New critique raises questions about reliability concerns for EPA’s Clean Power Plan

The Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) Institute today published a critique of the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s (NERC) assessment of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power plan, suggesting that NERC’s electricity reliability concerns are unwarranted.

The non-profit institute said NERC did not take several key factors into account, including the ways in which many power systems are already moving toward emissions reductions. As such, the assessment arrived at its reliability concerns without projecting for technological development in the field.

"Taking into account the more likely result of ongoing developments in the electric power sector, especially those that will be accelerated by the CPP, the reliability concerns raised in the Phase I report largely disappear," Matt Stanberry, vice president for Market Development and head of the analytics team for AEE and the AEE Institute, said.

The Clean Power Plan has come under fire from some states and industry stakeholders, primarily due to its cost projections and potential affects on electricity reliability, the latter of which was driven in part by a November 2014 review by the NERC.

"We hope our critique of this preliminary analysis of the draft Clean Power Plan helps NERC better capture the realities of our changing electricity system when it analyzes the final rule after it is released this summer," AEE’s Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs Malcolm Woolf said.