SAI: Strengthening Energy Infrastructure Resilience and Equity During Extreme Cold Weather Events

加强美国基础设施（SAI）是NSF的一项计划，旨在促进以人为本的基础和潜在的变革性研究，以加强美国的基础设施。有效的基础设施为社会经济活力和广泛改善生活质量奠定了坚实的基础。强大、可靠和有效的基础设施刺激私营部门创新，促进经济增长，创造就业机会，提高公共部门服务提供的效率，加强社区建设，促进机会平等，保护自然环境，增强国家安全，并推动美国的领导地位。为了实现这些目标，需要来自科学和工程学科的专业知识。SAI专注于人类推理和决策，治理以及社会和文化过程的知识如何使建设和维护有效的基础设施，改善生活和社会，并建立在技术和工程进步的基础上。天然气管道利用率在这些期间接近最大容量，发电厂可能无法获得足够的天然气用于发电，因为天然气分销公司拥有最高的服务优先权。在一个天然气的主要用途是供暖而不是发电的时代，这是谨慎的。这种情况已经发生了变化，电力现在更常用于住宅和商业部门的供暖。这对依赖电力供暖的客户造成了不利影响，因为天然气分配的优先事项不是发电。最近的电力危机表明，在极端寒冷天气事件期间，停电加上天然气供应短缺可能对人类造成代价高昂的影响。重要的是，寒冷天气停电的不利后果往往落在历史上负担过重和服务不足的社区。预计到2050年，随着居民用电量的增长，这些差距将变得更加明显。SAI项目旨在研究美国电力和天然气行业日益相互依赖所带来的复杂挑战，开发一个整合能源系统建模、机制设计和利益相关者参与的框架，以改善极端寒冷天气事件中当地配电公司和发电厂之间的天然气分配。综合研究方法开发了模型，以评估极端寒冷天气事件对能源基础设施关键部件的损害。这些模型用于模拟冬季风暴期间能源基础设施的联合运营，并评估区域测试系统中县级成本，排放和停电的相关影响。提出并评估了在严寒天气事件期间提高天然气分配效率和公平性的潜在政策解决方案。该研究与一个强大的参与计划紧密结合，该计划涉及一系列关键利益相关者，包括能源监管机构，非营利和社区组织，能源公司和电网运营商。该研究和利益相关者的参与促进了对解决方案的理解，以加强美国能源基础设施的弹性，并促进公平获得这一基础设施。该奖项由社会，行为，经济（SBE）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) is an NSF Program seeking to stimulate human-centered fundamental and potentially transformative research that strengthens America’s infrastructure. Effective infrastructure provides a strong foundation for socioeconomic vitality and broad quality of life improvement. Strong, reliable, and effective infrastructure spurs private-sector innovation, grows the economy, creates jobs, makes public-sector service provision more efficient, strengthens communities, promotes equal opportunity, protects the natural environment, enhances national security, and fuels American leadership. To achieve these goals requires expertise from across the science and engineering disciplines. SAI focuses on how knowledge of human reasoning and decision-making, governance, and social and cultural processes enables the building and maintenance of effective infrastructure that improves lives and society and builds on advances in technology and engineering.Electricity and heating needs spike during extreme cold weather events. Natural gas pipeline utilization approaches the maximum capacity during these periods, and power plants may not receive enough natural gas for electricity generation because gas distribution companies hold the highest priority of service. This was prudent during an era when the primary use for gas was space heating and not electricity generation. That landscape has changed, with electricity now more commonly used for heating in the residential and commercial sectors. This creates a disadvantage for customers who rely on electricity for heating because the priority for natural gas distribution is not for electricity generation. Recent electricity crises demonstrate the costly human impacts that power outages coupled with natural gas supply shortfalls can have during extreme cold weather events. Importantly, adverse consequences of cold weather outages tend to fall on historically overburdened and underserved communities. These disparities are expected to become more pronounced as residential electricity consumption grows through 2050. This SAI project investigates the complex challenges raised by the increasing interdependence between the electric power and natural gas sectors in the United States.This project develops a framework that integrates energy systems modeling, mechanism design and stakeholder engagement to improve allocation of natural gas between local distribution companies and power plants during extreme cold weather events. The integrative research approach develops models to assess damages to key components of the energy infrastructure during extreme cold weather events. The models are used to simulate the joint operations of energy infrastructure during winter storms, and assess the associated impacts on costs, emissions, and power outages at the county level in a regional test system. Potential policy solutions that enhance efficiency and equity of gas allocation during severe cold weather events are proposed and evaluated. The research is deeply integrated with a robust engagement program involving a range of key stakeholders, including energy regulators, non-profit and community-based organizations, energy companies, and electric grid operators. The research and stakeholder engagement advances the understanding of solutions to strengthen U.S. energy infrastructure resilience and promotes equitable access to this infrastructure.This award is supported by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences and the Directorate for Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.