Data centers—the backbone of AI and cloud computing—are reshaping electricity markets in ways that go beyond higher demand. This study shows that when these data centers plug in, the congestion and line losses drive up wholesale power prices by about 7%. Co-locating with fossil plants eases the jam but adds emissions; pairing with renewables helps […]
Evaluating how technologies can fit society’s most pressing needs. Given the urgency to meet sustainability goals, the Georgia Tech assistant professor is researching how we can make better decisions in a wide range of areas including engineering designs, public policies, and financial investments. “How can we better tie the research that we do with the […]
Nuclear energy is a perfect example for the intersection of technology and policy that is at the heart of EPIcenter, according to nuclear and radiological engineering professor Anna Erickson. “Nuclear power development stagnated for three decades while federal policy and public sentiment did not support it, natural gas was much cheaper and future energy demand […]
A new study by EPIcenter affiliate, Dr. Mamkhezri, investigates how and when households read their electricity bills, and what it means for residential energy consumption in the U.S. Dr. Mamkhezri surveys more than 1,000 households to understand how frequently they check their electricity bills, and how this varies across households by age, family size, consumption […]
ATL Cleantech Connect returns on October 22 with an energizing evening hosted at GE Vernova’s Atlanta Galleria campus, spotlighting innovation, and leadership in Georgia’s clean energy future. The event kicks off with a welcome from Eric Gray, CEO of GEV Gas Power, followed by a dynamic panel discussion titled “The Energy of Change: Future of […]
Extreme temperatures have a way of making people appreciate their utilities. Nobody wants to lose air conditioning during a heatwave or home heating during a cold spell. But Michigan residents faced a one-two punch on January 30, 2019. A fire broke out at the utility station that was set to provide more than half of […]
Bridging the gap between energy economics researchers and policy makers Visiting Georgia Tech for a year-long sabbatical, the professor of energy economics at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has hit the ground running on a variety of research projects. Prof. Jamal Mamkhezri is on a mission to bridge the gap between energy policy makers and […]
Estimating the economic value of reliable electricity It was hot when Hurricane Beryl knocked out power for millions of Houston customers in July 2024. People willing to spend $1,000 on a portable generator had trouble finding one on the shelves of local hardware stores. Some residents who already owned one even locked it to their […]
Read the article on the SEI website: https://research.gatech.edu/strategic-energy-institute-and-epicenter-announce-graduate-student-fellowships News Contact Priya Devarajan || SEI Communications Program Manager
Listen to the podcast: This study examines how short-term variability in wind power—known as wind intermittency—affects real-time electricity system imbalances in U.S. regional power markets. The authors, Victoria Godwin and Matthew E. Oliver of the Georgia Institute of Technology and EPIcenter affiliates, analyze data from four major system operators: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), New York […]
With a background in physics and mathematics, the assistant professor of public policy researches innovative technologies through the lens of climate change and related policy. Anthony Harding worries that climate messaging is not always easily digestible for the lay audience. When scientists predict that mean global temperatures are going to rise by 1 ℃, for […]
by Dylan Brewer This June, New York City’s government and utility urged households to conserve electricity during an extreme heat wave with temperatures reaching 100 degrees F.[1] People were asked to set air conditioners to 76 degrees, to avoid using more than one air conditioning unit, and to delay using electricity-hungry appliances during peak cooling […]
In late April, a massive power outage swept across parts of Spain and Portugal. Within minutes, trains stopped, flights were grounded, and critical services were knocked offline. Even though most power was restored within 24 hours, the blackout was a wake-up call, showing just how one problem in a tightly connected grid can ripple outward […]
Supporting innovators: Policy design for growing Georgia’s energy ecosystems Part of EPIcenter’s mission is to foster an energy innovation ecosystem in the Southeast. This includes making Georgia an attractive place for energy and cleantech-focused startup companies and helping them succeed. But that success does not depend on the founder’s creativity and stamina alone. A mix […]
In “Wiring America,” EPIcenter affiliate Gaurav Doshi analyzes how Texas’s CREZ high-capacity transmission build-out curbed the market power of fossil-fuel generators. Using a two-stage empirical strategy, the study first shows that CREZ reduced wind curtailment, adding roughly 0.11 GWh of additional wind during peak hours and 0.22 GWh at the off-peak – and then demonstrates […]
This paper authored by EPIcenter affiliate Matt Oliver dicusses how pipeline congestion in the U.S. Rocky Mountain region creates sizable price wedges, or “basis differentials,” between closely linked hubs—Opal, WY, and Cheyenne, CO. As demand for transport approaches capacity on the 325-mile corridor (via CIG, WIC, and REX), secondary market scarcity rents drive the Cheyenne […]
In a world shifting toward renewable power generation, the way we connect our power grids may matter more than ever. Using data from 155 regions on five continents, this study authored by EPIcenter affiliate Constance Crozier shows that linking neighboring grids via high‐voltage direct current (HVDC) lines can replace—or drastically reduce—the need for expensive batteries. […]
This paper by EPIcenter affiliate Gaurav Doshi examines how Texas’s $6.8 billion CREZ transmission expansion catalyzed wind deployments in the West and Panhandle region. Employing a discrete choice framework, developers were found to be 20 percentage points more likely to locate in CREZ counties, implying a willingness to pay of roughly $2,808 per MW of […]
Residential rooftop solar adoption can paradoxically lead to higher total electricity consumption than expected because “free” PV electricity lowers household energy costs, prompting some additional usage. EPIcenter affiliate Oliver and his Georgia Tech colleague Toroghi propose an innovative method that pairs economic demand modeling with high-resolution GIS PV potential analysis to estimate this “direct rebound […]
Our electrical grid—already under stress from climate‐amplified storms and the push to renewables—is a critical lifeline. Yet outages are costly, and until now, our best measures of how much U.S. households are truly willing to pay to avoid losing power (their “value of lost load,” or VoLL) came from surveys and macroeconomic models, offering wildly […]