Luke Lavin is a researcher in the Grid Operations Planning Group within NREL’s Grid Planning and Analysis Center. In his role, he is primarily interested in how electricity market design and pricing affects adoption and operation of electric generating, storage, and other resources. Luke uses Python/Pyomo, R, Julia/JuMP, and his analytical skills to contribute to NREL’s suite of models for investigating questions in these research areas and communicates findings and challenges.

Research Interests

Electricity markets

Resource adequacy

Energy storage resources

Demand flexibility

Retail rate design

Education

Ph.D., Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

B.A., Physics and Anthropology, Amherst College

Professional Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (2021–2021)

Affiliate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2016–2017)

Associate, Energy + Environmental Economics (2014–2016)

Featured Work

The Importance of Peak Pricing in Realizing System Benefits from Distributed Storage, Energy Policy (2021)

Market Power Challenges and Solutions for Electric Storage Resources, CMU CEIC Working Paper 21 (2021)

Dynamic Operating Reserve Requirements Improves Scarcity Pricing in PJM, Energy Policy (2020)

Resource Adequacy Implications of Temperature-Dependent Electric Generator Availability, Applied Energy (2020)

Estimating the Value of Offshore Wind Along the United States’ Eastern Coast, Environmental Research Letters (2018)

View all NREL publications for Luke Lavin.

Awards and Honors

Herbert L. Toor Award (2019)