Rigorous Systems Research Group (RSRG) Seminar

Drastically reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses we must. Federal, state, local, and industrial decision makers are considering using policy tools that that hopefully achieve an affordable decarbonized power sector and economy by 2050 or earlier, but particular policies can risk costing a lot with little pollution reduction to for it. The "first best" solution of the "law of one price" faced by everyone in the economy is out of reach, and the US federal approach is one of industrial policy under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. For those of us who design electricity markets and plan its infrastructure, a challenge is: can we design complementary "second best" policies that will help the transition to a zero-carbon power system that will keep the lights on, and effectively reduce emissions at a reasonable cost?

I review some of these policies, and how market equilibrium modeling with optimization-based methods can provide insights for policy makers on whether particular power & carbon market reforms promote or hinder efficiency in investment, operations, and consumption decisions.

Biography: Ben has been at JHU since 1995, and has previously been on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University and a researcher at Brookhaven and Oak Ridge National Labs. He has fortunate enough to enjoy views of the San Bernardinos from CalTech during part of his previous sabbatical. He has also been an Overseas Fellow at Cambridge University He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of INFORMS, and received a Presidential Young Investigator Award from President Reagan. He serves on the State of Maryland (Climate) Mitigation Work Group, and has been a member of the CAISO MSC since 2002. He will direct EPICS, a new NSF Global Center in collaboration with Imperial College, University of Melbourne, CSIRO, Georgia Tech, RfF, and UC Davis