Destenie Nock Discusses Power System Planning in Disparate Systems: Modeling Sustainability and Electricity Access

Metro21 had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Destenie Nock, Adjunct Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE), and a Presidential Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP).

During this lunch and learn, Destenie discussed her project, "Power System Planning in Disparate Systems: Modeling Sustainability and Electricity Access". This talk explores various options for power grid expansion on both developed and developing countries. She presents two papers that focus on approaches to power system planning that help decision makers reach their energy targets. The first part is focused on evaluating the sustainability of a set of generation portfolios. We take a multi-model approach, first determining the reliability of the system overall, then evaluating different generation portfolios based on seven sustainability criteria. The second part focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and energy access in developing countries. We have developed a utility maximization framework that incorporates stakeholder equity preferences into an electricity planning model. This can be used by decision makers to determine the best method of grid expansion to meet electricity access goals subject to system and budget constraints.

Watch Destenie's presentation here.