The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability has released the 2014/2015 Economic Dispatch and Technological Change Report to Congress. In this report, the Department of Energy is responding to Sections 1234 and 1832 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which directed the Secretary of Energy to conduct an annual study of economic dispatch and potential ways to improve such dispatch to benefit American electricity consumers.

In this 2014/2015 economic dispatch report, the Department examines how technology and policy affect economic dispatch. This report looks at seven current topics that affect economic dispatch. They are: (1) variable generation resources; (2) energy storage; (3) the production tax credit; (4) market structure; (5) environmental regulations; (6) demand response; and (7) market power. The report is not intended to provide an in-depth study of these topics. Rather, the report gives a brief overview of the topics and their implications for economic dispatch, and in some cases suggests future actions that should be considered. Overall, the report stresses the need for grid flexibility and for a suite of solutions to address the complexities of economic dispatch as changes in policy and available technologies create new challenges for grid operators.

The 2014/2015 Economic Dispatch and Technological Change Report to Congress can be downloaded here.