The company’s System and Computer-Implemented Method for Determining Load Shapes of Distributed Generation Customers — submitted recently to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — joins a powerful set of Black & Veatch tools used to assess the impacts of distributed generation on utility systems. Customizable to any utility, the electric utility pricing tool already has been applied successfully in more than five high-profile, utility regulatory proceedings across the U.S.
The tool comes amid rising regulatory moves in the states, such as New York and California, that will encourage increased accommodation of DG to reduce emissions and provide customers new options for renewable energy sources. Using the breakthrough analytics, utilities can evaluate the costs of accommodating DG facilities for the purposes of determining proper electric delivery rates for DG customers.
The analytics may be readily prepared for submission to regulators involved in rate proceedings and can eliminate the need for costly load research. The tool can also assist utilities and regulators in evaluating how distribution system design standards could evolve to address the impacts that DG resources may place on utility systems.
“This is the newest proprietary tool for distributed generation analytics to be offered through Black & Veatch Management Consulting’s Rates & Regulatory practice?. It will be used extensively to provide utility regulators, market participants and other interested parties with the empirical data to objectively and thoroughly evaluate and consider the operational and pricing impacts of distributed generation on electric utility systems.” David DesLauriers, Director of Black & Veatch Management Consulting and among the inventors of the patent-pending analytics tool?
