Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “benefit-cost analysis”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

18 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1973

On the feasibility of benefit-cost analysis applied to remote sensing projects

The following step-wise procedure for making a benefit-cost analysis of using remote sensing techniques could be used either in the limited context of California water resources, or a context as broad as the making of integrated resource surveys of the entire earth resource complex on a statewide, regional, national, or global basis. (1) Survey all data collection efforts which can be accomplished by remote sensing techniques. (2) Carefully inspect the State of California budget and the Budget of the United States Government to find annual cost of data collection efforts. (3) Decide the extent to which remote sensing can obviate each of the collection efforts. (4) Sum the annual costs of all data collection which can be equivalently accomplished through remote sensing. (5) Decide what additional data could and would be collected through remote sensing. (6) Estimate the value of this information. It is not harmful to do a benefit-cost analysis so long as its severe limitations are recalled and it is supplemented with socio-economic impact studies.

Merewitz, L.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Utility-Facing Grid Modernization Investments: Trends, Challenges, and Considerations

In recent years, many electric utilities have submitted grid modernization plans for review by state public utility commissions. A central objective of these plans is to demonstrate that grid modernization investments will provide net benefits to customers, be reasonable and be in the public interest. The plans typically include some form of benefit-cost analysis, but the assumptions, methodologies and frameworks vary considerably between utilities. This report: -Describes utility-facing technologies and projects for modernizing distribution systems, including interdependencies of grid components -Highlights benefit-cost considerations related to grid modernization -Summarizes recent trends in benefit-cost analysis for grid modernization based on a review of 21 plans by U.S. electric utilities -Discusses challenges state public utility commissions face in reviewing utility plans and provides options for addressing challenges

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1978

The value of information as applied to the Landsat Follow-on benefit-cost analysis

An econometric model was run to compare the current forecasting system with a hypothetical (Landsat Follow-on) space-based system. The baseline current system was a hybrid of USDA SRS domestic forecasts and the best known foreign data. The space-based system improved upon the present Landsat by the higher spatial resolution capability of the thematic mapper. This satellite system is a major improvement for foreign forecasts but no better than SRS for domestic forecasts. The benefit analysis was concentrated on the use of Landsat Follow-on to forecast world wheat production. Results showed that it was possible to quantify the value of satellite information and that there are significant benefits in more timely and accurate crop condition information.

Wood, D. B.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Performance Metrics to Evaluate Utility Resilience Investments

In 2019, Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) contracted Synapse Energy Economics (Synapse) to research the integration of community and electric grid resilience investment planning as part of the Designing Resilient Communities (DRC): A Consequence-Based Approach for Grid Investment project. Synapse produced a series of reports to explore the challenges and opportunities in several key areas, including benefit-cost analysis (BCA), performance metrics, microgrids, and regulatory mechanisms. This report focuses on BCA. BCA is an approach that electric utilities, electric utility regulators, and communities can use to evaluate the costs and benefits of a wide range of grid resilience investments in a comprehensive and consistent way. While BCA is regularly applied to some types of grid investments, application of BCA to grid resilience investments is in the early stages of development. Though resilience is increasingly cited in connection with grid investment proposals and plans, the resilience- related costs and benefits of grid resilience investments are typically not fully identified, infrequently quantified, and almost never monetized. Without complete assessments of costs and benefits, regulators can be hesitant to approve some types of grid resilience investments. This report provides the first application of the framework developed in the 2020 National Standard Practice Manual for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Distributed Energy Resources (NSPM for DERs) to grid resilience investments. We provide guidance on next steps for implementation to enable grid resilience investments to receive due consideration. We suggest developing BCA principles and standards for jurisdiction-specific BCA tests. We also recommend identifying the resilience impacts of the investments and quantification of these impacts by establishing utility performance metrics for resilience. Proactive integration of grid resilience investments into existing regulatory processes and practices can increase the capacity of jurisdictions to respond to and recover from the consequences of extreme events. 1 National Energy Screening Project. 2020. National Standard Practice Manual for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Distributed Energy Resources.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1974

Design-to-cost

Attempts made to design to costs equipment, vehicles and subsystems for various space projects are discussed. A systematic approach, based on mission requirement analysis, definition of a mission baseline design, benefit and cost analysis, and a benefit-cost analysis was proposed for implementing the cost control program.

Bradley, F. E.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Benefit cost analysis in federal agency R and D program formulation

Benefit-cost analysis is defined and some government investment criteria are discussed in relation to federal agency research and development program planning. The benefits of applied research and development are examined on the basis of a decision tree approach, and R and D project selection is considered, with attention paid to the multi-attribute problem.

