Reverse-Engineering Power Flows on the Eastern Interconnect from Real-Time Price Data

Saracen Energy Mathematics, 2016-17

Liaison(s): Dr. Brian Maurizi CMC ’03, Ross Sclafani HMC ’08
Advisor(s): Weiqing Gu
Students(s): Rohan Nagpal, Ricky Pan, Michael Rees (PM), Jincheng Wang

Independent organizations called Independent System Operators are constantly calculating how to most efficiently meet the country’s demand for power. They communicate this information by publishing prices. Our team developed methods for using these prices to estimate power flows through large subsets of the U.S. power grid to better inform Saracen of the state of various lines. Knowledge of these flows will ultimately help Saracen, which trades in a market of buying and selling power, make better trading decisions.