Energy Systems Modeling
Teaching · REE 4301 / IE 5300 · UT Arlington · 2026–
Many of the most pressing energy challenges cross traditional disciplinary boundaries and call for systems models to analyze possible solutions. This course shows how to construct such models, with particular emphasis on models that combine engineering, economics, the natural sciences and policy, using optimization, simulation, machine learning, decision analysis, stochastic processes and dynamical systems. Students learn to build mathematical models of complex, real-world energy problems.
Modules
- Demand: residential, commercial, industrial and transportation
- Generation: the electricity system, fossil fuels and other sources
- Networks: transmission, distribution and pipelines
- Storage and supply chains: batteries, oil and gas, other storage, and material flows
Topics
- Energy accounting, units, conversions and Sankey diagrams
- Demand modeling, load profiles and representative days
- Dispatch and investment economics: merit order, heat rate, LCOE, capital recovery
- Network modeling: DC power flow, losses, distribution and pipelines
- Storage and material supply chains
- Reliability, risk and safety; engineering economy
- Scenario and sensitivity analysis, and model validation
How it is taught and assessed
- Four mini-projects, one per module (40%)
- A final integrated project: a report and presentation that brings every module together (20%)
- Two mini-exams (30%)
- Assignments and participation (10%)
Tools. Python in Google Colab, and Excel. Generative AI is encouraged for coding, presentations and proofreading, but not for drafting reports or hand-worked homework.
Graduate sections
Graduate students take the same course at a higher standard, and must also:
- Collect global energy and supply-chain data from international sources such as the IEA
- Run research-grade models such as ReEDS, GenX, PyPSA and BEopt
- Validate model results, and run scenario and sensitivity analysis
- Produce publication-quality reports and presentations
Textbook
Introduction to Energy System Modeling, Erick Jones, Mavs Open Press in progress
A companion graduate course, Energy Systems and Critical Mineral Supply Chain Modeling (IE 6301), begins in Fall 2026.
Interactive models
- What a Grid Is Made Of: energy demand to generation to the metal and rock behind it
- A Toy Linked Model: battery demand, mining and end-of-life recovery
- Too Late to Decide: why a mine started today arrives in the 2040s
- The Texas grid: where ERCOT's power is made and where demand is going