Mapping Energy Futures Using the SuperOPF Planning Tool: An Integrated Engineering, Economic and Environmental Model

Energy futures for modern economies depend critically on the electric power system. Estimating the long-run benefits and costs of proposed energy or environmental policies requires tools that optimize investment in generation, account for physical constraints on the delivery network while maintaining desired reliability, and characterize the adverse impacts of pollutants. An integrated engineering, economic, environmental modeling framework is described (SuperOPF Planning Tool) that maximizes the net expected benefits of electricity production, optimizes retirements and investment in new generation by location, accounts for environmental and other regulations, and includes likely demand responses to resulting price changes. Simulations testing the SuperOPF Planning Tool using a reduced network model of the Northeast power system are described, and they suggest that policies that assess the full cost for energy-use usually result in more effective outcomes in terms of lives saved at lower prices than do regulatory alternatives.