Engineering, Economic, and Environmental Electricity Simulation Tool (E4ST)
E4ST is power sector modeling software built to project the effects of policies, regulations, power infrastructure additions, demand changes, and more.
About the Model
E4ST is power sector modeling software built to project the effects of policies, regulations, power infrastructure additions, demand changes, and more. E4ST simulates in detail how the power sector will respond to such changes. It models successive multi-year periods, predicting hourly system operation, generator construction, generator retirement, and various other outcomes in each multi-year period.
The E4ST models of the US and Canada contain the 19,000 existing generators with their detailed individual characteristics, tens of thousands of buildable generators including location- and hour-specific wind and solar data, and all of the high-voltage (>200 kV) transmission lines as well as chronically congested lower-voltage transmission lines. E4ST’s advantages over other models include its high spatial detail, its realistic representation of power flows and system operation, its integration of an air pollution and health effects model, its uniquely comprehensive benefit-cost analysis capabilities, the high quality of its various kinds of inputs, its representation of emerging technologies, its inclusion of Canada, its adaptability, and the care the developers take to apply it in a rigorous and unbiased manner. E4ST has been used to analyze various national and state-level policies and investments.
It has been used for numerous studies for the policymaking community and for multiple peer-reviewed papers in leading journals, one example being Shawhan and Picciano (2018). E4ST has been developed by researchers at Resources for the Future and Cornell and Arizona State Universities, with funding, input, and review by the US Department of Energy, the Sloan Foundation, Breakthrough Energy, the National Science Foundation, the New York Independent System Operator, the Power Systems Engineering Research Center, and others.
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Working Paper — Oct 2, 2024
Offshore Wind Power Examined: Effects, Benefits, and Costs of Offshore Wind Farms Along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
Offshore Wind Power Examined: Effects, Benefits, and Costs of Offshore Wind Farms Along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
Working Paper — Sep 19, 2024
Policies for Reducing the Impacts of Power Sector Air Pollution on Disadvantaged Americans
Policies for Reducing the Impacts of Power Sector Air Pollution on Disadvantaged Americans
RFF Live — Sep 13, 2022
Pathways toward Grid Decarbonization
New modeling illuminates opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the US electric power sector
Issue Brief — Jul 29, 2021
Evaluation of Power Sector Emissions Reduction Pathways
Evaluation of Power Sector Emissions Reduction Pathways
Working Paper — Dec 14, 2020
Benefits of Energy Technology Innovation Part 1: Power Sector Modeling Results
Benefits of Energy Technology Innovation Part 1: Power Sector Modeling Results
Issue Brief — Feb 12, 2020
Two Key Design Parameters in Clean Electricity Standards
Two Key Design Parameters in Clean Electricity Standards
Working Paper — Apr 28, 2021
The Value of Advanced Energy Funding: Projected Effects of Proposed US Funding for Advanced Energy Technologies
The Value of Advanced Energy Funding: Projected Effects of Proposed US Funding for Advanced Energy Technologies
