MorganEnergy

Discussing Energy Economics on the Internet

USAEE 2009 – Friday Morning

Posted in Biomass,Conferences,Modeling by Cheryl Morgan on the December 5th, 2008

The session on electricity market modeling was interesting but not very useful. Supply Function Equilibrium models are all very well, but most clients can’t understand you if you talk only in equations, and whenever I see presentations about these things they always seem to focus on approximations necessary to get the model to solve rather than on whether the model accurately reflects reality.

I’m afraid I was rather mean to the young man who tried to excuse the potential impacts of his grand plans for biofuels by claiming that he only used non-food biomass. Unless the stuff is waste, or grows only in areas unsuitable for food crops, it all competes for the same agricultural land.

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Which Way Will the Wind Blow?

Posted in Modeling,Renewables,Wind by Cheryl Morgan on the September 18th, 2008

Variability in the availability of renewable generation is often cited as an issue for grid managers, but the obvious thing to do in that case is forecast it. Generation market simulation software often includes the ability to model seasonal and annual variation in water availability for hydros. Presumably wind (and solar) will acquire they own modeling methods. The PJM is apparently looking at the possibilities for build a wind forecasting model. Other people are doubtless doing the same. Does anyone know of any papers on this sort of thing?

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