OwlSim : Revolutionizing National Energy Policies Through Technology

1. OwlSim: Revolutionizing National Energy Policies Through Technology COMP 410 in Collaboration with Citizens for Affordable Energy

2. Overview • Introduction - Robert • COMP 410 • Project Motivation • Problem Statement • Simulation Framework - James • Energy Model and Plans - Irina • Demo - Jesus • Conclusion - Robert • Questions - Various

3. Introduction

4. About COMP 410 • “Software Engineering Methodology” • Design class satisfying computer science B.S. cap requirement • Typically taken by juniors and seniors • Warm-up project during first 3 weeks, then semester-long project • Student driven – no homework or due dates

5. About CFAE • Citizens for Affordable Energy is a national not-for-profit membership association • Goal is to educate citizens and policymakers about non-partisan energy solutions • Leadership • John Hofmeister, founder and CEO • Karen Hofmeister, Executive Director

6. Project Motivation • U.S. has no long-term national energy policy • We want to simulate the trends of the existing energy system and plans for the future in order to provide the citizens of 2060 with affordable energy and fuel

7. Problem Statement • Create a non-partisan plan for the U.S. energy system for the next 50 years • Develop a simulation framework • Flexible – able to simulate wide variety of models • Scalable – able to simulate models of different size • Create and simulate a model of the U.S. energy system using simulation framework • Make the plan, model, results accessible to public

8. Simulation Framework

9. Design • Runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform • Virtually unlimited computing capabilities • System resources scale with demand • Pay as you go • Links web services with powerful backend • Module-based modeling • Encapsulate components of model • Allows composite modules with other modules inside

10. Capabilities • Supports many simultaneous users • Scales with load • Basic use case • View model, plan, precomputed results • Authenticated use case • Edit plan, recompute results, save results • Expert Authenticated use case (if working) • System Administration use case (if working) • Publish results (if working)

11. Energy model and Plans

12. High-Level Model

13. Worst-Case Plan

14. Average-Case Plan

15. Best-Case Plan

16. Comparison with Other Models

17. Demo

18. Demo • Connecting through web • Explain GUI • Basic use case • View model, plan, precomputed results • Authenticated use case • Edit plan, recompute results, save results • Expert Authenticated use case (if working) • System Administration use case (if working) • Publish results (if working)

19. Conclusion

20. Acknowledgements • Citizens for Affordable Energy, John Hofmeister, Karen Hofmeister • People we consulted for help • Microsoft for sponsorship • Steven Wong, Scott Rixner • TAs • Team leads and all our hard-working students

21. Questions

22. Questions • Can’t this be done in Excel? • Yes, simple test model could be done in Excel, but professionals could develop more complicated models. Excel doesn’t have centralized mechanism for managing results. Visualizing model, others can edit, maintainability, portability. Results is not only objective – also export. • How can you develop model without domain knowledge? • Talked to experts, used recognized resources (EIA etc.). Simple but reasonable model. • How did you choose Azure over other clouds? • Had past support from Microsoft

23. Questions • What was biggest technical challenge? • What was biggest non-technical challenge? • HTML5, other technology choices • Did you use curve fitting on historical data?

24. Backup

25. References • EIA etc.