Planning for Change in the Electric Power Industry: A Primer for Transactive Energy Scenario Development

The electric power industry and its associated infrastructures (a.k.a. "the grid") are evolving from centrally planned, organized, and operated networks of players, technologies, and resources to systems of systems that are increasingly digitized and distributed in their operation and innovative capacity. Subsequently, strategic planners and technology managers associated with the electric power industry are faced with a range of scenarios to evaluate, including one that considers the emergence of commercialized transactive energy systems in the coming ten-year time horizon. The crafting of a transactive energy scenario can help inform technology innovation and management efforts that benefit consumers, electricity providers, and society by providing planners with a tool to investigate key drivers of change and a range of desired attributes of future technologies that could be employed to address emerging customer needs, wants, and expectations. This paper introduces readers to key elements associated with the market emergence and adoption of transactive energy systems in order to encourage their inclusion in long-term scenario portfolios being utilized to inform electric power industry planning efforts.