Improving Decisions for U.S. Electricity under Policy Uncertainty

The United States needs to build generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure to meet growing electricity demand. However, there is a lack of decision tools and frameworks to inform investment decisions for energy technologies amid policy, technological, and other contextual uncertainties. Prof. Azevedo will present results from several ongoing analyses that quantify the costs, benefits, and technology investments needed across the country for a variety of policy and technology scenarios (such as the need for transmission expansion under different policy contexts; the effects of increased load from data centers; the opportunities for enhanced geothermal, small modular nuclear reactors, storage technologies, and offshore wind, just to name a few, as well as the effect of different climate futures on optimal investment decisions). Prof. Azevedo uses a new modeling and data tool that has been developed by her group, PyPSA-USA, that includes characteristics of generators, transmission, candidate new generation and transmission technologies, a representation of renewable generation potential, and state- and federal-level policies and incentives.

Speaker: Ines Azevedo, Stanford University

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