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Energy Policy Simulator
by Energy Innovation, LLC
Authors:
Jeffrey Rissman, Robbie Orvis
Contact:
Jeffrey Rissman, Robbie Orvis
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About the Energy Policy Simulator
The Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) is a computer model developed by Energy Innovation LLC as part of its Energy Policy Solutions project, an effort which aims to inform policymakers and regulators about which climate and energy policies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions most effectively and at the lowest cost.
The EPS allows the user to control dozens of different policies that affect energy use and emissions in various sectors of the economy (such as a carbon tax, fuel economy standards for vehicles, reducing methane leakage from industry, and accelerated R&D advancement of various technologies). The model includes every major sector of the economy: transportation, electricity supply, buildings, industry, agriculture, and land use. The model reports outputs at annual intervals and provides numerous outputs, including:
->Emissions of 12 different pollutants (CO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and eight others), as well as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e; a measure of the global warming potential of various pollutants).
->Direct cash flow (cost or savings) impacts on consumers, industry (as a whole), government, and several specific industries
->Human deaths avoided thanks to reduced particulate pollution
The composition and output of the electricity sector (e.g. capacity and generation from coal, natural gas, wind, solar, etc.)
->Vehicle technology market shares and fleet composition (electric vehicles, etc.)
->Energy use by fuel type from various energy-using technologies (specific types of vehicles, building components, etc.)
->Breakdowns of how each policy within a policy package contributes to total abatement and the cost-effectiveness of each policy (e.g. wedge diagrams and cost curves)
The EPS is a system dynamics computer model created in a commercial program called Vensim. Vensim is a tool produced by Ventana Systems for the creation and simulation of system dynamics models. The Energy Policy Simulator has been designed to be used with the free Vensim Model Reader. Directions on how to obtain Vensim Model Reader and the Energy Policy Simulator can be found on the Download and Installation Instructions page.
The model is distributed with a complete set of input data representing the United States, but it has a modular structure that allows it to be adapted to different countries and regions by swapping the input data. The EPS reads in all of its input data from external text files, which are generated by accompanying Excel files. All of these files are included in the model distribution.
Additional Information
The EPS is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) or any later version and is free and open-source software. For more information, please see the Software License page.
The EPS has benefited from the work of many contributors and reviewers.
Based on Vensim. Using Vensim for data processing.
Website / Documentation
Download
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 Open Source
GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPL-3.0)
Directly downloadable
Input data shipped
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