How CBO Uses the ReEDS Model to Analyze Policies in the Electric Power Sector: Working Paper 2024-02
Working Paper
This working paper provides an overview of CBO-ReEDS, an adapted version of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Regional Energy Deployment System (NREL’s ReEDS) model for analyzing policies in the electric power sector.
In this working paper, the Congressional Budget Office provides an overview of CBO-ReEDS, an adapted version of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Regional Energy Deployment System (NREL’s ReEDS) model for analyzing policies in the electric power sector. The paper discusses the strengths and limitations of the model and how CBO modifies it to align with the agency’s assessment of electricity demand, fuel prices, and technology costs. Finally, the paper provides projections of the effects of the 2022 reconciliation act (Public Law 117-169) on emissions of carbon dioxide.
CBO projects that over the 2022–2050 period, key provisions of the reconciliation act that affect the electric power sector will cause carbon dioxide emissions in the sector to be about half what they would be otherwise. That projection incorporates adaptations of the ReEDS model to reflect real-world constraints on both the growth in transmission capacity and the siting of renewable generators. Nonetheless, uncertainty about those factors and about the effects of the 2022 reconciliation act on the mix of fuels and technologies used to generate electricity means that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted could be more or less than CBO estimates, especially over the long term.
