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Energy Distribution

Report
China's Role in the Global Development of Critical Resources
China's extensive foreign investments in energy infrastructure and critical minerals have raised concerns. Case studies in coal power, electricity transmission, and seabed mining examine China's behaviors and suggest ways to build capacity among host nations to minimize the potential effects of an overreliance on China.
Nov 7, 2022
Commentary
Achieving Decarbonization and Energy Equity Through Reconciliation
The past two years have witnessed increasingly vocal calls for rapid decarbonization of the global economy through a clean energy transition. How can Congress ensure that new costs associated with a clean energy transition do not fall disproportionately on lower-income ratepayers?
Sep 9, 2021
Report
Incentivizing Solar: Catalyzing Solar Energy Technology Adoption to Address the Challenge of Climate Change
The authors provide an overview of the U.S. solar energy market and identify federal incentives that can help decarbonize the U.S. economy. They also explore solar reliability, job benefits, and availability to disadvantaged communities.
Jul 14, 2021
Report
Alternatives for Reducing Army Installation Utility Bills While Enhancing Installation Readiness
Researchers identified options for reducing installation utility costs in three areas: reducing commodity payments; finding alternative funding sources for energy and water system investments; and leveraging nontraditional partnerships.
Jun 18, 2020
Q&A
Thinking Outside the Grid: Q&A with Anu Narayanan
Anu Narayanan, an engineer at RAND, is a specialist in what-ifs. Her research focuses on critical infrastructure and national security. In this interview, she discusses her latest work that explores what would happen if a cyberattacker tried to take down the power grid.
Mar 5, 2020
Report
Improving Army Installation Facility and Land Use Deals and Partnerships
Army installation facility and land use deals and partnerships can provide substantial benefits such as include saving costs and improving installation operations. What are the most promising approaches and practices that can be used to develop and implement these deals and partnerships?
Sep 16, 2019
Journal Article
Gaza's Water and Sanitation Crisis: The Implications for Public Health
Gaza's dire water, sanitation, and electricity challenges are complex and deeply intertwined. Even so, they could be addressed in the long term; current barriers to a policy solution are largely political.
Feb 14, 2018
Report
Air Force Installation Energy Assurance: An Assessment Framework
This report presents a framework that mission owners and civil engineers at Air Force installations can use to assess their level of energy assurance.
Nov 6, 2017
Commentary
Getting (Solar) Electricity Pricing Right
Demand for rooftop solar panels is soaring among U.S. homeowners. Meanwhile, states are struggling to adapt a 20th-century electrical grid—and the corresponding cost structure for electricity rates—to this 21st-century reality. This is causing confusion and uncertainty.
Jul 24, 2017
Commentary
Investing in Infrastructure? Don't Forget the Electric Grid
Leaving the future of America's electricity grid to chance should not be an option. To maximize the potential benefits of a multibillion-dollar smart grid investment, a closer examination of technology and policy is needed.
Dec 7, 2016
Report
Scenario Development for the 2015 Quadrennial Energy Review: Assessing Stresses, Opportunities, and Resilience in the Transmission, Storage, and Distribution Systems for Oil and Refined-Oil Products, Electricity, and Natural Gas
RAND researchers developed a framework and metrics for examining vulnerabilities, opportunities, and risks to U.S. energy transmission, storage, and distribution systems through 2030 under a range of uncertainties.
Sep 27, 2016
Report
Policy Options for Better Service Outcomes from the Future Electric Grid: A Stakeholder Symposium
This symposium's goal was to identify important policy questions related to the present and future electric power grid system. This convening aimed to identify problem areas that could benefit from stakeholder-driven objective research.
Apr 18, 2016
Periodical
RAND Review: May-June 2015
This issue of RAND Review reports on smart-grid technologies, the nuclear deal with Iran, the education crisis among Syrian children, diversity in the biomedical scientific workforce, and recent philanthropic gifts to RAND.
May 4, 2015
Essay
How Smart Grids Can Change the Way We Live
A modernized, “smart” grid could change how much you pay for electricity, where it comes from, and how likely you are to lose it in a summer storm. But has the reality of the smart grid kept pace with the promise?
Apr 27, 2015
Report
Measuring the Resilience of Energy Distribution Systems
The U.S. economy depends on reliable and affordable distribution of energy, but distribution systems are vulnerable to disruption. If energy infrastructure is to become more resilient, better use of metrics will be crucial to guiding planning and evaluating progress.
Apr 24, 2015
Report
The Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies
A smart grid for the United States could have large-scale benefits. There are technological, economic, and regulatory barriers, but new policies or changes to policy could help overcome them.
Jan 15, 2015
Blog
Earth Day and RAND
As people around the world prepare for the 42nd annual Earth Day this Sunday, we look back at some of the recent research from RAND's Environment, Energy, and Economic Development program.
Apr 20, 2012
Report
No Direct Military Benefit from Use of Alternative Fuels by Armed Forces
If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces. It makes more sense for the military to direct its efforts toward using energy more efficiently.
Jan 25, 2011
Journal Article
The Economic Costs of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under a U.S. National Renewable Electricity Mandate
The authors perform a technical and economic assessment and estimate the economic costs and net GHG reductions from U.S renewable electricity mandates. GHG emissions reductions from such policies could be as much as 670 million metric tons per year. Depending on technological development, economic costs are $13-$45 billion per year. Lower costs depend on favorable technological progress.
Jan 1, 2011
Journal Article
Life Cycle Assessment and Grid Electricity: What Do We Know and What Can We Know?
The authors explore the limits of current knowledge about grid electricity in LCA and carbon footprinting for the U.S. electrical grid, and show that differences in standards, protocols, and reporting organizations can lead to important differences in estimates of CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions factors.
Jan 1, 2010

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