Publications
Peer-reviewed research from the lab
Peer-Reviewed Publications
* denotes first-author publication
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2025
Progress in Energy
Abstract
This perspective examines trade-offs in designing residential electricity rates that improve economic efficiency while ensuring feasible and distributionally favorable outcomes. We analyze rate structures across three key dimensions: improving economic efficiency by reflecting social marginal costs; ensuring affordability, technology access, and residual cost recovery; and simplicity in customer understanding and implementation. While real-time pricing based on social marginal costs is the most economically efficient choice, intermediate approaches like time-of-use rates or critical peak rates may better balance competing objectives. We recommend that decision-makers (1) move towards pricing environmental externalities in time-varying electricity rates, (2) introduce time-varying rates with predictable price periods gradually, (3) expand access to flexibility enabling technologies for low-income customers, and (4) carefully design fixed charges for residual cost recovery to avoid distributionally regressive impacts.
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2025
Wires and fire: Wildfire investment and network cost differences across California's power providers *The Electricity Journal
Abstract
Electricity affordability is a salient policy concern in California. We compare drivers of increasing utility costs for three types of power providers in California: investor-owned utilities (IOUs), publicly owned utilities (POUs), and community choice aggregators (CCAs). Since 2019, the IOU and CCA residential baseline electricity rates have increased by 44–80% after accounting for inflation, making them some of the most expensive power providers in the United States. POU prices, however, remained nearly unchanged. We compare long-term trends in capital assets, returns, and operation and maintenance expenses to identify sources of increasing utility costs. Across IOUs, generation capital assets have declined. Transmission and distribution (T&D) expenses have increased significantly and are the majority of overall costs. T&D operations and maintenance spiked following major wildfires after years of remaining constant despite an aging and expanding electricity grid.
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2024
Environmental Research Letters
Abstract
Light-duty transportation continues to be a significant source of air pollutants that cause premature mortality and greenhouse gases that lead to climate change. We estimate and compare the health impacts (and disparities of) the current stock of light-duty vehicles across the United States with a large-scale shift to EVs or Tier-3 ICVs. We find that either strategy reduces premature mortality by 80-93% compared to today's light-duty vehicle damages. Pollution from ICV impacts people of color more than White Americans across all states, levels of urbanization, and household income. Consequently, electrification reduces health disparities more than Tier 3 ICV in most states and MSAs, especially in urban parts of the Western United States.
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2024
Nature Scientific Reports
Abstract
Emissions from electric vehicles depend on when they are charged, and which power plants are meeting the electricity demand. We introduce a new metric, the grid emissions factors (CEFs), as the emissions intensity of electricity that needs to be achieved when charging to ensure electric vehicles achieve lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions parity with some of the most efficient gasoline hybrid vehicles across the US. We find that the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt battery electric vehicles reduce lifecycle emissions relative to Toyota Prius and Honda Accord gasoline hybrids in most of the United States. We conclude that coal retirements and stricter standards on fossil fuel generators are more effective in the medium term at reducing consequential electric vehicle emissions than the expansion of renewable capacity.
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2024
Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
Abstract
California contributes 0.75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and has a target of reaching economy-wide net zero emissions by 2045. Nearly 8% of California's GHG emissions are from the heavy-duty transportation sector. We simulate decarbonization strategies for the heavy-duty vehicle fleet using detailed fleet turnover and air quality models. We find even a policy mandating all HDV sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025 would not achieve fleetwide zero emissions by 2045. A combination of early retirement policies and zero-emission vehicle sales mandates could reduce cumulative CO2 emissions by up to 64%. Black, Latino, and low-income communities will benefit most from decarbonization policies.
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2023
Findings
Abstract
Census data is crucial to understanding energy and environmental justice outcomes such as poor air quality which disproportionately impacts people of color in the U.S. Using the 2010 demonstration census and pollution data, the differentially private census significantly changes ambient pollution exposure in areas with sparse populations. White Americans have the lowest variability, followed by Latinos, Asians, and Black Americans. DP underestimates pollution disparities for SO2 and PM2.5 while overestimates the pollution disparities for PM10.
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2020
ACS Energy Letters
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2019
Proceedings of the IEEE
Abstract
Ensuring reliable and affordable access to modern energy services, especially for the poorer and deprived section of the population, is a basic requisite for sustainable development. Microgrid electricity systems, especially with hybrid renewable energy resources, can be a good alternative for centralized electricity grid expansion. We report the techno-economic feasibility and sustainability analysis of a hybrid solar-biomass system in India consisting of 30-kW solar photovoltaic and 20-kW biomass gasifier modules.
In Review / Submission
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Policies to retire old light-duty vehicles will help achieve California's zero-emissions targets and provide substantial air-pollution co-benefits *In submission
Abstract
California has ambitious climate goals. The state aims to achieve economy-wide net zero emissions by 2045 and 100% zero-emissions vehicle sales by 2035. We develop a fleet turnover and retirement model for California's light-duty vehicle fleet. Even with the current policy of selling only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035, 20% of the light-duty fleet in 2045 would still be powered by gasoline. A policy mechanism that retires vehicles older than 15 years starting in 2025 would reduce cumulative CO2 and premature mortality by more than 40 percent compared to business-as-usual between 2019 and 2045.
Work in Progress
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Designing efficient and equitable retail rates for distributed energy resources
Abstract
Rooftop solar and storage can play an important role in enabling decarbonization and improving reliability. Under net-energy metering policies, households with DER are compensated for the surplus electricity produced at the retail electricity rate. Retail rates typically charge residential users a volumetric rate that covers the bulk of energy, transmission, and distribution costs. The challenge to modernize the electricity rate entails aligning prices to the true cost of generation; pricing benefits to the true benefits DERs provide; and ensuring that non-adopters, often low-income and/or renters, don't bear the burdens of cost-shift. We propose an electricity pricing and household consumption model that tests different electricity rates to enable efficiency and equity for adopters and non-adopters, using California as a case study.