The value of resilience for distributed energy resources: An overview of current analytical practices

This paper is written as an input to a broader project by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) under the Solar Energy Innova on Network (SEIN) in the U.S. NARUC’s SEIN project focuses on the value of resilience and its use in state policymaking. NARUC’s SEIN research builds on the organization's previous efforts by investigating whether and how current state Distributed Energy Resource (DER) policies support resilience objectives. The overall goal of the NARUC SEIN project is to provide state regulators with guidance for taking resilience into account when evaluating investments in DERs.

This paper reviews current practices for calculating the value of resilience with a focus on valuing resilient DERs installed within the distribution system. The report examines both regulatory decision-making and non-regulatory cost-benefit analyses in order to determine if, and how, a value of resilience was calculated and applied. The paper is designed to address questions that utility regulators have identified as being of interest.