The Reference Network Model is a useful tool to examine the impact of various renewable deployment scenarios on the distribution system and to examine system cost impacts associated with these. In the image above, we demonstrate the impact of increasing the level of Solar PV Penetration (red dots) on the power system and the associated reinforcements (green lines) needed to account for this. Results first presented as part of The Future of Solar Energy study.
- Detailed modeling of distribution network planning and reinforcement costs
- European version in use and development for over a decade
- ARPA-E funded project to bring US version to market nearing completion
- Realistic “synthetic” networks for simulation and research or input real network topology for system planning purposes
- Plans network for 10s-100s of neighboring substations and 100s of thousands to millions of individual customers and connected distributed resources