Overview
Emerging grid resources, such as energy storage and demand response, are primarily sited and operated to provide grid-specific services without optimizing for potential environmental and health benefits. In the peer-reviewed journal Energy Policy, we present a health and environmental framework for siting clean energy resources. The framework focuses on four key metrics: 1) total mass, 2) total rate, 3) time, and 4) location of air pollutant emissions. Under the framework, time and location help prioritize emission displacement near densely populated areas with poor air quality, especially at times when air pollutant concentrations exceed regulatory standards. On November 2nd, 2016, Dr. Elena Krieger and Seth B.C. Shonkoff presented the framework, research, and findings in a webinar for the CleanEnergyGroup.
Findings
Our study presents a strong case for policy-driven clean energy deployment strategies that incorporates impacts to air pollution, human health, and environmental justice. We illustrate our framework with a case study using storage, demand response, and other technologies to displace peaker power plants—the highest-rate marginal emitters on the California grid. We combine spatial-temporal data on plant electricity generation, air quality standard exceedance days, and population characteristics available from the environmental justice screening tool CalEnviroScreen 2.0 to determine where emissions reductions may have the greatest marginal benefit. This screening approach can inform grid siting decisions, such as deploying energy storage in lieu of peaker plants in high-impact regions, or dispatch protocol, such as triggering demand response instead of peaker plants on poor air quality days.
Study
Presentation
