We recently found out that Kamran Tehranchi, one of two primary maintainers of the PyPSA-USA open source power system model, was working on adapting it to use open data that we publish through our Public Utility Data Liberation Project (PUDL), so we interviewed him over email to find out more about his experience making the switch.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What problems are you working on? Where are you at?
Sure! I’m currently a PhD Student at Stanford University working in the Interdisciplinary Energy Systems (INES) Lab. By way of my research, I am also an energy system modeler and open-source software developer. My work focuses on electricity system planning, specifically on the impact of electricity transmission resolution within planning models. I primarily work with engineering-economic simulation and optimization models, mainly production cost simulations and capacity expansion models. I use these models to design and simulate future energy systems to understand the impacts of emerging technologies, policies, and climate-energy system interactions. One of the main projects I’ve been working on this past year is the PyPSA-USA planning model which in-part leverages PUDL to develop the electricity system data model.