Greenberg, J. S.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Establishing and Maintaining Engagement for a Distributional Equity Analysis [Slides]

The Distributional Equity Analysis (DEA) is an analytical framework that allows for the evaluation of the distributional equity of utility resource investments in combination with benefit-cost analysis. This guide serves as a resource for organizations to develop an engagement strategy for a DEA that is accessible, inclusive, and grounded in community interests. It is organized by the guiding principles of engagement for a DEA, summarized in the figure on the right, and offers a compendium of resources for further support and learning.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Economic Incentives for Agrivoltaics Systems with Commodity Crops in the Midwestern United States

Declining costs of photovoltaic (PV) technology and rising market and policy incentives are leading to the growing deployment of PV on cropland in the US Midwest, leading to concerns about the displacement of food and feed crop production. Agrivoltaic (AV) technology enables the dual use of land by co-locating PV energy and crop production, potentially reducing land-use competition with crop production. We develop a benefit-cost analysis framework to compare the net economic returns from AV to those with stand-alone PV and crop production on a representative field and show conditions under which AV can be more profitable for both a solar developer and a farmer. We integrate it with a crop and solar energy model to simulate the performance of various field designs and space and height configurations in AV systems to accommodate soybean production with conventional farm equipment under representative conditions in the US Midwest. We find that an AV system with soybean production is less profitable than PV alone for a solar developer due to the high capital costs of raising panel height, and less profitable for a farmer than leasing land for PV due to its adverse effects of shading on crop yield. We discuss the changes in technology and market prices of solar energy and soybeans that are necessary to make the AV system profitable for solar developers and farmers. We show that AV can worsen rather than mitigate the conflict between food crops and solar energy production in the Midwest.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Regulatory Mechanisms to Enable Investments in Electric Utility Resilience

In 2019, Sandia National Laboratories contracted Synapse Energy Economics (Synapse) to research the integration of community and electric utility resilience investment planning as part of the Designing Resilient Communities: A Consequence-Based Approach for Grid Investment (DRC) project. Synapse produced a series of reports to explore the challenges and opportunities in several key areas, including benefit-cost analysis, performance metrics, microgrids, and regulatory mechanisms to promote investments in electric system resilience. This report focuses on regulatory mechanisms to improve resilience. Regulatory mechanisms that improve resilience are approaches that electric utility regulators can use to align utility, customer, and third-party investments with regulatory, ratepayer, community, and other important stakeholder interests and priorities for resilience. Cost-of-service regulation may fail to provide utilities with adequate guidance or incentives regarding community priorities for infrastructure hardening and disaster recovery. The application of other types of regulatory mechanisms to resilience investments can help. This report: characterizes regulatory objective as they apply to resilience; identifies several regulatory mechanisms that are used or can be adapted to improve the resilience of the electric system--including performance-based regulation, integrated planning, tariffs and programs to leverage private investment, alternative lines of business for utilities, enhanced cost recovery, and securitization; provides a case study of each regulatory mechanism; summarizes findings across the case studies; and suggests how these regulatory mechanisms might be improved and applied to resilience moving forward. In this report, we assess the effectiveness of a range of utility regulatory mechanisms at evaluating and prioritizing utility investments in grid resilience. First, we characterize regulatory objectives which underly all regulatory mechanisms. We then describe seven types of regulatory mechanisms that can be used to improve resilience--including performance-based regulation, integrated planning, tariffs and programs to leverage private investment, alternative lines of business for utilities, enhanced cost recovery, and securitization--and provide a case study for each one. We summarize our findings on the extent to which these regulatory mechanisms have supported resilience to date. We conclude with suggestions on how these regulatory mechanisms might be improved and applied to resilience moving forward.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Economic Evaluation of Modernization Expenditures for Electric Utility Distribution Systems: A Guide for Utility Regulators

Cost-effectiveness evaluation of potential grid modernization solutions is integral to integrated distribution system planning (IDSP). This report synthesizes and updates prior cost-effectiveness approaches identified by the U.S. Department of Energy for grid modernization investments, incorporating multi-objective decision-making. The structure of the report follows the IDSP process, from identifying objectives and priorities to prioritizing grid solutions. The report details two methods for conducting initial cost-effectiveness screening of individual and interdependent grid components: (1) Lowest Reasonable Cost and (2) Benefit-Cost Analysis. Drawing on solutions that passed the initial cost-effectiveness screen, the utility prioritizes grid solutions based on policy objectives and priorities, regulatory compliance, operational efficiencies, and other factors to develop a portfolio of distribution solutions. The utility uses multi-objective decision-making to assess each proposed expenditure against each objective and respective metric. The utility applies a weighting factor, reflecting the priority ranking of the objective, to the total numerical “score” based on the contribution of the proposed solution to addressing each objective. Ultimately, the utility ranks each expenditure from highest to lowest priority using the final score for each solution as well as its cost. The report includes examples of emerging best practices for states and utilities and a cost-effectiveness process checklist.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Valuation of Distributed Wind in an Isolated System

