Brady Cowiestoll is member of the Capacity Expansion & Electricity Markets Group in NREL's Grid Planning and Analysis Center. In her role as engineer and researcher, she predominantly studies future grid systems, how they evolve, how they operate, and understanding how flexible technologies may become more widely utilized under emerging grid conditions. She utilizes Python, GAMS, and R to create new tools to enable further analyses of capacity expansion and production cost models, and to help these models to interact to extend our ability to represent and understand the future challenges our grid may face.

Research Interests

Capacity expansion modeling and optimization

Demand response modeling within the bulk power sector

Building software tools to improve modeling interactions

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

B.S., Physics, University of Texas at Austin

B.A., Plan II, University of Texas at Austin

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2015–2016)

Featured Work

Chapter 6: Renewable Energy Investments and Operations (The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study), NREL Technical Report (2021)

Demand Response in Bangalore: Implications for Electricity System Operations, NREL Technical Report (2020)

Integrating Solar into Florida's Power System: Potential Roles for Flexibility, Solar Energy (2020)

Capturing the Impact of Storage and Other Flexible Technologies on Electric System Planning, NREL Technical Report (2016)

View all NREL publications for Brady Cowiestoll.

Awards and Honors

President’s Award, NREL (2019)