September 16, 2021

Key Decisions for Hosting Capacity Analyses

Not all hosting capacity analyses (HCAs) are created equal. This guide explains the key decisions in the HCA development process and how they will shape the HCA's usefulness.
A thumbnail of the cover of the IREC report "Key Decisions for Hosting Capacity Analyses"

This paper is designed to help readers understand the variety of issues and decisions that need to be considered as a public-facing hosting capacity analysis (HCA) is developed. An understanding of these issues can help ensure the resulting HCA is useful in informing the integration of more distributed energy resources (DERs) on the distribution grid.

IREC has been actively involved in regulatory proceedings and research projects related to HCA development across the country, including in California, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Minnesota. These experiences yielded a number of lessons about the factors necessary to produce a useful analysis which other states can leverage to maximize the success of their HCA efforts.