DPV Analysis: Overview

This 'Analysis' section of the toolkit is designed to provide a framework of questions and considerations on which one can base their own analysis. While these questions are often open-ended, they are intended to inspire productive and realistic analysis of the unique considerations each country and power system has.

As clean distributed generation programs continue to permeate developing economy markets, there is frequently alack of information and analysis on the costs and benefits of distributed photovoltaic (DPV) programs, especially information specific to particular markets or countries. This information void presents an important opportunity to conduct DPV analyses, particularly as policy and regulatory frameworks and DPV tariff structures are being formulated or revisited.

The DPV Analysis Toolkit can be used by regulators, policymakers, utilities, and other DPV stakeholders to better understand the:

  • Full suite of economic impacts of DPV on various stakeholders
  • Nuances, distinctions, and interrelationships among various types of DPV analysis
  • Analysis tools and data sets required to answer various analysis questions
  • Applications of various analyses to inform decision-making.

  • With mounting interest in distributed PV (DPV) by customers facing high retail electricity rates and declining solar prices, a number of countries in the developing world are creating regulatory structures to enable, and at times incentivize, the adoption of DPV. Given that DPV programs have a diverse range of financial, economic, and environmental impacts on different sets of stakeholders, it will be increasingly important to quantify both the positive and negative effects, and to use this information to formulate robust policy and regulatory frameworks.

    While these impacts may be understood conceptually, decision makers often do not have access to robust information on the exact nature or scale of the impacts to various power sector stakeholders. The costs and benefits of DPV can be quite difficult to discuss coherently, let alone analyze.

    Moreover, DPV analyses go by many names: cost-benefit analyses, economic impact analyses, valuation studies, program evaluations, value-of-solar analyses, and market impact studies. These terms do not have a uniform meaning. Two people may use the same term to describe analyses that are actually quite distinct.  Thus, the DPV Analysis Toolkit also attempts to provide a taxonomy that can be used to categorize various DPV analysis questions. 

The following pages will assist the reader in considering how to begin their own DPV analysis:

  1. Picking an Appropriate Analysis Method
  2. DPV Analysis Types
  3. Other Practical Considerations
  4. Best Practices and Takeaways
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