This report provides a high-level summary of the comparative costs and other implications of alternative pathways for implementing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) in Wisconsin. The information contained in the report is the result of an EPRI analysis performed for the purpose of gaining insights into the options available to the State of Wisconsin in preparing the state plan required by the CPP. The analysis was conducted at the request of a consortium of Wisconsin utilities.
The analysis employed EPRI’s U.S. Regional Economy, Greenhouse Gas, and Energy (US-REGEN) model to assess the relative costs of alternative pathways for CPP compliance across a number of scenarios representing potential development of emission trading markets. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate uncertainties related to assumptions about future prices of natural gas, post-2030 CO2 emissions policy, nuclear unit life, load growth, cost of wind generation, availability of emission rate credits from legacy energy efficiency programs, energy efficiency costs, and electrification of the economy
Results of the analysis show that under a business-as-usual scenario, Wisconsin will likely need to take action in order to comply with the CPP as its CO2 emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired electricity generating units exceed the limits set by the U.S. EPA. Depending on the assumptions made in the analysis, a case can be made for compliance through either an emissions rate-based approach or an approach based on a cap on emissions. In the vast majority of sensitivity analyses, the rate-based approach is favored in terms of relative cost of compliance.