Many large-scale energy customers, from local governments to corporations, have set ambitious clean energy goals. Utility investments in renewables in the overall generation mix are important to achieving them. But there can be a number of barriers to the inclusion of solar and other renewables in utility long-term planning, including cost and technology assumptions, modeling approaches and scenario development. Large-scale energy customers and utilities have an opportunity and are increasingly taking action to update practices and address these barriers. This presentation highlights ways that solar energy is currently considered and can be improved in utility long-term planning, and how customers are engaging in these plans to advance their clean energy goals.

1. SHAPING THE ROLE OF SOLAR IN
UTILITY PLANNING TO ADVANCE
CUSTOMER CLEAN ENERGY GOALS
September 15, 2021

2. AGENDA
2:00 – 2:05 Welcome
2:05 – 2:20 Presentation on New WRI Research
2:20 – 2:50 Panelist Discussion
2:50 – 3:00
Audience Question & Answer Period and
Closing Remarks

3. SPEAKERS
Lori Bird
U.S. Energy Director &
Polsky Chair for
Renewable Energy, World
Resources Institute
Eric O'Shaughnessy
Consultant, Clean
Kilowatts Consulting
Celina Bonugli
Associate, Clean Energy
Innovation, World
Resources Institute

4. PANELISTS
Letha Tawney
Commissioner,
Oregon Public
Utility Commission
Tobin Freid
Sustainability
Manager, Durham
County
Government
Heidi Ratz
Senior Manager,
Policy and Market
Innovation,
Renewable Energy
Buyers Alliance
Julia Eagles
Associate Director
of Utility and
Regulatory Strategy,
Institute for Market
Transformation

5. OVERVIEW
WRI Paper
“Solar Energy in Utility
Integrated Resource Plans:
Factors That Can Impact
Customer Clean Energy Goals”
Access the paper at https://www.wri.org/research/solar-energy-utility-integrated-resource-plans

6. SUMMARY
• Solar plays a key role in large energy buyers’ ambitious clean
energy goals. How utilities account for solar in their
resource planning plays an important role in meeting
them.
• Large energy buyers, utilities, and regulators can all play
distinct roles to overcome these barriers and ensure that IRPs
adapt to the growing role of solar in future resource planning.

7. LARGE ENERGY BUYERS HAVE AMBITIOUS GOALS, AND
SOLAR IS CENTRAL TO ACHIEVING THEM
• Large energy buyers are
accelerating the clean energy
transition through ambitious
clean energy goals.
• Cities and corporates have
purchased >44 GW
of renewables.
• Solar energy is critical to
meeting goals going forward.
*Or operation start year if announcement year is not available.
Source: Local Government Renewables Action Tracker (www.cityrenewables.org)
1,164 1,285 1,232
2,787
3,130
3,973
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
U.S. Local Government
Renewables Deals (MW) by
Announcement Year*

8. BARRIERS TO SOLAR
• Solar has broken many barriers
to get where it is today, including
substantial price declines and
technological improvements.
• As solar becomes increasingly
mainstream, the treatment of
solar in utility resource planning
has emerged as a potential
barrier to deployment.
Source: Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis – Version 14.0.

9. UTILITY INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLANS (IRPS)
• IRPs are used by utilities
and regulators in many
states to develop long-term
visions for resource
development.
• IRPs are particularly
important for vertically-
integrated, investor-owned
utilities, which are the focus
of this research.
Source: Graphic based on data from the Regulatory Assistance Project, Power Suite, and various
commission websites.

10. GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE IRP DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
Source: Bonugli, C. and H. Ratz. 2021. “IRP Support Package.”

11. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN IRPS
Source: Bonugli, C. and H. Ratz. 2021. “IRP Support Package.”

12. BARRIERS TO SOLAR: ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING
SOLAR TECHNOLOGY
• An IRP’s value in driving optimal future investments is directly
linked to the accuracy of its assumptions for describing
current and likely future scenarios.
• The role of solar in IRPs, in particular, relies on assumptions
in three areas:
– Future costs
– Capacity value
– Grid integration costs

13. PROJECTING PV PRICES: A MOVING TARGET
Source: Based on raw data from American Clean Power Association (2019) and Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (2021), modified/aggregated by World Resources Institute.

14. BARRIERS TO SOLAR: MODELING PRACTICES THAT
CAN LIMIT SOLAR RELATIVE TO OTHER RESOURCES
• Many IRPs rely on models that were not necessarily designed
for scenarios with large shares of solar, other variable energy
resources, and storage.
• Potential barriers to solar in IRP modeling include:
– Incomplete data
– Restricted consideration of solar
– Limitations on solar in the candidate resource portfolio
development and comparison stage

15. OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE THE TREATMENT OF
SOLAR IN IRPS
Customers
• Become educated IRP
stakeholders
• Request increased
transparency
• Provide data on clean
energy demand
• Assess IRP assumptions
and modeling practices
• Encourage best practices
Utilities
• Define customer engagement
strategies
• Provide transparency
• Proactively integrate customer
demand
• Integrate distribution modeling
• Use market-based data and
all-source procurement

16. CONCLUSION
• Not all IRPs fully take advantage of solar as a clean and cost-
effective resource.
• Barriers to solar in IRPs include outdated assumptions about
solar energy technologies and modeling practices that limit
the amount of solar.
• With an increased awareness of some approaches that may
unnecessarily burden or limit solar energy deployment, large
energy buyers, utilities and regulators can each play distinct
roles to enhance IRP processes.

17. Q&A

18. Please contact Celina.Bonugli@wri.org.
THANK YOU