Capacity Markets

The articles describes 100% renewable/clean energy systems and argues that they may be less costly and easier to achieve than is often argued in the industry.

Excerpt from the Introduction:

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this technical conference. My comments here and during the conference are my own and do not represent the opinions of anyone else. The focus of my remarks will be on carbon pricing and the interactions with short-term electricity markets as found in the organized wholesale markets in the United States. I do not address the design and implementation questions focused on investments and resource adequacy that underpin capacity markets.

This paper describes a 3 Party Covenant financing and regulatory program aimed at reducing financing costs and providing a risk-tolerant investment structure to stimulate initial deployment of five to ten Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) coal generation power plants during this decade. The 3 Party Covenant is an arrangement between the federal government, state Public Utility Commission (PUC), and equity investor that serves to lower IGCC cost of capital by reducing the cost of debt, raising the debt/equity ratio, and minimizing construction financing costs. The 3 Party Covenant would reduce the cost of capital component of energy costs from new IGCC facilities by 34 percent and the overall cost of energy about 20 percent, making the technology cost competitive with pulverized coal (PC) and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) generation.

The article examines the potential impacts of new mobility services such as ride sharing and ride hailing on the speed and depth of electrification of personal transportation. The article explores how a shift of transportation towards shared mobility services might accelerate electrification of transportation if mobility service providers switch to EVs more rapidly than individual car owners.

In California there are 16 different climate zones, as defined in the California Energy Code (Title24). The code requires slightly different types of buildings in each zone. These different building code requirements make it important for people who are designing, building, or maintaining these buildings to understand the unique attributes of their climate and how it will influence the design and performance of their buildings. In this UCEI project we developed a simple, free, easy-to-use, graphic-based computer program called Climate Consultant 3, and we have posted it on the State of California’s Flex Your Power web site and on the UCLA Energy Design Tools web site. Our objective is to make it freely accessible to architects, builders, contractors, and homeowners, etc., to help them understand their local climate and how it impacts their building’s energy consumption.

Kelly, James. Distribution Infrastructure and Electricity Transformation. Presentation to the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Fifty-Eighth Plenary Session. Santa Monica, CA. February 25, 2010. 13 pages.

"Schmalensee, Richard. Getting Microeconomic Policy WRONG: How to Break Economists Rules. Presentation to the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, May 28-29, 2009, Cambridge, MA. 6 pages."

HEPG Virtual Session:  Constructing an HEPG Agenda, Taking Stock -- Cambridge, MA --October 14, 2022