WHY THE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN RESOURCE ADEQUACY

The policy brief examines how the shift toward variable renewable energy and distributed energy resources (DERs) challenges traditional grid planning paradigms. It argues that the historical reliance on the Planning Reserve Margin (PRM) heuristic is increasingly inadequate for ensuring reliability in a high-renewables system. Furthermore, it warns that fossil fuel incumbents are exploiting these planning uncertainties to protect their market share by framing technical challenges as insurmountable barriers to decarbonization.

• The transition to a clean power sector requires accelerating capacity additions from 1 percent of the system mix per year to 3 percent per year to achieve a goal of 80% clean energy by 2050.
• Traditional resource adequacy planning relies on the Planning Reserve Margin (PRM) heuristic, typically targeting at least a 15 percent extra capacity over anticipated peak demand to meet a 'one-in-ten' reliability threshold.
• The PRM heuristic is becoming inadequate because it reduces complex production outcomes into a single capacity value, failing to account for the variability of renewables and the specific flexibility needs of a modern grid.
• Variable renewable energy and DERs create new reliability challenges, such as 'off-peak scarcity' during shoulder seasons when fossil generators are offline for maintenance and wind resources may drop.
• Fossil fuel incumbents are using a 'playbook' to delay the energy transition by exaggerating reliability risks, pushing for rules that advantage their resources, and creating barriers for competitors like energy storage and demand response.
• Specific barriers are being implemented to hinder clean technology, such as PJM's requirement that energy storage must sustain maximum output for ten hours to qualify as capacity, despite evidence that shorter durations provide significant value.

APA

GIMON, E. (2020). WHY THE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN RESOURCE ADEQUACY. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Why-The-Clean-Energy-Industry-Should-Be-Interested-In-Resource-Adequacy-FINAL.pdf

Chicago

GIMON, ERIC. WHY THE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN RESOURCE ADEQUACY. Energy Innovation, 2020. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Why-The-Clean-Energy-Industry-Should-Be-Interested-In-Resource-Adequacy-FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=GIMON |first1=ERIC |title=WHY THE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN RESOURCE ADEQUACY |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=July 2020 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Why-The-Clean-Energy-Industry-Should-Be-Interested-In-Resource-Adequacy-FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gimon2020why, author = {GIMON, ERIC}, title = {{WHY THE CLEAN ENERGY INDUSTRY SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN RESOURCE ADEQUACY}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2020}, month = jul, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Why-The-Clean-Energy-Industry-Should-Be-Interested-In-Resource-Adequacy-FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }