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Buildings across the United States are becoming increasingly electrified, driven by technical advancements, cost reductions for some building technologies, consumer preferences, and policy goals for decarbonization. However, the effects of this load growth on the distribution system are often only a minor consideration in policymaking and long-term planning studies. Distribution planning decisions made today will need to support our society well into the 2060s and beyond. Distribution planning stakeholders can take steps today to establish a grid foundation that captures and addresses the new challenges presented by building electrification.

Load impacts from building electrification—primarily from the electrification of space heating via the adoption of heat pumps—will increase the seasonality and weather dependence of loads, particularly in the winter. In addition, building electrification requires the integration of traditionally independent planning processes for energy delivery systems (fossil fuel and electricity), which can change how planners weigh the pillars of reliability, resilience, affordability, and sustainability.

The Energy Systems Integration Group’s Grid Planning for Building Electrification Task Force identified four priority areas to improve distribution system planning:

  • Improve forecasting
  • Holistically modernize planning approaches
  • Avoid the largest impacts by managing demand
  • Be proactive with grid upgrades

Robust planning will need to be informed by utility engagement with external parties. Distribution planning analysis can inform regulators and policymakers about the implications of certain electrification pathways. In addition, distribution planners will need help from technical colleagues, such as forecasters, program administrators, and natural gas network designers, as they wrangle new problems and identify new solutions. Open dialogue and honest assessments of feasibility, with rigorous and holistic benefit-cost analysis and distributional equity analysis, can reveal building electrification approaches that work for everyone.

Register for the Grid Planning for Building Electrification Webinar on October 30 here.