The recent abundance of low cost natural gas in the United States and the emergence of policies to promote renewables have created opportunities to overhaul the electricity generation and distribution infrastructure. Moreover, new and emerging regulations affecting the power sector portend a reshaping of how electricity is generated, thus creating new challenges to electricity providers and market regulators. To support continuing efforts to increase energy security and reduce the likelihood and costs of electricity supply disruptions, the CES Program in Electricity Policy will engage in research aimed at providing policy recommendations to achieve a variety of goals, including but not limited to (i) promoting the investment levels needed to produce a sufficient and reliable supply of electricity to support a healthy and growing economy, (ii) providing consumers with the necessary price signals through smart technologies to encourage energy efficiency, and (iii) understanding environmental impacts and the effect of new regulations.

Past Research

• Reform of the Electrical Supply Industry in Japan
  Peter R. Hartley, Professor of Economics, Rice University
• Using Sakhalin Natural Gas in Japan
  Peter R. Hartley, Professor of Economics and Department Chair, Rice University
  Dagobert Brito, George A. Peterkin Professor of Political Economy, Rice University
• Democracy and the Distribution of Electricity in Brazil, Latin America, and the Non-OECD World
  David S. Brown, Department of Political Science, Rice University
• The Role of Nuclear Power in Enhancing Japan's Energy Security
  Kenneth B. Medlock III, Energy Fellow, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
  Peter R. Hartley, Professor of Economics, Rice University
• Electricity Demand and Supply in Mexico
  Peter R. Hartley and Eduardo Martinez-Chombo, Rice University
• Privatization and reform of the electricity industry: How Mexico can learn from the mistakes of others
  Peter R. Hartley, Professor of Economics, Rice University
• Integrated Economics, Environmental, and Reliability Modeling of Power System Growth, Optimizing the Net Economic and Societal Benefits

Links to other useful sites

• Harvard Electricity Policy Group http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hepg/
• PESD: Political Economy of Electric Power Market Reform http://pesd.stanford.edu/research/2120/