Part 2. Model Description

The model was originally developed for a western utility to help planners think through strategies to achieve cash flow and rate-making objectives. They adopted a long term perspective that looked several decades into the future, and they were convinced that construction cycles should be taken seriously.
These concerns led to the development of a system dynamics (note 2) model to simulate the western electricity market along side of the utility's internal considerations. The relevant portion of the model has been removed and adapted for this paper with all parameters estimated from public data. It is designed at a relatively high level of aggregation compared to the detailed production simulation models described in Appendix B. Rather than simulating electricity demand for 12 different regions, for example, total demand is simulated for the entire region. .


Demand for Electricity
Existing Low Cost Generation | Existing High Cost Generation
The Px Price | Average Annual Values for Demand & Price
Investment in New CCCTs | Investors' Behavior
Feedback Mechanisms


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