OSA Announces Integrated Resource Planning Study

RINGGOLD, Ga., January 18, 2010 – OSA, Inc.

The Collaborative Integrated Resource Planning Study (CIRPS) will bring together electric utilities, equipment suppliers, environmental organizations, financial institutions, academia, regulatory agencies and interested individuals to evaluate the long-term costs and benefits of the various resource options over a wide range of future data uncertainty. The study will take into account the total societal cost of the various options, including the impact of emissions and waste disposal. The CIRPS project will use the PowrSym model to make 30 year comparative analyses using a fictional, but very typical regional electric utility.

Options to be evaluated include continued operation, upgrade, and retirement of existing generation resources, new fossil plant technology, nuclear, solar, wind, storage options, smart grid options, grid expansion, combined heat and power options, distributed generation options, and various conservation and efficiency options.

The CIRPS project will consider uncertainties on all forecasts, for example fuel costs, environment impact costs, and cost/performance of new technologies. The CIRPS project will be conducted in an open and transparent framework with Internet-based and in-person working groups, representing diverse viewpoints. The combination of many options and a wide range of uncertainties will produce thousands of simulation scenarios. When the project exceeds the computing capacity of the OSA servers, simulations will be farmed out for cloud computing application.

A generic regional electric utility has been created for the CIRPS study so that attention can be focused more on the resource options and data uncertainty without the complications presented by support and opposition to specific real projects. The generic system begins with a typical mix of coal, nuclear, hydro, and combustion turbine resources of various vintages. The base generic system will be presented for discussion and potential modifications at the first CIRPS working group session in February.

It is not expected that the CIRPS project will result in a single optimal resource plan for the generic system due to the range of data uncertainty. We can expect that some options will be robust in that these options are winners over a wide range of data uncertainty. Other options will be winners under one end or the other of data ranges. Some options will be enhanced and other options penalized by their ability to respond to data uncertainty as events unfold over the study period. Most study results will be presented in the form of response curves, for example the shift in lowest cost resource mix as a function of carbon impact pricing.

The goal of the CIRPS project is to bring together all resource options and data range uncertainties in a logical computer simulation with active participation by parties of all viewpoints in a professional framework. The resulting simulations and databases will be maintained for update as new resources are developed and data uncertainty ranges shift over time.

It should be noted that while results using a generic electric system are of value as a comparison tool, the optimum resource mixes for real electric systems will vary due to the in-place resources and the geographic differences in cost and performance of the various resource options. It will be necessary to modify the study for geographic specific data before reaching conclusions about specific electric systems.

OSA invites all parties interested in the long-term benefits, costs and impacts of electric energy use to participate in the CIRPS project. For more information and participation, please visit the web site at www.powrsym.com. The data and results of the study will be available to all participants.

OSA began development of the PowrSym computer model in 1983 and has enhanced it over the years to accurately model generating resources, renewable options, cogeneration options, conservation, and smart grid options. OSA provides consulting services and PowrSym support worldwide with a focus on operational and long range planning studies.

Contact:

Candace Henderson
Marketing Director
7638 Nashville Street
Ringgold, GA 30736
Candace@babb.com
(706) 965-6361