This book, describes 207 ways in which the size of 'electrical resources' ...devices that make, save, or store electricity...affects their economic value. It finds that properly considering the economic benefits of 'distributed' (decentralized) electrical resources typically raises their value by a large factor, often approximately tenfold, by improving system planning, utility construction and operation (especially off the gird), and service quality, and by avoiding societal costs.
The book is organized into three main parts. Part One introduces the history of the extraordinary transition now underway from very large to mainly small power plants, reviews the origins and course of our research, clarifies semantic issues, describes the existing U.S. electricity system and the main kinds of distributed resources, and concludes with brief discussions of some important background issues.
Part Two introduces and launches a systematic and detailed survey of scale effects (how size affects value) and the corresponding 207 distributed benefits, explaining technical and economic concepts as needed. Although many distributed benefits could be classified in a variety of ways, we use some license to describe them under three main headings: system planning, construction and operation.
Part Three describes the public-policy initiatives that could help distributed benefits to realize their value in the marketplace; explores threats and opportunities for the private sector; and recommends attention and action by citizens
The book is organized into three main parts. Part One introduces the history of the extraordinary transition now underway from very large to mainly small power plants, reviews the origins and course of our research, clarifies semantic issues, describes the existing U.S. electricity system and the main kinds of distributed resources, and concludes with brief discussions of some important background issues.
Part Two introduces and launches a systematic and detailed survey of scale effects (how size affects value) and the corresponding 207 distributed benefits, explaining technical and economic concepts as needed. Although many distributed benefits could be classified in a variety of ways, we use some license to describe them under three main headings: system planning, construction and operation.
Part Three describes the public-policy initiatives that could help distributed benefits to realize their value in the marketplace; explores threats and opportunities for the private sector; and recommends attention and action by citizens
