The Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) has released the Energy Zones (EZ) Mapping Tool, a free, web-based interactive tool that will help states and other stakeholders in the Eastern Interconnection identify geographic areas suitable for the development of clean energy resources (natural gas, sequestration or utilitization locations for C02 from coal, nuclear, and renewable) which can potentially provide significant amounts of new electric power generation.

The EZ Mapping Tool is now available online. EISPC is encouraging states to learn more by participating in demonstration webinars and training sessions on how to apply the tool to their needs and particular areas of interest.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Office of Electricity provided funding for EISPC to promote collaboration among state-level officials foster and foster consistent and coordinated direction to regional and interconnection-level electricity analyses and planning. EISPC represents the 39 states, the District of Columbia, the City of New Orleans, and 8 Canadian Provinces located within the Eastern Interconnection electric transmission grid.

The EZ Mapping Tool supports 29 clean power generation and storage technologies capable of grid-level power production. Included are resources that are not economic today, but could become so over the next several decades. There are more than 260 data layers in the mapping library that can be processed using various user-specified screening factors and criteria to identify areas most suitable for clean energy resource development. EISPC is encouraging states to learn more about the EZ Mapping Tool by participating in demonstration webinars and training sessions on how to apply the tool to their needs and particular areas of interest.

The EZ Mapping Tool is similar to work conducted previously by the Western Governors Association on high quality remote renewables under their Western Renewable Energy Initiative. That work was also funded by OE.