How Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulators Work and Are Developed

This guide describes the Energy Policy Simulator (EPS), a free, open-source System Dynamics computer model developed by Energy Innovation to help policymakers evaluate the effectiveness of climate and energy policies on greenhouse gas emissions, economic outcomes, and public health.

• The Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) is a peer-reviewed, open-source System Dynamics model created in Vensim. It is an economy-wide, single region model that typically runs in annual time steps up to 2050, though it can be configured to run until 2100. The model incorporates a profit-maximizing least-cost optimized electricity model covering 24 hours across six time slices, as well as bottom-up stock turnover tracking in several sectors.
• The EPS allows users to model various policy combinations and customize their stringency and timelines against a business-as-usual baseline. Examples of modelable policies include clean energy standards, fuel economy and zero emissions vehicle standards, industry methane standards, R&D advancement, and incentives similar to those in the Inflation Reduction Act.
• The model utilizes two downstream modules to calculate secondary impacts: an input-output model that translates policy spending into economic metrics like GDP, jobs, and worker wages (with a one-year feedback delay for energy demand), and a health module that uses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency benefit-per-ton estimates to convert pollutant changes into health outcomes.
• The EPS provides thousands of outputs, including emissions for 12 different pollutants, premature mortality and 10 other health outcomes, and detailed electricity sector data. It also tracks economic impacts across 42 sectors and energy use across 25 industry sectors, including agriculture and construction.
• The core methodologies of the EPS have been peer-reviewed by experts from various institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and several national laboratories such as Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

APA

Admin, V. D. (2024). How Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulators Work and Are Developed. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/expert-voice/how-energy-innovations-energy-policy-simulators-work-and-are-developed/

Chicago

Admin, Visceral Dev. How Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulators Work and Are Developed. Energy Innovation, 2024. https://energyinnovation.org/expert-voice/how-energy-innovations-energy-policy-simulators-work-and-are-developed/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Admin |first1=Visceral Dev |title=How Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulators Work and Are Developed |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=11 September 2024 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/expert-voice/how-energy-innovations-energy-policy-simulators-work-and-are-developed/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{admin2024how, author = {Admin, Visceral Dev}, title = {{How Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulators Work and Are Developed}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/expert-voice/how-energy-innovations-energy-policy-simulators-work-and-are-developed/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }