Collaborative Research: Regulating Electricity Markets: Impacts on Energy Transitions and Environmental Justice

合作研究：监管电力市场：对能源转型和环境正义的影响

• 批准号: 2149335
• 负责人: Gautam Gowrisankaran
• 金额: $ 24.25万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2149335&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Regulating; Electricity; Markets

While electricity generation is critical to modern economic and modern life, it also generates substantial pollution, which falls disproportionately on minority and lower income groups. The world is in the middle of two major transitions to cleaner sources of electricity generation: first from coal to natural gas and from natural gas to renewable energy. These transitions are occurring in a highly regulated environment, raising the question of how regulation affects energy transitions and for the distribution of pollution (environmental justice). This project studies the effect of rate-of-return regulation on previous energy transitions and evaluates how changes in this regulatory structure may influence ongoing transitions. In addition, this project evaluates how environmental regulatory agencies incorporate environmental justice into their Clean Air Act Amendment enforcement decisions, and how alternative enforcement decisions impact community well-being. The results of this project will provide inputs into electricity regulation policies in order to hasten the transition to clean energy as well as improve environmental justice.To evaluate the role of rate-of-return regulation in energy transitions, this project develops and structurally estimates a model where utilities invest in and retire generation capacity in the long run and make usage decisions in the short run. In this model, the regulator attempts to incentivize utilities to minimize costs while meeting electricity needs by offering a fair rate-of-return on generators that are deemed “used and useful.” Further, this project estimates how environmental justice enters regulators' preferences over enforcement. The model allows regulators to incorporate both communities’ and electricity generators’ welfare in enforcement decisions. This project provides a framework for evaluating new approaches to regulating electricity generators’ choices and the impact of these choices on local communities. The results of this project will provide inputs into electricity regulation policies in order to hasten the transition to clean energy as well as improve environmental justice.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

尽管发电对现代经济和现代​​生活至关重要，但它也会产生次要污染，这对少数群体和较低的收入群体不成比例。世界正处于两个主要过渡到更清洁的发电来源的中间：首先从煤到天然气，从天然气到可再生能源。这些过渡发生在高度监管的环境中，提出了一个问题，即监管如何影响能量转变和分配污染（环境正义）。该项目研究了返回率调节对先前能量转变的影响，并评估该调节结构中的变化如何影响正在进行的过渡。此外，该项目还评估了环境监管机构如何将环境正义纳入其清洁空气法案修正案的执行决定，以及替代执行决策如何影响社区福祉。该项目的结果将提供对电动调节政策的投入，以使其过渡到清洁能源以及改善的环境正义。为了评估返回率调节在能源过渡中的作用，该项目在长期运行和短期决策中在效用中进行了效用，并在结构上估算了一个模型，并在短期内进行了投资。在此模型中，监管机构试图通过为被认为“使用和有用”的发电机提供公平的回报来激励公用事业，以最大程度地降低成本，同时满足电力需求。此外，该项目估计环境正义如何进入监管机构对执法的偏好。该模型允许监管机构将社区和发电机的福利纳入执法决策。该项目提供了一个框架，用于评估新方法，用于监管发电机的选择以及这些选择对当地社区的影响。该项目的结果将为电力监管政策提供投入，以使其过渡到清洁能源，并改善了环境正义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来支持的珍贵支持。