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Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Patricia Hoffman submitted a memo to the Electricity Advisory Committee providing the Department of Energy's response to the EAC's analyses and recommendations made in 2014.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a study entitled "Modeling the Integrated Expansion of the Canadian and U.S. Power Sectors with the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS)”. Funded by OE, this study documents a development effort that created a robust representation of the combined capacity expansion of the U.S. and Canadian electric sectors in the NREL Regional Energy Deployment System model.

Utility studies of time-based rate programs show significant demand reductions and major enrollment advantages for opt-out versus opt-in recruitment approaches.

The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability has released the Year-in-Review: 2014 Energy Infrastructure Events and Expansions. This publication provides a summary of significant energy disruptions and infrastructure changes that occurred in the United States throughout 2014.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, on behalf of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, has issued a research call for proposals for a “Design Support Tool for Remote Off-grid Microgrids” which facilitates the design of microgrids that encompass mixes of generation assets and load profiles typical of remote communities. In addition, the tool must be capable of conducting such analyses as may be necessary to validate that corresponding design parameters, planned operational performance, and expected benefits of microgrids can be achieved effectively and economically.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has released a report titled DC Microgrids Scoping Study: Estimate of Technical and Economic Benefits, which presents the results of a study by several national labs and funded by the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability. The study provides a preliminary examination of the benefits and drawbacks of potential DC microgrid applications relative to their AC counterparts, using several metrics for comparison, and offers recommendations for potential future research and deployment activities.

In October 2014, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) held a conference to assess progress, impacts, benefits, and lessons learned from utility smart grid projects and to exchange information about future challenges and opportunities. The summary of conference proceedings, The Smart Grid Experience: Applying Results, Reaching Beyond, is now available for download. This report summarizes the information presented during the conference and the key points raised during the group discussions that followed the presentation sessions

On April 7, Dan Ton, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Dr. Imre Gyuk, Manager of the Energy Storage Program, and Dr. Carol Hawk, Manger of the Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems Program, will be featured speakers during a webinar on OE’s Resilient Electricity Delivery Infrastructure Initiative (REDI) Funding Opportunity Announcement. The Resilient Electricity Delivery Infrastructure Initiative FOA is focused on local and tribal governments that experienced a Presidentially Declared Major Disaster over the past 30 years. The awards will help communities deploy smart grid tools and technologies that will help decision makers and resource managers improve recovery of electricity delivery services in their communities.

The Interoperability of Demand Response Resources Demonstration in NY was awarded to Con Edison in 2009 as part of DOE's Smart Grid Demonstration Project (SGDP) grants funded by the Recovery Act. The objective of the project was to develop and demonstrate methodologies to enhance the ability of customer sited demand response resources, both conventional and renewable, to integrate more effectively with electric delivery companies

An interim evaluation report summarizing results from the first year of Lakeland Electric’s two-year 3-Period Time of Use (TOU) program called “Shift-to-Save” (STS) is now available. The study is part of a full system-wide deployment of advanced metering infrastructure funded in part by a grant from the Department of Energy’s Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) Program.