AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFICACY AND COST OF ALTERNATIVE CARBON MITIGATION POLICIES FOR THE STATE OF INDIANA

A nation-wide climate policy targeting the power sector might lead to dramatic changes to Indiana\u27s electricity generation system. This is because Indiana relies heavily on coal as its primary source for electricity generation and coal is much more carbon-intensive than other fossil fuels. In the possible event that Indiana will have to take action on carbon mitigation, for example because of a national climate policy in the future, it is important for state policymakers to understand the costs and efficacy of alternative strategies. In addition, assessing the impacts of the policy alternatives on Indiana serves as guidance for the national policy design process regarding the subnational impacts

An Optimization Model of the European Natural Gas System

The European Commission has identified the Energy Union, as one of its major priorities. This aims to deliver secure, climate-friendly and affordable energy to the European citizens. Towards implementing those goals, the European Commission is working towards diversifying routes and resources, and implementing the target model for the gas and electricity markets. This paper presents an optimization model of the European natural gas system. The model identifies the natural gas suppliers' mix for Europe and for each Member State. The model, being an optimization model, provides the economically optimum energy mix, subject to the technical and policy constraints of the gas transmission system. The model can also provide useful insights to the decision makers and market participants on the needed critical infrastructure. Model results show that the Russian natural gas is expected to have a prominent role in the EU, even by imposing energy security constraints. The incorporation in the model of the strategy of the companies, as well as the reserved capacity in the interconnections in each member state, would provide a more robust identification of the energy mix, the wholesale prices and the needed infrastructure. Keywords: Natural Gas; Optimization; pipelines; Europe. JEL Classifications: Q4; C61; L9

The Debate Over Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors: Appointment, Accountability, and Congressional Oversight

This report provides background information and selected views on the role of the appointments made by President Barack H. Obama to his Administration or by Cabinet secretaries to their departments. Additionally, it discusses some of the constitutional concerns that have been raised about presidential advisors

Essays on Regional Power System Investment: Value of Planning Model Enhancements, Transmission Generation Storage Co-optimization, and Border Carbon Adjustment

This thesis is composed of three essays on power system planning models, which are models that identify what assets of transmission, generation, storage, and demand-management would be beneficial to invest (or retire) over a multidecadal time horizon for large geographic regions. In the first essay, I propose a framework to systematically evaluate the economic benefits of enhancements to planning models, facilitating meaningful comparisons among model enhancements. I test the framework in a transmission expansion planning (TEP) context for the western U.S. and compare four enhancements: (1) consideration of multiple scenarios of long-run policy, economy, and technology scenarios, (2) refined representations of short-run operational variability due to demand and variable energy resources, (3) refined power flow modeling, and (4) inclusion of generation unit commitment costs and constraints. Results show that the consideration of long-run uncertainties provides the most benefits, while benefits from the other three enhancements are relatively small. The interaction between storage and transmission can be both complementary and substitutive. In the second essay, to quantify the benefits of considering this interaction in TEP, I enhance the TEP model with storage expansion capability and test it in a planning context for the western U.S. Results show that the benefits of anticipating storage expansion in TEP increase when the assumed cost of building storage decreases but are sensitive to assumed carbon prices. Compared to the total value that storage can bring to the power system, the value of anticipating storage expansion in TEP can be significant, showing a strong impact from TEP decisions upon the profitability of storage investors. In the third essay, I use the TEP model to test the effectiveness of different border carbon adjustment policies in the western U.S. power system, in which California is a unilaterally regulates carbon emissions. The results show that charging electricity imports based on the facility-specific emission rate of the import contract can lead to substantial emissions leakage and even increases in total system emissions. Meanwhile, assuming the same emission rate across all electricity imports can partially mitigate leakage and result in small system-wide emissions reductions. Finally, basing the import emission rate on the marginal emission rate external to the carbon pricing regime can encourage a system-wide emission reduction, achieving the best economic efficiency