Incorporating stability and resilience in energy policy for the U.S. power sector: Recommendations for the Trump administration

With the impending transition in energy policy, the inevitability of political transitions should be accounted for in order to avoid an unsustainable shift in policy that is short-lived and introduces uncertainty for the U.S. power sector. A policy correction rather than an outright reversal can offer a middle ground for energy-environmental centrists to sustain pragmatic energy policy through political transitions, and engagement in international climate talks independent of the administration’s position on climate change.     

A motivating mitigation mechanism for generators on condition of coordinated regulation of emission and electricity market

Applying supply function equilibrium (SFE) and the first sealed bidding auction, this paper designs a motivating mitigation mechanism for generators based on coordinated regulation of emission market and electricity market. The mechanism separates emission market as two parts: initial emission market and secondary emission market. It begins with electricity regulator and environment regulator promulgating regulatory information. Then generators participate in initial emission market bidding for emission allowances. Based on allocated emission allowances, generators participate in electricity market bidding for load and set emission secondary trade for profit maximization. The mechanism divides generator’s bidding decision into two dynamic and coordinated stages: firstly in initial emission market, then in electricity market. We depict generator’s decision making as two stochastic parameter linear programming models. Solving these models, generator’s optimality demand function in initial emission market, optimality supply function in electricity market, and equilibrium of each market are achieved. We found that under the new mechanism, (i) both bidding price and bidding quantity in each market are ordered based on generators’ operation advantages from higher to lower respectively and (ii) the pricing and allocation rules in each market can effectively motivate generator to mitigate its CO₂ emission. The new mechanism is truly an effective way to coordinate emission market and electricity market. Finally, we present a simulation to test its validity, and these results are fit well to the theoretical conclusions.     

The future of electricity generation in Australia: A case study of New South Wales

The Australian electricity industry has found itself the subject of an intense political debate. At the center is the role of coal-fired generation. The most economic form of new generation technology in Australia is wind on a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) basis. However, new wind generation must be ‘firmed’ to address variability in output. The analysis in this article finds the optimal plant mix will need to be increasingly ‘flexible’ to complement variable renewables.     

Microgrids and resilience: Using a systems approach to achieve climate adaptation and mitigation goals

Although energy resource sustainability has been researched extensively, the understanding of how we use and interact with electricity sustainably is less understood. New electrical designs, like microgrids, provide opportunities to better address the immediate needs of electrical sustainability and urban development. This paper analyzes the role of microgrids in urban development and examines how greater systemic thinking between infrastructure planning and energy policymaking can increase a city’s resilience.     

The times they are a changin’: Current and future trends in electricity demand and supply

The increasing penetration of variable renewable electricity generation in Australia’s National Electricity Market over the past decade has led to a sustained change in the shape of electricity demand. In particular, intra-day demand has become more volatile, with demand in some Australian regions increasingly resembling the widely-cited ‘duck curve’ or more appropriately the ‘emu curve’. The changes in demand have, in turn, economically driven out generators whose technical characteristics are ill-suited to supplying this demand profile: high capacity-factor, slow-start plant. In this article, we describe the changes to date in the profile of electricity demand, and draw on other studies to argue that these trends are likely to accelerate going forward based on projected future uptake of variable renewables. In combination with technological and policy developments, these trends imply that flexible plant, such as peaking gas, hydro, and dispatchable storage, are likely to be better suited to the changing profile of demand, in contrast to slow-start and relatively inflexible technologies such as coal and combined-cycle gas plants. These trends are based on the flexibility of different generation technologies and their interaction with emissions considerations.