Economic analysis of complying Renewable Portfolio Standard in the State of North Carolina

摘要

Global environmental impact, triggered by greenhouse gas emissions, has prompted federal and state governments to develop policies that would encourage more energy generation from renewable energy sources (RES). The principal goal of such policies is to reduce the carbon emissions. Towards this end, many states in the United States have issued laws and policy directives which set Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to ensure that certain percentage of energy supplied in the power system within their state boundaries be sourced from RES. In this paper, we have selected the state of North Carolina as a candidate system in conducting the economic analysis of meeting the state's RPS requirements by hypothetically using different combinations of wind and solar resources. Key system metrics are used to measure the various benefits associated with adding RES into the state. The results show that there are substantial system benefits associated with meeting the state's RPS requirements by RES.