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Distributed Renewable Energy Operating Impacts and Valuation Study

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Section 4<br />

Figure 4-3: $110 Million (500 MW) Transmission System Infrastructure Investment Years<br />

Single-Axis Sensitivity<br />

2012 2015 2016 2018 2020 2023 2025<br />

High Penetration Case<br />

2012 2015 2016 2018 2020 2023 2025<br />

Medium Penetration Case<br />

2012 2015 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2025<br />

Low Penetration Case<br />

2012 2015 2016 2018 2020 2021 2023 2025<br />

Existing Condition<br />

2012 2015 2016 2018 2020 2021 2023 2025<br />

- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8<br />

Number (<strong>and</strong> Year) of 500 MW Transmission System Upgrades<br />

In Figure 4-3, the “Existing Condition” represents the projected number (<strong>and</strong> year) of 500 MW<br />

transmission system upgrades currently estimated by APS. The results of the <strong>Study</strong> indicate that<br />

the Low Penetration Case does not meet the “threshold” for being able to defer a transmission<br />

upgrade by one year, <strong>and</strong> therefore achieves no benefit from DCT. This is indicated in the figure<br />

above as the projected number (<strong>and</strong> year) of transmission upgrades for the Low Penetration Case<br />

is identical to those projected for the Existing Condition.<br />

The Medium Penetration Case is marginal in its impact, but does succeed at deferring one<br />

transmission system upgrade from 2021 to 2022, <strong>and</strong> another from 2023 to 2024. However, the<br />

Medium Penetration Case ends up with the same number of upgrades at the end of the<br />

projection, 2025, as the Existing Condition (a total of eight upgrades). The High Penetration<br />

Case <strong>and</strong> the single-axis sensitivity both defer one transmission investment from 2021 to beyond<br />

the forecast horizon.<br />

As can be seen from the Table 4-5 <strong>and</strong> Figure 4-3 above, the single-axis tracking does not result<br />

in any additional value compared to the High Penetration Case (the increase in DCT from 603<br />

MW to 622 MW is too small to result in any additional deferrals). This is in part because for<br />

both the High Penetration Case <strong>and</strong> the single-axis sensitivity, the peak load hour was “pushed”<br />

to 6:00 PM (18:00 in Table 4-5), when the sun is setting.<br />

The results for the Yuma example (not shown) indicate that the Low Penetration Case has no<br />

DCT benefits on the sub-transmission system. The Medium <strong>and</strong> High Penetration Cases <strong>and</strong> the<br />

single-axis sensitivity all resulted in one $7 million, 30 MW sub-transmission investment<br />

deferral to beyond the forecast horizon. Again, as with the system-level review, the increased<br />

output associated with the single-axis sensitivity had no discernable increase in DCT value.<br />

4-14 R. W. Beck, Inc. Arizona Public Service

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