Note from the editor After months of speculation, controversy and a leaked early draft, the Department of Energy dropped its widely-watched grid study late last night.
The report's findings won't surprise anyone in the power sector: Natural gas is the biggest driver behind baseload plant retirements, and renewables are not a threat to grid reliability. But the report also stressed the need to maintain reliability and resiliency and laid out eight recommendations for stakeholders, including a push for FERC to improve energy price formation in wholesale power markets and create fuel-neutral markets that adequately compensate resources for essential reliability services to the grid. It remains unclear where the DOE — and other federal agencies under the Trump administration — will go from here.
What is clear is there is still a lot to digest. There does seem to be consensus that the study's analysis provides a snapshot into present-day issues facing the power sector. Despite concerns over a politically-driven outcome, the DOE insisted Secretary Rick Perry was hands-off during the process. Agency officials told Utility Dive that career staffers took the study seriously and its findings align with widely-documented conclusions from grid operators and power sector experts. However, the recommendations from the report still drew plenty of fire from environmental advocates, who accused the DOE of coming to conclusions that were unsupported by the facts in the report itself.
For now, here's our first look at the study. We'll be back next week with a deeper dive into the study's findings and recommendations — and what it all means for the power sector.
Krysti Shallenberger
Associate Editor, Utility Dive
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