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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: January 26, 2017
Overview: In September 2016, Georgia Tech announced the formation of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center, or EPICenter, to advance energy policy and technology innovation in the Southeast. This center will be a low-overhead, efficient organization based out of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and will be distinctively regional, yet nationally relevant. The Center will explore the intersection of policy and technology and draw upon the extensive expertise in the Southeast, including academia, utilities, industry, key national labs, and other public and private stakeholders.
Motivation for a Regional Center: While the U.S. energy system is composed of regions with unique energy needs and opportunities, tremendous potential exists to deepen progress and coordinate action within individual regions. Broader views and approaches for energy innovation are similarly viewed as mission critical, for example by including policy, economic, even social considerations along with conventional technological factors.
Why the Southeast? The region already provides national leadership in efficiency, reliability, and cost due in part to the vertical integration of data, networks and physical resources by regulated utilities across the entire value chain. In June, Georgia Tech helped co-author a whitepaper in which distinguishing features of the energy system in the Southeastern United States were identified as follows:
Mission: This Center will specifically address characteristic resources, challenges, and capabilities with regional expertise, and deliver realistic solutions with maximum impact. This initiative is the first known implementation of a regional partnership to focus on the interdependencies of energy policy and technology toward the pragmatic realization of meaningful, affordable, and market-based carbon reductions.
Key Objectives: The Center will strive to accelerate a diversity of reliable, affordable and increasingly low-carbon energy options in the Southeast. The Center will put a premium on regional contributions that can enhance U.S. energy leadership and competitiveness. The Center will investigate challenges in both power generation and in transportation on a regional basis. Techno-economic, social and policy factors, as well as near and longer term impacts, are within the scope of consideration. Primary objectives include:
Funding Model and External Advisory Mechanism: The Center, when fully operational, is targeting a nominal annual budget of $1.5 million. All cash and in-kind support will derive entirely from voluntary contributions of interested parties, and will be directed to a foundation established and overseen by Georgia Tech. Any requests for non-cash support made on behalf of the Center will be non-binding, performed entirely at the discretion of its partners. The Center will establish an external advisory body and invite selected regional representatives to participate. Advisors may be asked to provide recommendations and input on an as-need basis for the selection and review of work products, or for other purposes.
Partners: A variety of strategic entities will be invited to participate in the Center, with the philosophy that a focus on common resources and shared challenges will be most effective in accelerating regional progress and disseminating learning. Stakeholder categories from which partners will be invited include:
Operating Charter: The activities, procedures and ultimately the key deliverables of the Center will be defined by its leadership, led by the director of SEI with input from the external advisory body. The Center itself will be responsible for its daily operational activities including the publication of work products and the coordination of engagement events and activities. The Center is in the process of defining an operational charter including, but not limited to, the following responsibilities:
Updated by the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech 1/26/17
