Impact of regional greenhouse gas initiative and renewable portfolio standards on power system planning

Two developments are having an impact on power system planning in the Northeastern U.S.: a seven-state regional CO₂ emissions cap and the growth of renewables from renewable portfolio standards (RPS). The CO₂ cap will increase energy costs of fossil units and could affect reliability. RPS provides targets for renewable energy supply by the load serving entities and are resulting in mostly remote installations of small wind and biomass plants. The paper discusses the implications of these two developments