Modeling Distributed Electricity Generation in the NEMS
Buildings Models
Footnotes
[1] The value of transmission and distribution network savings and any benefits from reduced congestion are not estimated in this paper.
[2] For detailed information on the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), see Energy Information Administration, National Energy Modeling System: An Overview 2000, DOE/EIA-0581(2000) (Washington, DC, April 2000), web site ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/pdf/ multi.fuel/0581(2000).pdf.
[3] For detailed information on distributed generation modeling in the NEMS residential and commercial buildings modules, see Energy Information Administration, Residential Sector Demand Module of the National Energy Modeling System: Model Documentation 2000, DOE/EIA-067(2000) (Washington, DC, January 2000), web site ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/pdf/model.docs/m067(2000).pdf; and Commercial Sector Demand Module of the National Energy Modeling System: Model Documentation 2000, DOE/EIA-066(2000) (Washington, DC, January 2000), web site ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/pdf/model.docs/m066(2000).pdf.
[4] For building sector distributed generation investments in AEO2000, the only tax credit incorporated in the forecast is a business energy tax credit for PV units of 10 percent of the installed purchase costs up to $25,000 in any one year, as provided in the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
[5] For detailed information on the distributed generation market, see ONSITE SYCOM Energy Corporation, The Market and Technical Potential for Combined Heat and Power in the Commercial/Industrial Sector (Washington, DC, January 2000).
[6] For example, DOE’s Million Solar Roofs program is a voluntary program that aims at enlisting utility and State agency participation in demonstrating the efficacy of solar power.
[7] The differences between the cost decline assumptions stem partly from the level of maturity of each technology. Commercially applicable fuel cells have been tested and marketed only in the past few years, and building-size microturbines are in the demonstration phase. PV technology, in contrast, has been deployed commercially for more than 15 years and, thus, is less likely to experience near-term cost declines.
[8] Currently, fuel cells are most frequently available in packaged units of 200 kilowatts. Thus, for buildings with smaller average demand, there is a potential to supply electricity to the grid if the price received is high enough to compensate for the costs of generating the electricity.
[9] For a more detailed discussion of these and other components of the incentives, see Energy Information Administration, Analysis of the Climate Change Technology Initiative: Fiscal Year 2001, SR/OIAF/2000-01 (Washington, DC, April 2000).
[10] Lower capital costs prompt adoption by consumers with smaller electric and thermal loads, leading to less efficient fuel cell use.
[11] This is of course not the case for fuel-consuming, carbon-dioxide-emitting distributed generation. If the carbon dioxide efficiency and transmission and distribution loss savings of the distributed resource do not exceed the marginal carbon dioxide emissions of utility generation resources, distributed generation can increase carbon dioxide emissions.