A grid project, whether technology or policy added in one specific location, can have surprising and significant repercussions throughout the interconnected power system. Every project can impact the total energy consumption, voltage profiles in the distribution system, costs, mixture of fossil fuels, dispatch and so on.
Benefits from these grid technologies can be significant, but unintended consequences can be surprising. Context matters — the same project can have wildly different impacts when rolled out in different places. Utilities, policy makers, and vendors need more than a published study to capture the benefits and consequences of their specific project within its context.
The Grid Project Impacts Quantification (GridPIQ) web screening tool aims to incorporate enough detail about specific grid technology and objectives, coupled with enough detail about the system context to yield insight. The focus is on transparency, modularity, ease of use, and versatility rather than precision. Sift through the impacts of diverse ideas quickly and with confidence, importing specifics when known and drawing on clear, relevant suggestions when not.
Because the first impacts reported by this tool were CO2, SO2 and NOx, early GridPIQ publications can be found under the name “Emissions Quantification Tool (EQT).”
The intention of this documentation effort is to provide users with the ability to comprehensively understand the methodology, previous work, and data on which the GridPIQ screening tool was based. The discussion is grouped by project context, grid project, and impact type. It is critical to the mission and philosophy of the tool that all results be fully reproducible, defensible, and easy to explain to stakeholders and decision makers. If there are any areas where additional explanation or clarification is required or would be beneficial, please contact the GridPIQ team.