Impact of environmental regulation on generation mix
Generation planning for utilities has become very complex and risky due to long-term uncertainty in natural gas prices, future limits or costs on CO2 emissions, and adoption of distributed energy resources. Some of the scenarios that must be considered would radically alter system operations relative to current patterns of use. Brattle experts have assisted utilities with long range planning for how to measure and cope with these risks, including how to build and value contingency plans in their resource selection criteria, and what kinds of regulatory communications to pursue to manage expectations in this difficult environment.