"Electricity Market Modeling: Why It's Important (as Well as Fun), & What’s Needed Next"

Sponsored by: Great Lakes Energy Institute

Speaker(s): Benjamin F. Hobbs, Professor of Environmental Management Director, Environment, Energy, Sustainabili

Date & Time: Oct 17, 2011 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (Eastern)

Location
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue, Nord 310B
Cleveland, OH 44106-7235
United States

"Electricity Market Modeling: Why It's Important (as Well as Fun), & What’s Needed Next"

Electric power: done wrong, it drags the economy and environment down; done right, it could help to create a more efficient, brighter, and cleaner future. Better policy, planning, and operations models-- both simple analytical, and complex computational ones--are essential if we're going to do it right. Better modeling is also fun, as the math of electricity models is inherently interesting and revealing -- models often show flaws in our intuition. Used intelligently, models can point us towards better regulations, investments, and operating policies. I highlight some applications that have provided useful insights for policy making. A critical need is better transmission infrastructure planning under gross uncertainties including carbon policies, growth in demand and fuel prices, and location of renewable development. All models are wrong, but better models can help us avoid terrible investment and policy mistakes.

Benjamin F. Hobbs has been on the JHU faculty of the Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering since 1995, and was previously Professor of Systems and Civil Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He holds a joint appointment with the JHU Dept. of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Dr. Hobbs received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is a member of the Market Surveillance Committee of the California Independent System Operator, and the Public Interest Advisory Committee of the Gas Technology Institute. He is a Research Associate with the Electricity Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge, where he was Overseas Fellow at Churchill College in 2009-10.

RSVP to tiffany.cashon@case.edu by Friday, October 14th.