Meeting the Reliability Challenges of the Clean Energy Transition

This research paper by the World Resources Institute argues that achieving decarbonization targets in the United States electricity sector requires coordinated, reliability-informed policy planning rather than relying solely on market prices. It emphasizes that grid reliability depends on both resource adequacy and operating reliability, and warns that the retirement of essential reliability services without equivalent replacements puts both grid stability and climate goals at risk.

• The United States lacks a centralized authority or plan to manage the reliable transition of the electricity sector, creating a gap between the setting of decarbonization targets and the maintenance of grid reliability.
• Market-based mechanisms, including Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Energy Imbalance Markets (EIMs), are insufficient on their own to ensure grid reliability because they rely on prices that have failed to incentivize enough generation resources to meet reliability targets.
• Full decarbonization cannot be achieved simply by replacing fossil fuels with renewables; it requires targeted investment in specific resource types, some of which are not yet commercially available, to maintain both resource adequacy and operating reliability.
• Currently, New York and California are the only two U.S. states that have begun to explore targeted incentives and reliability-informed system planning to support a fully decarbonized energy sector.
• A U.S. Department of Energy task force, involving NARUC and NASEO, has proposed an aligned system planning process that integrates generation resource adequacy with transmission and distribution system planning.

APA

World Resources Institute (2023). Meeting the Reliability Challenges of the Clean Energy Transition. https://www.wri.org/research/meeting-reliability-challenges-clean-energy-transition

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Meeting the Reliability Challenges of the Clean Energy Transition. 2023. https://www.wri.org/research/meeting-reliability-challenges-clean-energy-transition.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Meeting the Reliability Challenges of the Clean Energy Transition |date=13 December 2023 |url=https://www.wri.org/research/meeting-reliability-challenges-clean-energy-transition |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2023meeting, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Meeting the Reliability Challenges of the Clean Energy Transition}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/meeting-reliability-challenges-clean-energy-transition}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }