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Written by: Russ Stothers

The Copperleaf Community Creates a Clean Energy and Investment Planning Working Group

Climate change and its impact on society have become the core of policy discussions that are driving major changes in the power and energy industries. Many organizations have publicly stated their clean energy goals and timelines to address climate change impacts. To deliver on these goals, utilities are looking for ways to more clearly define the value of clean energy and grid modernization investments.

Copperleaf has partnered with Black & Veatch to create and facilitate a Clean Energy and Investment Planning Working Group. Formed in July 2021, the founding members include AES, Duke Energy, Salt River Project, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Toronto Hydro. The main goal of the working group is to drive and accelerate the development of consistent practices in the valuation of grid modernization projects. We work with industry experts to advance the effective design, analysis, and application of clean energy and grid modernization value frameworks. We also facilitate discussions with a diverse group of electric utilities to help create industry alignment and develop best practices.

Meetings, which take place every 6 weeks, are interactive and dynamic with members presenting use cases to their peers for feedback and to stimulate further discussion and development of improved methodologies. The mandate, agenda, and topics of discussion are driven by working group members and include areas of interest such as the Self-Optimizing Grid, Bulk Electric System (BES), Distributed Energy Resources (DER), and Distribution Automation.

Our clients are finding these working groups to be a useful forum to share knowledge, collaboratively develop best practices, and ultimately create improved processes for planning clean energy and grid modernization investments and developing the associated cost benefit analysis.

If you’re a client interested in helping define industry leading-edge practices around the valuation of grid modernization projects, while creating a better set of solutions for your own organization, please contact us.