Greening the Grid Training Materials

Greening the Grid seeks to connect power system stakeholders with the training they need to understand and address the issues associated with integrating significant variable renewable energy to the grid. Scroll through the materials in this section and check back frequently to find upcoming events, videos, materials from previous Greening the Grid trainings, and links to training on grid integration topics offered by other organizations.

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Upcoming trainings
Videos and recorded webinars
Greening the Grid training materials

Upcoming Trainings

Greening the Grid offers in-person trainings and webinars on a variety of topics.

Browse the Greening the Grid Training Events to find upcoming trainings.

Videos and Recorded Webinars

Building Blocks for Distributed PV Deployment, Part 1: Goals, Definitions and Compensation
Due in part to the low cost of photovoltaic system hardware and scalability for deployment, grid-connected distributed photovoltaic (DPV) technologies are increasingly permeating global power markets. While this trend could help substantially reduce the carbon footprint of global power generation, empower citizens across the socio-economic spectrum, and expand local PV markets, there are a number of technical and policy issues—especially in countries that have limited technical resources and need to “get things right” the first time.

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with USAID Distributed PV Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, hosted a no-cost webinar that explores the "building blocks" of establishing a distributed PV program, which include:

Setting a distributed PV vision, goals, and roles and responsibilities
Defining distributed generation
Establishing a compensation mechanism
Creating interconnection processes, standards, and codes
Providing public policy support as needed.

This webinar is Part 1 in a two-part series. It explores building blocks 1, 2, and 3. A second webinar explores building blocks 4 and 5.

Transmission Planning for a High Renewable Energy Future: Lessons from the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy Zones Process
In 2005, the Texas power system developed a new approach to transmission system planning based on the designation of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ). Designed to direct transmission expansion to the state’s most productive wind energy resources, the implementation of CREZ has helped to enable the addition of more than 18 gigawatts of wind energy generation capacity to Texas’s power system while overcoming technical issues such as curtailment and transmission congestion. This webinar provided an overview of the CREZ process, including the regulatory, procedural and technical considerations that were critical to its successful implementation in Texas. The webinar also introduced a Renewable Energy Zones “Toolkit” developed through a USAID and NREL partnership and intended to guide other power systems in adapting elements of the CREZ approach to their own power system planning processes. Click here to download an audio transcript of this webinar.

Power Purchase Agreements for Grid-Aware Renewable Energy Procurement
Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are a key mechanism that utilities use to procure variable renewable energy from independent power producers. A PPA is a long-term (20-25 year) contract that codifies all aspects of the electricity sale, including the price of electricity and the associated legal obligations of both parties. This webinar focuses on PPA provisions that can enable wind and solar technologies to enhance grid stability and contribute to power system flexibility. Discussed are key considerations, including ancillary services, advanced telemetry, and automatic generation control. The discussion is followed with a presentation by Xcel Energy, a vertically integrated electricity utility in the United States and the largest wind buyer in the country, to discuss Xcel Energy’s Model PPA for wind power systems.

Integrating Variable Renewable Energy to the Grid: Key Issues and Emerging Solutions
Greening the Grid, in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, hosted this webinar, which provides a general introduction to the challenges associated with integrating significant quantities of variable renewable energy to the grid and the emerging solutions that policymakers, regulators and grid operators have taken to integrate wind and solar and meet renewable energy targets. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

Best Practices in Conducting Grid Integration Studies
Greening the Grid, in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, hosted this webinar, which addresses several fundamental questions, including the following: Why conduct a grid integration study? What types of questions can a grid integration study address? What are best practices for engaging key stakeholders in grid integration studies? What kinds of analysis and data are involved in a grid integration study? It includes several case studies to highlight examples and lessons learned from existing grid integration study efforts. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

Implementing Renewable Energy Zones for Integrated Transmission and Generation Planning
In many countries, integrating significant renewable energy to the grid requires new transmission to access the best wind and solar resources and accommodate generation from large projects. The renewable energy zone (REZ) approach provides a policy framework for planning new transmission to encourage utility-scale renewable energy development in areas that have the highest likelihood of being cost-effective. This webinar, hosted in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, introduces the REZ approach, including the value of REZ to a power system, crucial components of the REZ process, technical approach to defining REZs using geospatial analysis, and case studies to highlight examples and key lessons for implementing REZ in other parts of the world. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

An Introduction to Wind and Solar Power Forecasting
This webinar, hosted in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, introduces the considerations associated with advancing the use of wind and solar forecasts to more efficiently integrate variable renewable energy into the grid. Discussion topics include: how wind and solar forecasting enhance power system operations; how wind and solar forecasts are produced; approaches to structuring forecasting programs and the collection of necessary data; and policy and other actions to support forecasting. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

Facilitating the Integration of Renewable Energy through Balancing Area Cooperation
This five-minute animated video illustrates how cooperation between power systems can facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy (VRE) to the grid.

Big, Fast and Flexible: Grid Operations for Efficient Variable Renewable Integration
This webinar, hosted in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, provides an overview of the value of large balancing areas and fast system operations for cost-effectively integrating high penetrations of wind and solar on the grid. Speakers discussed different pathways, along with implementation considerations and examples for each, for enhancing the size and speed of grid operations for efficient variable renewable integration. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

Distributed Solar on the Grid: Key Opportunities and Challenges
This webinar, hosted in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center, reviews the key technical and economic challenges related to distributed, grid-connected solar photovoltaic (DGPV) integration, and presents a discussion of how DGPV is shaping the planning, operation, regulation and even conceptualization the power system. For a written transcript of the webinar, click here.

Technical Potential Tutorial Series
This three-part tutorial series introduces technical potential analysis, describes how technical potential is assessed, and familiarizes viewers with the Technical Potential geospatial analysis tool on RE Data Explorer, the flagship tool from RE Explorer. The tutorial concentrates on renewable energy technical potential for wind and solar and answers the key questions: What is technical potential? How is technical potential assessed? How can I use RE Data Explorer to assess technical potential?

Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE): An Overview
This training video introduces levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and why it is important for data-driven decision making in energy planning. The training explains how to calculate LCOE of the electricity generating assets and describes key parameters, sensitivities, and some of its limitations. Example applications, analyses, and results are provided as well as an introduction to the Transparent Cost Database. This video was developed as part of a remote training series for the Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao PDR within the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong Program. This video concentrates on RE resources and answers the key questions: What is LCOE? How is LCOE calculated? What are its applications, limitations, sensitivities, and parameters?

Greening the Grid Training Materials

The following PowerPoint presentations are associated with the webinars of the same name (please refer to Videos and Recorded Webinars list above):