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ItemThe effects of distributed solar on utilities and their customers(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-04-01) Beppler, Ross C.This dissertation evaluates the impact increasing penetrations of distributed solar will have on the electricity industry. It reconciles an analysis of the effect of increasing DPV penetration at the system scale, with an understanding of how installing DPV alters behavior at the household level. To provide such a comprehensive view on the role of DPV in the evolving utility, I construct a utility financial model and populate that with customer load and solar data. I compliment that analysis with utility billing data to gain insights on the interaction between solar installation, rate design, and electricity consumption. Results indicate that solar is likely to exacerbate existing inequities in cost allocation, the value of the solar resource is highly contextual, and installing solar is likely to change household energy consumption patterns. By incorporating insights from the macro and micro level, I demonstrate the need for markets, regulations, and rates which send appropriate signals to encourage system level efficiencies. This dissertation bridges utility modeling literature with empirical work to better understand prosumer behavior and shed light on the future of utility operations.
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ItemElectricity infrastructure threats and policy response(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-11-08) McGrath, Jenna K. C.The overarching research question of this dissertation is how are policymakers responding to threats to the electricity grid? The database of attacks on the United States electricity system, created and analyzed in Chapter 2, underscores that targeted attacks have been a persistent threat for the electric grid for the past nearly 50 years. In recent years, attacks have become more sophisticated and coordinated. Given this development, Chapter 3 considers how policy makers have responded to grid attacks, focusing on a more recent timeframe of seventeen years and uses risk perception theory as a guide. The results of the regression time series analysis indicate that policymakers respond to malicious attacks on the grid in terms of federal funding and allocation to grid-related improvements. There is no response associated with disruptions caused by severe weather or human or technical failures. This suggests that policymakers are perceiving malicious attacks as a threat and are stating policy priorities to address this issue in the federal budget appropriations. In addition to funding for emergency response and funding for research, federal policy, utilities have proposed measures to improve grid security. Chapter 4 addresses the adequacy of this response. The effectiveness of current grid security standards are simulated when faced with actual attack scenarios as well as possible future attacks that become increasingly more sophisticated and threatening in nature. The simulations indicate that security upgrades involving improved lighting and visibility are not effective, while improved barriers are effective. More broadly, the limited effectiveness of the proposed security upgrades suggests that there is substantial scope for research and testing, and for consideration of how utilities are securing electric infrastructure assets. Chapter 5 considers critical infrastructure as a whole, evaluating federal emergency response and management across the different critical infrastructure sectors. Here, the goal is to determine how electricity sector response compares to the policy responses to the challenges and events impacting other sectors. Analysis across multiple large incidents affecting different components of critical infrastructure shows a largely linear and consistent relationship between the impact of a disaster in terms of both human health and cost, and the sum of the public sector funding and insurance response. Attacks on the U.S. electric grid are a continuing challenge, as demonstrated in Chapter 2. In line with the prevailing risk perception literature, the analysis in Chapter 3 indicates that malicious attacks on the electric grid receive a larger response, in terms of federal R&D funding, than natural disasters or failures. This study finds that threats to national security are a driver of policy priorities and actions to both repair and improve the electric grid. Federal and state governments as well as the utilities and private sector bear significant costs when attacks occur. As concluded in Chapter 4, utility efforts to increase security are not fully public, but those that can be evaluated have significant weaknesses. Across all infrastructures, Chapter 5 demonstrates that government and private insurance payments largely pay fully for the impact of each disaster, irrespective of cause or sector, with terrorist attacks receiving emergency response funding at the same level as accidents and natural disasters. Similarly, federal research and development funding related to grid security has remained largely steady, with increases in response to large incidents irrespective of cause.
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ItemGreen certification pathways: The roles of public goods, private goods, and certification schemes(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-08-02) Flowers, Mallory EliseThis dissertation examines evidence on the effectiveness of voluntary certification programs in the built environment. Drawing on unique data from buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) label, the technologies adopted toward certification are examined. Analysis reveals strengths and weaknesses of the program design, including apparent promotion of energy and water efficiency, but limited promotion of public good provision. These findings motivate extensive theoretical development around the valuation of environmental products: traditional economic signaling perspectives are argued to be of little value in understanding “noisy” signals of environmental quality. Drawing on perspectives from organizational theory and strategic management, a framework for noisy signals is developed, and applied to three empirical questions. First, the extent to which noisy signals are strategically adopted is examined by assessing patterns in technology adoption toward green building certification. Second, the evolving distribution of LEED scores is assessed against a dynamic imputed counterfactual to reveal the extent to which the certification fosters a “Race to the Top.” Here, signaling and learning are posited as a mechanism for such a “Race,” in a critique of past theory. Finally, the shift in practices contributing from public goods to private gains is evaluated over time, calling to question how we should measure the success of environmental programs which aim to promote improvements with regard to myriad concerns. In sum, this work contributes to our understanding of corporate sustainability, certification programs, signaling theory, and technology learning.
