Improving Performance Assessment for Technologies of Energy Transition: Emissions, Economics, and Policy Implications

Abstract

Global climate change requires immediate actions to mitigate emissions from energy related sectors. Specifically, the electricity system plays a pivotal role in achieving the global emission reduction goals that many countries have publicly committed to. In the United States (U.S.), energy policies have focused on increasing electricity production from renewables, decreasing electricity consumption by improving energy efficiency, and shifting demand by using energy storage technology. This dissertation explores the specific challenges and information gaps that confront practitioners in three separate case studies, consequently contributing to electricity system and energy policy literature. It is the hope of the author that information provided helps to inform policy makers, electricity system operators, and private investors toward critical transition and transformation of the U.S. energy system. The studies, taking the form of independent chapters, are summarized as follows. The first study presents an improved methodology for estimating the marginal emission factors (MEFs) of electricity generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) system. Findings highlight the importance of including emitting and nonemitting resources in MEFs calculation in regions with high and growing renewables penetration and compare this approach to competing conventional approaches within the context of energy storage technologies. The second study demonstrates a multi-regional energy and emissions assessment of the ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology in comparison to the conventional heating and cooling technologies in residential houses. Findings indicate that applying EFs with higher spatial and temporal resolutions and using MEFs instead of average emission factors (AEFs) both give more accurate emission estimates. The third study assesses economics and emissions of grid-scale battery storage that arbitrages as a price taker in the MISO wholesale electricity market. Findings demonstrate specific locations where battery storage might initially be most profitable under historical pricing dynamics and reveal the heterogeneity in storage’s economics and emissions throughout the MISO grid.