Advanced Load Integration for Grid Needs
What:
Our organizations propose a joint program of research, analysis, information-sharing, and convening to support federal, state, and local governments as they plan for and respond to emerging challenges to the electric grid and decarbonization posed by rapid data center growth and industrial onshoring, together with multi-sectoral electrification.
How:
The ALIGN Initiative aims to advance research, inform policy, and promote regulatory engagement to address the load growth challenge. It will undertake three parallel efforts:
(1) an analytic inquiry through electric power system modeling and the creation of an open-source tool to allow inquiry into load growth solutions;
(2) a policy development process that will lay out the complete set of tools available to regulators to address the load growth challenge;
(3) direct engagement with stakeholders to ensure the initiative complements other efforts to address the load growth challenge, and with policymakers and stakeholders to ensure the knowledge generated by the initiative is made actionable.
Who:
ALIGN is a Joint Initiative of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute and GRACE Lab, the Center for the New Energy Economy, the Georgetown Climate Center, with Senior Consultant Support from Allison Clements and Roselle LLP.
Between our team members, we have deep analytical expertise regarding the implicated energy systems, long established and trusting relationships with the federal, state, and regional policymakers that would be the center of this proposal, direct experience at the highest levels of the government institutions required to address this challenge, and comprehensive legal and policy experience needed to design the required solutions.
Where:
The Initiative will perform detailed simulations of integrating large, flexible electricity loads into major power markets across the United States.
CNEE’s annual Academy convenes a bipartisan group of state legislators from around the country who learn from national experts on clean energy topics and then return to their districts to write legislation enabling clean energy deployment.
GCC will convene state and local decision makers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, which may be organized in part around RTO-specific options for states.
The Nicholas Institute will convene Southeastern policymakers through its Southern Energy and Environmental Leadership Forum to iterate with on key load growth challenges in the region and the analysis and policy designs needed to address.
When:
The structured implementation of this initiative will be over a two-year period from 2025 to mid-2027. Activities are segmented into half-year intervals across three interconnected streams: Electric Power System Modeling, Policy Development, and Policy Engagement. Each phase is strategically sequenced, beginning with the adaptation and deployment of GRACE Lab’s advanced modeling tools for specific power markets, progressing through the development of tailored regulatory frameworks, and culminating with targeted stakeholder engagements.