The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) is designed and used by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy. The system is a computer-based, year-to-year model that projects U.S. energy markets for the midterm period through 2030. The EIA undertakes regular, thorough reviews of individual technologies with concomitant costs, timelines, and efficiencies.
Depending on economic growth and energy demands, NEMS is able to forecast the number of new plants. New plants forecast by NEMS are known within the NERC region, which can cover multiple states.
Therefore, we developed an algorithm for identifying the best locations for new plants to be built:
- A new plant must always stay within the NERC region identified by NEMS.
- A new plant must be within 1 mile of a railroad or river so that coal can be delivered to the plant.
- A new plant must be within 1 mile of existing electricity transmission lines.
- Locations that meet the above criteria, but are close to population centers (but not closer than 10 miles) and close to sequestration sites are ranked from best (closest to both) to worst (farthest from both).
- The first new plant in a region is placed in the best location in that region, then a buffer is created so that the next plant is not located too close to the first plant. The next plant is then placed in the next best available location and so on.
This is a propietary software package and showing the output on this web site is not allowed by the copyright owners.
Regards,
Darmawan Prasodjo, PhD
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