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ItemThree essays on evolving regulatory climates and market adjustment strategies(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-07-23) Urmanbetova, AselThis dissertation consists of three empirical analyses examining the interactive and evolving nature of government regulations and how the regulated industries respond to the changes in the regulatory climate. Using the U.S. pulp and paper mills as an example, the three essays bring together a number of strands of literature in environmental economics and policy studies discussing how changes in the U.S. environmental policy are shaped by industry concerns and which strategies firms choose in order to adjust to the changes in policy. Essay 1 examines if, in addition to the standard input factors, indirect costs associated with tax and environmental policies affect papermakers’ ‘stay put’ investment decisions. The findings suggest that state environmental stringency has a negative impact on investments, but it is statistically insignificant and higher taxes do not deter investments. The Essay 2 studies whether voluntary abatement and prevention efforts at pulp and paper mills affects regulatory stringency they face. The analysis tests the hypotheses of ‘responsive regulation’ and whether regulators are driven by numerical pollution targets or budgetary constraints. The findings suggest that voluntary pollution abatement and prevention have greater impact on regulatory stringency than government budgets. Finally, Essay 3 analyzes the relationship between pollution prevention (P2) policy instruments and adoption of P2 modifications. The study tests the hypotheses of whether P2 policy instruments have positive impact on P2 adoptions. The results suggest that the policy instruments have different effects on different types of P2 modifications and that regulatory and political threat is a strong predictor of P2 adoptions.
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ItemAn empirical study of attitudes towards green urban development(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013-08-28) Chiang Hsieh, Lin-HanThis study focuses on how spatial circumstances affect property owners’ preference toward sustainable urban development, in the form of three-essays. In the first essay, property owners’ preference toward the concept of compact development is identified. Compact development is an increasingly popular concept that includes multiple aspects, such as mixed land use, high density, and pedestrian/transit-friendly options. Previous hedonic literature on the comprehensive effect of compact development is limited. Also, spatial dependence in the data, something likely endemic to compact development, has not yet been thoroughly addressed. This study uses a spatial fixed-effect model, a spatial-autoregressive model with auto-regressive disturbances (SARAR), and a spatial fixed-effect SARAR model to determine the price effect of “compactness” in a major U.S. metropolitan area. By analyzing of 47,000 sales records in Fulton County over a decade, this study indicates that home buyers prefer to have smaller, more diffuse greenspace nearby, rather than a large, concentrated greenspace at a longer walking distance. High parcel density and diverse land use is consistently disvalued, and the premium on accessing public transportation is not identified among all models. No specific trend over time has been observed, despite the recession starting in 2008. Finally, a comprehensive index of compactness shows relatively high willingness-to-pay for compact development. The second essay tests the spatial spillover of signaling within the pursuit of LEED certification. The benefit of pursuing green building certification mainly comes from two aspects: the cost-effectiveness from energy efficiency and the signaling consideration, including the premium on property values, benefits from a better reputation, morality values, or purely pride. By analyzing all new constructions that received LEED certification from 2000 to 2012 (LEED-NC v2.0 to v2.2) in the U.S., this study tries to identify the size of the signaling effects, and spillover of signaling, as building owners pursue LEED certification. The results show that the signaling effect affects decision making in pursuing LEED certification, especially at scores around thresholds. The size of signaling effects differs among different owner types and different certificate levels. For the Gold level or below, government and non-profit-organization owners value signaling more than do profit-seeking firms. At the Platinum level, there is no significant difference among owner types. This study also finds that the signaling effect clusters spatially for government and profit-seeking firms. Finally, the results show that the cluster of signaling is independent from the cluster of LEED buildings, indicating that mechanisms behind the cluster of signaling are different from those of LEED constructions. The third essay tests the distance effect on the support for Atlanta BeltLine. Atlanta BeltLine, a large urban redevelopment project currently underway in the center of Atlanta, transforms 22 miles of historical railroad corridors into parks, trails, pedestrian-friendly transit areas, and affordable housing. This study aims to determine the distance effect on the support of Atlanta BeltLine and whether the implement of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) affects the support. The contributions of this exercise are twofold. First, it demonstrates the risks and remedies to missing spatial data by solving the technical problem of missing precise spatial location values. Second, it tests underlying reasons why distance can help explain the level of support that Atlanta BeltLine has received, with striking implications for theories like the Homevoter hypothesis. Survey data used in this study was conducted in summer 2009, about three years after the declaration of the project. The support by both homeowners and renters significantly declines as distance from the BeltLine increases. However, when residents’ tendency to use BeltLine parks and transits is entered as a variable, the distance effect disappears. By indicating that the distance effect comes from homeowners’ and renters’ the accessibility to BeltLine amenities, the result rejects the homevoter hypothesis, which holds that property value increment is the main mechanism behind support. The results also show that whether or not a homeowner or renter is a parent in City of Atlanta affects a person’s support of the BeltLine. These results lead to the conclusion that the concern of TIF affecting future school quality hampers the support of the project.