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The second study in a few days has been released that finds that implementing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan will not negatively affect grid reliability. Analysis Group’s report, “Electric System Reliability and EPA’s Clean Power Plan: Tools and Practices,” addresses the impact of ongoing changes in the energy industry for stakeholders and offers recommendations to ensure reliability.

The report shows that “the industry, its reliability regulators, and the States have a wide variety of existing and modified tools at their disposal to help as they develop, formalize, and implement their respective State Plans.” In particular, it notes that, “These two responsibilities – assuring electric system reliability while taking the actions required under law to reduce CO2 emissions from existing power plants – are compatible, and need not be in tension with each other as long as parties act in timely ways.”

The report was a response to concern raised around the Clean Power Plan specific to grid reliability, or that adding more renewable energy such as wind and solar to the electric grid would create energy output issues especially during peak times. With this is mind, the report authors note “[A] recent survey of more than 400 utility executives nationwide found that more than 60 percent felt optimistic about the Clean Power Plan and felt that EPA should either hold to its current emissions reduction targets or make them more aggressive.”

To date, more than 4 million comments have been submitted to the EPA, many around reliability concerns. Groups have begun studying potential impacts of the U.S. grid should the Clean Power Plan be implemented as proposed. This report, along with others, have found that the energy industry’s past experience and ongoing efforts should address concerns.

However, the report highlights what should be a concern, that has historically been ignored, and that is the “reality” of public policy and industry action” “many of these comments tend to assume inflexible implementation and present worst case scenarios, with an exaggerated cause-and-effect relationship. Moreover, many comments … tend to assume that policy makers, regulators, and market participants will stand on the sidelines until it is too late to act. The history of the electric system and its ability to respond to previous challenges including industry deregulation and previous Clean Air Act regulations … prove that this is highly unlikely.”

Analysis Group previously released two other reports examining the ability of states to implement the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and implications for electric reliability: “EPA’s Clean Power Plan: States’ Tools for Reducing Costs and Increasing Benefits to Consumers,” and “Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions From Existing Power Plants: Options to Ensure Electric System Reliability.”