Resource Adequacy Assessment from the Ground Up

In response to the expanding role of wind, solar, and storage, increasing demand flexibility, and a changing climate, new analytical methods and metrics to assess resource adequacy are needed. A focus has been on identifying ways to reduce risks of failure. Less attention has been directed to how new analytical approaches can inform the design of planning processes, regulatory standards, and markets. Using mixed methods and a community-engaged approach, data on community preferences and uneven distributions of impacts are used in a demonstration of a coupled socio-technical systems model that has been validated in diverse settings. The research is informed by the physical and institutional infrastructures in the Railbelt power grid of Alaska. The findings illustrate how new analytical tools can inform institutional design and facilitate more affordable, sustainable, and equitable outcomes.