The New Zealand government has declared their intention to make New Zealand carbon neutral by 2050. One pledge to achieve this is a promise to close all fossil fueled electricity generation plants by 2030. This reduction in thermal generation is to be replaced by geothermal, wind, and solar power to levels that can sustain the extra demand from electrification of transport and industrial processes. New Zealand cannot import electricity, and so it must deal with energy shortages from dry winters by prudent use of stored water in hydroelectric reservoirs. The talk will cover some of the modelling approaches and optimization techniques we are using to determine the best generation and transmission capacity choices that must be made to meet New Zealand’s emission targets, and how to provide incentives for companies to invest in these.
SPEAKER: Andy Philpott
University of Auckland
Andy Philpott is Professor of Operations Research and founder and director of the Electric Power Optimization Centre (www.epoc.org.nz) at the University of Auckland. His research interests span stochastic optimization and game theory and their application to electricity markets. He has served on the editorial boards of Mathematical Programming, Operations Research, and Operations Research Letters, and is a Fellow of INFORMS.