AVERT Tutorial: Information Needed for Analysis
Using AVERT requires that you understand the energy impacts of the programs, policies, or projects that you are evaluating. To estimate displaced emissions with AVERT, you will need the following:
1. For energy efficiency programs, one of the following:
- Expected annual load reduction from one or a group of energy programs.
- Understanding of the program’s temporal profile (e.g., whether it targets all hours equally throughout the year or affects specific hours of the year), so you can select the appropriate energy load profile option.
- An hourly energy savings profile from another source.
2. For renewable energy programs, one of the following:
- Capacity of renewable energy installations (wind or solar) to be analyzed.
- An hourly renewable energy generation profile from another source.
3. For electric vehicles:
- The number of vehicles by type.
- The location of deployment.
- Additional characteristics if known.
4. For energy storage:
- Capacity of energy storage to be analyzed.
- A choice of whether storage is paired with solar (charging will be limited to hours with concurrently added solar generation) or not paired.
- The duration over which the energy storage resources can dispatch at their maximum power capacity.
- The charging profile (custom or a selection from one of the built-in options).
- Additional characteristics if known.
To create a future year scenario, you will also need the following:
- Expected fossil EGU retirements.
- Generic new EGU capacity (in MW, by fuel and prime mover type, such as natural gas combined cycle) and a general idea of where that capacity will be built.
- Additions or changes in emission rates from pollution control installations (e.g., new emission rates in pounds or tons per MWh).
Some states fall into more than one AVERT region. To get the best results, you will need to identify the correct AVERT region or regions, and you might need to run AVERT more than once.
