Guidelines for planning distributed generation systems

Distributed generation (DG) planning is at once both very similar to the most complicated types of electric utility system planning and quite different. It must often assess complications of load coincidence, peak and off-peak needs and economics, reliability, and cost tradeoffs, which are similar to those in electric utility planning. But often it has a far different value framework within which its decisions are made, not the "system-based," least-cost utility perspective applied to large power systems, but the short-term, focused site-dependent needs of a single business. A list of 12 recommendations for DG planners and a list of the 8 most common mistakes that lead to wrong planning are given.