Energy Systems Consulting Perspectives

On March 3, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosted the announced release of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) 2022. This much-anticipated report describes EIA’s unbiased view of energy markets reflected in several core scenarios performed using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), a complex energy model of U.S. supply and demand created and maintained by EIA. The core scenarios include a reference case and several alternative scenarios that provide insights into potential changes in energy markets resulting from a range of assumptions about future oil prices, oil and natural gas resources, macroeconomic levels, and renewable costs. The reference case this year also includes the potential effects of select provisions from the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) including the Civil Nuclear Credit Program, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve drawdown and sales, and overall increased government spending related to the Act.

Now is the time for modelers to reassess how nuclear technologies are represented in energy system models.  That is the conclusion of a new OnLocation paper written for the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. This paper examines the many ways that nuclear energy, including advanced nuclear reactors, can play a significant role in meeting climate mitigation goals and makes a case for energy modelers to consider incorporating characteristics and applications for advanced reactors into their energy economic models.

OnLocation, and our parent company KeyLogic, have decades of experience studying and modeling carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology and policy. This work is highlighted in a newly published Power Magazine article, CCUS: Big Opportunity and Hard Questions.

On February 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest Annual Energy Outlook (AEO). The AEO 2021 report describes the key assumptions and results of a reference case and several alternative scenarios performed with the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), a complex energy supply and demand model created and maintained by EIA. The scenarios provide insights into potential energy futures resulting from a range of assumptions about oil prices, oil and natural gas resources, macroeconomic levels, and renewable costs.

OnLocation Director Frances Woodand Senior Consultant Jerome Yurchisin attended a recent AIMMS Success Series virtual webinar to present “Keeping the Lights on – Modeling the Future Energy Market in AIMMS.” The presentation describes the REStore (Renewable and Electricity Storage) Model which is a submodule of the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS)  REStore is a linear programming optimization model designed and implemented by OnLocation using the AIMMS modeling platform. The model represents electricity storage and the temporal pattern of variable renewable generation (i.e., wind and solar photovoltaics).