Title: Advancing Climate Adaptation and Equity in a Decarbonizing Electric Power Sector

Abstract: Decarbonizing the electric power sector in line with ambitious climate change mitigation goals will require large investments lasting decades. As decarbonization progresses, climate change will intensify in uncertain ways and increasingly impact electric power systems. Research on how to adapt power systems to a changing climate suffers from several issues, including a limited system perspective; separate consideration of adaptation and mitigation; and insufficient treatment of deep climate-related uncertainty. In this talk, Michael will present several research endeavors that aim to address these gaps by advancing the formulation and use of power system models. He will begin by presenting a pair of recent publications quantifying climate-induced trade-offs between investments and operations of the Southeast U.S. power system. He will also present his ongoing work into new avenues for understanding climate adaptation needs in the power sector. Michael will then survey his other research thrusts in decarbonization and equity, and conclude with an integrated future research agenda.

Bio: Michael is an Assistant Professor of Energy Systems at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and PI of the ASSET Lab. He researches how to equitably reduce global and local environmental impacts of energy systems while making those systems robust to future climate change. His research advances energy system models to address new challenges driven by decarbonization, climate adaptation, and equity objectives. He then applies these models to real-world systems to generate decision-relevant insights that account for engineering, economic, climatic, and policy features. His current interdisciplinary collaborations include climate scientists, hydrologists, economists, urban planners, epidemiologists, and diverse engineers. Michael has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technology Office and Nuclear Energy University Program; U.S. National Science Foundation; Idaho National Laboratory; and University of Michigan’s Graham Institute for Sustainability. He is a Program Faculty at the Institute of Public Utilities; Faculty Affiliate of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Certificate Program at the University of Michigan; and Contributing Author to Chapter 10 of the IPCC’s 6^th Annual Review. Prior to his current position, he worked as a Research Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He received his PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University (’17), MS in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (‘14), and BA in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis (’10).