Remote communities are increasingly adopting renewable energy, such as wind, as they transition away from diesel energy generation. It is important to understand the benefits and costs of wind energy to isolated systems so that decision-makers can optimize their choices in these communities. There are few examples of valuation of wind energy as a distributed resource and numerous differences in valuation approaches, especially in the inclusion of environmental and economic impacts. We apply a distributed wind valuation framework to calculate the benefits and costs of wind in St. Mary’s, Alaska, to the local electric cooperative and to society, finding that the project does not have a favorable benefit-to-cost ratio unless societal benefits are included, in which case the benefit-to-cost ratio is nearly double. Government funding is important to reducing the initial capital expenditures of this wind project and will likely be the case for projects with similar characteristics. Additional fuel savings benefits are potentially possible for this project through technological additions such as energy storage and advanced controls.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1972

General methodology: Costing, budgeting, and techniques for benefit-cost and cost-effectiveness analysis

The general concepts of costing, budgeting, and benefit-cost ratio and cost-effectiveness analysis are discussed. The three common methods of costing are presented. Budgeting distributions are discussed. The use of discounting procedures is outlined. The benefit-cost ratio and cost-effectiveness analysis is defined and their current application to NASA planning is pointed out. Specific practices and techniques are discussed, and actual costing and budgeting procedures are outlined. The recommended method of calculating benefit-cost ratios is described. A standardized method of cost-effectiveness analysis and long-range planning are also discussed.

Stretchberry, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Introduction

Since May 1970, personnel on several campuses of the University of California have been conducting investigations which seek to determine the usefulness of modern remote sensing techniques for studying various components of California's earth resources complex. Emphasis has been given to California's water resources as exemplified by the Feather River project and other aspects of the California Water Plan. This study is designed to consider in detail the supply, demand, and impact relationships. The specific geographic areas studied are the Feather River drainage in northern California, the Chino-Riverside Basin and Imperial Valley areas in southern California, and selected portions of the west side of San Joaquin Valley in central California. An analysis is also given on how an effective benefit-cost study of remote sensing in relation to California's water resources might best be made.

Colwell, R. N.↗
NASA NTRS2010

A Parametric Study on Using Active Debris Removal to Stabilize the Future LEO Debris Environment

Recent analyses of the instability of the orbital debris population in the low Earth orbit (LEO) region and the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 have reignited the interest in using active debris removal (ADR) to remediate the environment. There are; however, monumental technical, resources, operational, legal, and political challenges in making economically viable ADR a reality. Before a consensus on the need for ADR can be reached, a careful analysis of the effectiveness of ADR must be conducted. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of using ADR to preserve the future environment and to guide its implementation to maximize the benefit-cost ratio. This paper describes a comprehensive sensitivity study on using ADR to stabilize the future LEO debris environment. The NASA long-term, orbital debris evolutionary model, LEGEND, is used to quantify the effects of many key parameters. These parameters include (1) the starting epoch of ADR implementation, (2) various target selection criteria, (3) the benefits of collision avoidance maneuvers, (4) the consequence of targeting specific inclination or altitude regimes, (5) the consequence of targeting specific classes of vehicles, and (6) the timescale of removal. Additional analyses on the importance of postmission disposal and how future launches might affect the requirements to stabilize the environment are also included.

Liou, J.C.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Benefit-cost evaluation of an intra-regional air service in the Bay area

Utilization of an iterative statistical model is presented to evaluate combinations of commuter airport sites and surface transportation facilities in confunction with service by a given commuter aircraft type in light of Bay Area regional growth alternatives and peak and off-peak regional travel patterns. The model evaluates such transportation options with respect to criteria of airline profitability, public acceptance, and public and private nonuser costs. It incorporates information modal split, peak and off-peak use of the air commuter fleet, terminal and airport cost, development costs and uses of land in proximity to the airport sites, regional population shifts, and induced zonal shifts in travel demand. The model is multimodal in its analytical capability, and performs exhaustive sensitivity analysis.

Haefner, L. E.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Executive summary: Benefit-cost evaluation of an intra-regional air service in the Bay Area and a technology assessment of transportation system investments

The benefits and costs that would result from an intra-regional air service operation in the San Francisco Bay area were determined by utilizing an iterative statistical decision model to evaluate combinations of commuter airport sites and surface transportation facilities in conjunction with service by a given commuter aircraft type in light of area regional growth alternatives and peak and off-peak regional travel patterns. The model evaluates such transportation option with respect to criteria of airline profitability, public acceptance, and public and private non-user costs. In so doing, it incorporates information on modal split, peak and off-peak use of the air commuter fleet, terminal and airport costs, development costs and uses of land in proximity to the airport sites, regional population shifts, and induced zonal shifts in travel demand. The model is multimodal in its analytic capability, and performs exhaustive sensitivity analysis.

Haefner, L. E.↗