High Renewable Penetration Scenarios: Impacts on Wholesale Prices and Demand-Side Decisions

Increasing penetrations of variable renewable energy (VRE) can affect wholesale electricity price patterns, making them meaningfully different from historic price patterns. Many long-lasting decisions for supply- and demand-side electricity infrastructure and programs are based on historical observations or assume a business-as-usual future with low VRE. This QuickTalk explores whether certain electric-sector decisions that are made based on low-VRE assumptions will still achieve their intended objective in a high-VRE future.