The electricity industry is undergoing a period of tremendous transformation. In particular, emerging technologies are beginning to take hold, including artificial intelligence, digital machine learning, and low-carbon generation and storage systems.

These technologies are influencing the choices electricity developers, producers, and retailers will have in the future to improve grid resilience and affordability in the face of rising consumption. The share of electricity in satisfying global energy demand is expected to more than double in the coming decades, rising from about 20% of final energy consumption today to over 40% by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. In the U.S., electricity demand has already moved onto an upward path, after decades of lower to flat consumption.

Regulators remain focused on the core missions of affordability and reliability. But a new set of challenges and opportunities are also coming to the fore, including connection delays, geopolitics, extreme weather, cyber security, and volatile fuel costs.

The NYU Electricity Initiative is a multifaceted program that promotes original, forward-looking discussion and evidence-based research and educational programs aimed at broadening understanding of the increasingly complex landscape facing the electricity sector today. The initiative brings together leading policy experts, utilities, developers, data companies, digital security providers, technology companies, and non-governmental organizations to explore issues that are shaping the electricity future in North America and internationally.

The mission of the NYU Electricity Initiative is to help elucidate new trends – both local and international – that are shaping the nature of electricity markets and influencing the reliability, affordability, and sustainability of electricity supply in the United States and the world. The Initiative aims to serve as a focal point for the exchange of ideas on how to improve understanding of the technological, economic, and social forces influencing energy markets today and fashion original, forward-looking discussion and research on business solutions and sound public policy.

TOPICAL RESEARCH

Tapping New York University’s strong network of energy, technology, and climate resilience experts, the NYU Electricity Initiative will organize and sponsor original academic research, modeling, and policy white papers on a wide range of topics of importance to electricity leaders and policymakers.

NYU Electricity Initiative research activities will focus on the following key opportunities and challenges:

• Critical Infrastructure and Grid Resilience
• Cyber Security: Challenges and Approaches
• Sustainable Data Centers
• New Price Formation Platforms and Regulatory Trends
• Energy Efficiency, Sustainability, and the Built Environment
• Electricity Burden and Climate Justice
• Climate Finance
• Geopolitics of Cross-Border Electricity Trade
• The Role of Natural Gas in Energy Transition

The NYU Electricity Initiative will work with private and public sector partners to develop experiential applied research projects aimed at evaluating emerging challenges to the electricity sector and propose realistic, innovative business solutions and policy recommendations. Practicum consulting projects are designed to help students learn to evaluate, compare, and reflect on technology innovation and policy design and to gain a better understanding of the important questions and challenges facing the electricity sector today. These applied practicum programs, which focus on questions brought forward by an entity that serves as the program’s “client,” provides students with a unique opportunity to tackle real-world problems and challenges and consider innovative solutions and problem-solving.

The NYU Electricity Initiative will host a wide range of topical workshops, operating under Chatham House rules, to foster a productive exchange of ideas and knowledge on important electricity-related topics of the day. The workshops will provide the opportunity for academic experts, policymakers, technologists, entrepreneurs, utilities, and business leaders to confer on revolutionary changes in the energy sector and examine critical issues from a policy, business, and technological perspective.

Policymakers are seeking new blueprints for leading and adopting more agile approaches for managing uncertainties and responding to rapid technology breakthroughs, business innovations, and changing public expectations, preferences, and concerns. The NYU Electricity Initiative Policy Maker seminars are designed to share evidence-based data, knowledge, and thought leadership on critical issues facing the electricity sector now and in the future.

The ECJS Lab Global Climate Justice Fellows program is designed to give master’s degree students from New York University hands-on experience in the world of climate action. The program aims to create a community of next-generation leaders focused on the intersection of environmental and social justice and climate change and sustainability. Each year, ten to twenty NYU students will be selected to participate in a summer or semester-based fellowship experiential learning opportunities to work alongside climate and sustainability leaders from the NYU faculty, as well as leaders from the private sector, environmental non-profits, multilateral agencies, climate activist organizations, and government sectors in the United States and internationally.