Potential of Distributed Energy Resources for Electric Cooperatives in the United States

Author: Md Rahan Chowdhury, Department of Electrical Engineering

Mentor: Dr. Long Zhao, Department of Electrical Engineering

Due to global environmental issues, rising energy demand, and declining per unit generation cost of renewable energy sources (RES), RES has gradually replaced a large portion of conventional energy generations over the last few decades. According to the United States utility-scale, distributed energy resources (DER) such as wind and solar energy have an annual growth rate of 10% and 49%, respectively, from 2009 to 2019. In the Contiguous United States, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) serves 12% of the nation's electricity customers, which covers 56% of the landmass of the region. Around 55% of all renewable energy projects have been directed to rural areas by the U.S. government because of the large land space requirements of wind and solar generations. In this work, the development of DER, including wind and solar generations for the rural electric system in the United States is presented. Additionally, the potential of distributed wind and solar energies in rural electric systems is discussed considering the most recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 2222. Preliminary analysis for wind and solar generations is conducted in this research work.