In this paper, the authors obtain a revealed-preference estimate of the willingness to pay for electricity reliability via uptake of rooftop-solar-plus-battery-storage systems in wildfire-prone areas of California.

David Brown and Lucija Muehlenbachs

Journal of Public Economics, November 2024

Using data from the U.S.’s largest energy efficiency program, we demonstrate that a data-driven approach to predicting retrofit impacts based on previously realized outcomes is more accurate than the status quo engineering models.

Peter Christensen, Paul Francisco, Erica Myers, Hansen Shao, and Mateus Souza

Journal of Public Economics, June 2024

As EV sales increase, pressure will add to local distribution grids due to homeowners with Level 2 chargers. This study looks at the impact on fulfilled charging demand using Level 1 in place of Level 2 chargers.

Aviv Fried, Blake Shaffer, and Sara Hastings-Simon

Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, June 2024

Several large scenario exercises in the last years present decarbonizing transitional energy pathways to 2050 and beyond. The changing role for mineral based materials in future energy landscapes going toward net zero is explored.

Gabriel Collins, Carol Dahl, Maxwell Fleming, Michael Tanner, Wilson Martin, Kabir Nadkarni, Sara Hastings-Simon, and Morgan Bazilian

Mineral Economics, March 2024

In this paper, we use a copper plate model to forecast the natural gas dispatch requirements, cost, and emission impacts of growing renewable generation on the Alberta electricity grid.

Kristina Pearson and Sara Hastings-Simon

Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, November 2023

We analyze market power in Alberta’s wholesale electricity market, where transitional arrangements that virtually divested generation assets from large incumbents were put in place during market restructuring in the early 2000’s and expired at the end of 2020.

David Brown, Andrew Eckert, and Blake Shaffer

International Journal of Industrial Organization, July 2023

Evaluations of energy efficiency programs reveal that realized savings consistently fall short of projections. In this paper, we study this ‘performance wedge’

Peter Christensen, Paul Francisco, Erica Myers, and Mateus Souza

Review of Economics and Statistics, June 2023

A co-dependence of electricity and natural gas systems in Mexico has been established and is increasing. Is this fact consistent with the objective of decarbonizing the electricity sector?

Mónica Santillán Vera,  Lilia García Manrique, Isabel Rodríguez Peña, Angel De La Vega Navarro

Energy Policy, February 2023

We present a case study and analysis of Alberta's Renewable Electricity Program, one of a suite of policies implemented between 2015 and 2019 to increase the share of renewable generation in the Canadian province's fossil-fuel-dominated electricity system.

Sara Hastings-Simon, Andrew Leach, Blake Shaffer, and Tim Weis

Energy Policy, December 2022

Coal-to-gas switching in the power sector, as happening in the U.S., has been a key driver of near-term greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Here, we explore the limits of a global, plant-level, coal-to-gas transition arising from pipeline availability constraints.

Shuting Yang, Sara-Hastings-Simon, and Arvind Ravikumar

Environmental Science and Technology, September 2022

In this work, we assess the viability of global LNG expansion to reduce global carbon emissions through coal-to-gas switching in the power sector under three temperature targets—Paris compliant 1.5 °C and 2 °C, and business-as-usual 3 °C.

Shuting Yang, Sara Hastings-Simon, and Arvind Ravikumar

Environmental Research: Letters, June 2022

Given the dominance of fossil fuels in the energy system, decarbonization requires rapid and significant industrial transition of the energy supply at scale.

Emily Grubert and Sara Hastings-Simon

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, May 2022

We estimate the effect of heightened temperature sensitivity on electricity demand in Texas during the February 2021 blackout event. Using 20 years of hourly data, we estimate the relationship between temperature and electricity demand.

Blake Shaffer, Daniel Quintero, and Joshua Rhodes

Energy Policy, Economy, and Sustainability, April 2022

Using the catastrophic failures that affected the state of Texas in February 2021 as a case study, this paper reassesses the viability of a completely decentralized resource adequacy paradigm.

Jacob Mays, Michael Craig, Lynne Kiesling, Joshua Macey, Blake Shaffer, and Han Shu

Energy Policy and Analysis, February 2022

Tax heavy cars and shrink batteries to consolidate the gains from electrifying transport.

Blake Shaffer, Costa Samaras, and Max Auffhammer

Nature, October 2021

In this paper, we consider the case of Alberta which has observed considerable growth in wind and solar generation capacity. We summarize the attributes of Alberta’s energy-only market design and how it interacts with increasing renewable output. 

David Brown, Derek Olmstead, and Blake Shaffer

August 2024

Field experiment to compare time-of-use incentives (uncoordinated) to managed charging (coordinated) in terms of impact on local distribution grid.

Megan Bailey, David Brown, Erica Myers, Blake Shaffer, Frank Wolak, Mallika Sharma, and Ali Niazi

Partner: Fortis Alberta

August 2024

Field experiment to test willingness of EV owners to shift charging to off-peak. Compares an education “nudge” to a discounted off-peak rate.

Megan Bailey, David Brown, Blake Shaffer, Frank Wolak, and Mallika Sharma

August 2023

We use a field experiment to examine how technology and default responsiveness can overcome behavioural barriers to demand response

Megan Bailey, David Brown, Blake Shaffer, Frank Wolak, and Mallika Sharma

January 2023

Drivers in Alberta face long distance trips, allocation of chargers can benefits those that do long haul drives. Using spatial econometrics we analyze the spillover effect of location of chargers in adoption of EVs in Alberta.

Lilia Manrique and Sara Hastings-Simon

Descriptive analysis of EV charging and driving behaviour.

Ali Niazi, Mallika Sharma, and Blake Shaffer

Partner: Optiwatt

Investigation of whether EV usage responds to fluctuations in gasoline prices and exploring the role of public charging infrastructure accessibility in this context

Ali Niazi and Blake Shaffer

Recent renewable energy growth in Alberta has occurred in the presence of substantial market power. Using an econometric analysis, we are looking into how generation companies reacted to increasing intermittent generation and how this impacted electricity prices in Alberta.

Kristina Pearson, Blake Shaffer, and Sara Hastings-Simon

Direct support for distributed solar in the form of subsidies is a common policy tool across regions. How do prices and adoption rates respond to subsidies in Alberta?

Sara Hastings-Simon, Blake Shaffer, and Brodie Yyelland

What is Alberta’s potential to integrate variable renewables? By how much do total system costs change as the share of renewables increases? How much can storage and demand response help?

Kristina Pearson, Julian Palandri, and Sara Hastings-Simon

Sara Hastings-Simon, Alan Hastings, and Aashay Tripathi