Francisco Ralston Fonseca

Carnegie Mellon University | CMU · Department of Engineering and Public Policy

Electricity grid planners design the system to supply electricity to end-users reliably and affordably. Climate change threatens both objectives through potentially compounding supply-and demand-side climate-induced impacts. Uncertainty surrounds each of these future potential impacts. Given long planning horizons, system planners must weigh invest...

The electric power sector in the United States faces many challenges related to climate change. On the demand side, climate change could shift demand patterns due to increased air temperatures. On the supply side, climate change could lead to deratings of thermal units due to changes in air temperature, water temperature, and water availability. Pa...

Climate change threatens all parts of the US electric power system, from electricity generation to distribution. An important dimension of this issue is the impact on electricity demand. While many studies have looked at these impacts, few have tried to represent this effect at higher temporal resolutions (such as daily or sub-daily) or to analyze...

Brazil has a large potential for wind: it is estimated that nearly 140,000 MW of wind energy generating capacity could be built in the country. In December 2009 a specific auction to contract wind power was carried out. The motivation of this auction was to take advantage of the 2008-2009 world financial crisis that has lowered equipment cost as we...

The search for clean energy development has motivated the expansion of renewable sources of generation around the world. In Brazil, Small Hydro Plants (SHP), Cogeneration from Sugarcane waste (Biomass) and Wind Power Plants (WPP) are proving themselves to be attractive alternatives over the last years. One important characteristic of each of these...

The integrated sugar/ethanol/electricity production has launched a new business model-the bioelectricity industry-with a potential to become a ldquomainstreamrdquo energy supply option in the near future in Brazil. Besides being clean, the bioelectricity plants have been winning several hundred MWs in long-term contracts auctioned by distribution c...

The objective of this work is to discuss the generation options and challenges to meet an increasing electricity demand in Brazil. Emphasis will be put on the challenge of conciliating generation system expansion and environmental constraints under a cost-effective framework.