacity expansion and production cost modeling, and upon determining what is needed from a “next generation” dataset that will serve the needs of the sector throughout the energy transition.
Completed work includes:
- Executive Summary
- Weather Dataset Needs for Planning and Analyzing Modern Power Systems (Full Report). This is the complete text of the report, including detail on all aspects of the gaps, needs, and solutions, as well as a section covering meteorology fundamentals for power systems planners, engineers, and others. This full version is intended for technical experts engaged deeply in this work. (108 pages, plus glossary, references, and appendices) A high-resolution version of the full report can be found here (40MB).
- Weather Dataset Needs for Planning and Analyzing Modern Power Systems (Summary Report). The summary report distills the gaps, needs, and solutions, and does not include the full background section on meteorology fundamentals. This version is intended for a broader audience in power system planning, and it can be paired with “Meteorology 101” if further detail on meteorology for power system modeling and planning is desired. (34 pages, plus selected bibliography and appendix)
- “Meteorology 101: Meteorological Data Fundamentals for Power System Planning.” This overview of meteorology for power system planners, engineers, modelers, and others is a stand-alone version of Section 2 in the full report. We have published it as a stand-alone document to accompany the summary version of the report, for readers of the summary who wish to delve more deeply into datasets and models used in power system planning studies.
Project Team Lead: Justin Sharp, Sharply Focused
Justin Sharp is the principal and owner of Sharply Focused LLC, a consultancy specializing in the intersection of atmospheric sciences and the electric utility sector.
Hybrids and Emerging Flexible Resources Task Force (HyFlex)
The purpose of this task force is to create a working community to develop concepts around emerging co-located, hybrid and highly flexible resources. These approaches are rapidly growing for digitally-controlled, integrated technologies such as PV solar with battery storage, but the concepts may apply broadly to combined technologies, aggregated distributed energy resources, and hierarchies of devices on both transmission and distribution systems.
Completed work includes:
- Unlocking the Flexibility of Hybrid Resources Report
- Unlocking the Flexibility of Hybrid Resources At a Glance (one-pager)
- Fact Sheet: What They Are and Why Interest Is Surging
- Fact Sheet: Avoiding the Transmission Interconnection Logjam
- Fact Sheet: Exploring Market Rules and Operations Related to the Participation of Hybrid Resources
- Fact Sheet: Resource Adequacy and Capacity Accreditation
Task Force Lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy
Derek Stenclik is the Founding Partner of Telos Energy, an engineering and analytics firm specializing in renewable integration and power system planning. He has over a decade of experience helping clients across the electric power industry navigate evolving markets, adapt to rapidly changing technologies, and accelerate clean energy integration.