Café Scientifique on Mon., Feb. 3

Date:
Monday, February 3, 2020
Time:
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Carnegie Science Center

Presenter:

Destenie Nock, PhD
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Paths Toward Sustainable and Universal Electricity Access

Electricity goals around the world tend to focus on increasing social benefit through one of two avenues: increasing overall system sustainability or increasing access to electricity. These goals guide the transition of the power system. In pursuit of these goals, decision makers need modeling tools that can inform decisions, in a way that is flexible enough to include a wide range of preferences and goals. The future power plant mix of our electricity system will change, but the most sustainable solution will change based on a country's goals. This talk focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and electricity access in developing countries. 

Here, we present an optimization model that can be used by decision makers to determine the best method of grid expansion to meet electricity access goals subject to system and budget constraints. The model incorporates a stakeholder’s preference for equality leading us to find that the more stakeholder’s care about equality the more they invest in transmission infrastructure. When equality is ignored, larger power plants are built near the capital city in lieu of transmission investments. 

About Dr. Destenie Nock:

Dr. Destenie Nock is an Assistant Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research is focused on applying optimization and decision analysis tools to evaluate the sustainability and reliability of the electricity grid in disparate energy systems. Specifically, she uses mathematics to answer questions like “How can we make power systems more sustainable and equitable?” 

In 2019, she became the first African American woman to be hired as a tenure track professor in the college of engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Dr. Nock holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to this, she was a Mitchell Fellow in Northern Ireland where she earned an MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development at Queens University of Belfast. She holds two B.S. degrees from North Carolina A&T State University in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. In addition, she has spent time volunteering in Malawi, held internships at Argonne National Lab, the Utility Regulator of Northern Ireland, and Exxon Mobil. In her free time, she runs a research and professional development blog on her personal website.

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