Events

The United States electric grid is undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift from a system reliant on the centralized generation of electricity to one increasingly based in distributed generation. These distributed energy resources (DERs), or smaller resources typically located at the point of consumption, fundamentally alter the grid by enabling individuals to interact with the system in a new way. When aggregated, they allow consumers to participate in transmission system processes, leading to new questions surrounding the impact of a more distributed system on a vast array of actors involved with the functionality of the grid and the extent to which consumer behavior can be relied on to increase system reliability.  With this dissertation, I seek to understand how the ability of coordinated aggregations of DERs to provide services to the transmission system changes the role of communities and consumers in the electricity grid. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the grid of the present and analyze demand response programs. Chapter 4 then looks to the future and engages in a concept development exercise to theorize how DER aggregation participation in wholesale electricity markets will change the role of communities in the grid. Chapter 2 combines household- and power-system level models to quantify the impact of override behavior on the reliability contribution of a summer residential air conditioning direct load control program in California under various program designs. I find that overrides have a minor impact on the reliability value of a program that calls events for one hour, but when events lasted for three or four hours, overrides can lead to a 60% reduction in reliability value. Participant behavior has significant implications for program outcomes and policymakers must consider tradeoffs between override flexibility and savings.

Chapter 3 uses statistical methods to estimate the performance of six California residential time of use rates during hours with a risk to system reliability from 2020 to 2022. All rates are associated with statistically significant reductions in demand during high-risk hours with up to a 44% hourly consumption reduction. Variability in results across utilities and climate zones indicates that the reliability contribution of TOU rates is dependent on location and customer base. TOU rates must be designed with customers and their environment in mind to balance reliability impacts and consumer well-being.

Finally, Chapter 4 theorizes about the future of the grid and proposes the concept of “gridmaking” to add social and spatial elements to DER aggregation theories. A combination of the planning concept of placemaking and the energy prosumer, “gridmaking” describes the ways consumers can use DERs to actively “make” and shape the grid that serves them instead of passively purchasing power from their utilities. While DERs empower communities to take a more active role in the system, they may also lead to local bypasses and exacerbate pre-existing energy injustices.  This dissertation concludes that DER aggregations have significant implications for the roles of consumers and communities. The performance of demand response programs are dependent on the willingness of participants to respond and an expansion in DER aggregation participation in wholesale electricity markets allows communities to engage in placemaking like actions in the spaces of the grid. The grid of the future will ask more of consumers and conceptualizing the system as consumer-oriented and more place-based is imperative to ensuring reliability and energy justice.

Location: 2328 SEB