State and Federal Policy

Policy Constraints

Integration with ReEDS

PyPSA-USA integrates with the ReEDS capacity expansion model developed by NREL to incorporate data on regional and federal policies. This integration allows for the modeling of various policy-driven constraints that guide the decarbonization process.

Implemented Policy Constraints

PyPSA-USA currently supports several key policy constraints, including:

• Energy Reserve Margins (ERM): Constrains capacity to meet a reserve margin above demand at every timestep. Resources must be “energy-backed” meaning storage devices must have sufficient state of charge to contribute.

• Clean Energy Standards (CES): Mandates the proportion of electricity generation that must come from clean energy sources.

• Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS): Requires a specific percentage of electricity generation to come from renewable sources.

• Technology Capacity Targets: Sets specific capacity expansion or retirement goals for certain technologies, such as wind, solar, or nuclear.

• Emissions Constraints: Limits the total emissions allowed within a region, with options to penalize imports by user-defined emissions factors.

Flexible Policy Horizons and Geographic Scope Enforcements

Each of these constraints can be defined for different investment horizons (e.g., 2030, 2040, 2050) and applied uniquely across various geographical levels:

• State-Level

• Balancing Areas (BAs)

• Interconnects

• National Level

Users have the flexibility to apply the policy constraints defined by ReEDS or to implement custom policy constraints, allowing for the exploration of new policy pathways and scenarios.

Data

Policy Constraint	Data Source	Spatial Resolution	Temporal Scope
Renewable Portfolio Standards	NREL ReEDS	States	Annual (present - 2050)
Planning Reserve Margins	NREL ReEDS	NERC Regions
Technology Capacity Constraints
Emissions Constraints	NREL ReEDS	States	Annual (present - 2050)