Assessing the Costs and Benefits of the Modeled EIPC Scenarios

Sustainable FERC Project
Project completed September 2013

Synapse performed analysis for the Sustainable FERC project examining the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) process. The work included a more comprehensive summarization and interpretation of the costs and the benefits of the three modeled scenarios from Phase 2 of the EIPC analyses (1 – nationally implemented federal carbon constraint, 2 – regionally implemented national RPS, 3 – business as usual). Synapse's work addressed key issues not fully fleshed out in the EIPC reports, and suggested next logical steps for further analysis. Synapse also reviewed and discussed the extent to which certain changes in core assumptions from the EIPC work might have been useful. Those potential changes included, but were not limited to, variables used in the Phase 2 and/or Phase 1 analyses: 1) wind capital costs, 2) wind performance, 3) system flexibility (supply and demand resource), 4) demand side costs (EE/DR), 5) wind integration costs, 6) coordination across regions.