Low carbon standard and transmission investment analysis in the new multi-region US power sector model FACETS

- A new, highly detailed, regionalized US energy system TIMES model
- Analyzed clean energy standard and transmission investment; gas price and nuclear sensitivities
- CES ramping speed impacts cost, coal retrofits and retirements, and ultimate generation mix
- Greatly different impacts across regions, depending on capacity mix, resource options, and trading
- Regions that have already implemented carbon policies experience lower costs.

This paper presents a new US multi-region energy systems model built in the TIMES modeling system: the Framework for Analysis of Climate-Energy-Technology Systems (FACETS). The model is designed to analyze energy technology options and policy scenarios across sectors and regions, including the increasingly important interactions between state, regional, and federal policies. FACETS contains a realistic representation of key infrastructure, while retaining the flexibility to explore deep carbon emission reductions and other large changes from the baseline energy system. It is built using a unique, flexible multi-region approach so that the geographic relationships that drive the costs of energy technology transitions can be captured. Significant enhancements to the Veda-TIMES system and a GIS-results viewer permit the massive data handling needed to represent these relationships and interpret results. An analysis of a federal clean energy standard (CES) and investment in the transmission grid is presented.