Capacity expansion modeling seeks to answer the twin questions of "what should we build?" and "how much should we build?" in order to make sure energy demands can be met all throughout the year, at lowest cost, while being sufficiently guarded against sudden emergencies and unexpected developments. Modeling software takes in a wide array of parameters, such as:

•  Energy efficiency
•  Predicted capital as well as operation and maintenance costs and how they might change over time
• Predicted levels of energy demand and peak hours of consumption
• Any hard limits on how much of a particular technology can be built
• Any other factors that might give more or less weight to a certain technology.

Given a specific scenario with specified values for all these inputs, the software attempts to solve a linear optimization problem to determine the lowest cost way to meet demand.

We are using RESOLVE and SWITCH to model the capacity expansion and dispatch of the electrical grid in California and (using SWITCH) for the WECC. Using the new version of RESOLVE (as updated by E3 to better handle long-duration storage), we will investigate the roles that long-duration storage (as opposed to short-duration storage) will play as the carbon emissions are reduced. 

If you have information about how to better model a storage technology, please contact us.