Webinar: Exploring Modeling Challenges with Wide-Area Energy Assessments
March 12, 2026 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
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Featured Speaker: Kevin Carden, Chief Product Officer, PowerGEM
About the Webinar: Wide-area energy assessments spanning large interconnected systems such as the Eastern Interconnect present unique and complex modeling challenges. With thousands of generators, dozens of planning zones, and intricate market interactions, analysts must make critical decisions about how to represent such vast systems while maintaining meaningful accuracy. This webinar explores three key challenge areas that modelers face when undertaking assessments at this scale.
First, we examine data and scale challenges inherent to modeling the Eastern Interconnect. Representing thousands of generating units across dozens of zones demands careful consideration of where data simplifications and assumptions are appropriate — and where they risk undermining results. We discuss strategies for managing this complexity, including generator aggregation, zonal representation choices, and the trade-offs involved in balancing model fidelity with computational tractability.
Second, we turn to market calibration — a critical step in ensuring that simulation outputs reflect real-world system behavior. Key questions include: Do our simulations adequately mimic the behavior of wholesale electricity markets? How do we approximate the friction and coordination challenges that exist between adjacent markets and operating regions? We also address the treatment of emergency support mechanisms across wide areas and how models capture the behavior of large, price-sensitive or inflexible loads that can significantly influence market outcomes.
Finally, we discuss the importance of coordination on data development across the teams and organizations involved in wide-area studies. Consistent assumptions, shared data standards, and collaborative workflows are essential to producing credible and defensible results when multiple stakeholders contribute to a single modeling effort. We highlight lessons learned and best practices for aligning inputs and methodologies across participants.
This webinar is intended for energy modelers, planners, and analysts involved in regional or interconnection-wide studies, and will offer practical insights for navigating the challenges that arise when the scope of analysis extends well beyond a single market or utility footprint.
About the Speaker: Kevin Carden is the Chief Product Officer at PowerGEM, and is responsible for managing the strategic direction of its suite of software tools including SERVM, DAYZER, PROBE, TARA, and MCAST. Kevin previously founded Astrapé Consulting which developed the SERVM software, the leading Resource Adequacy tool in North America. Kevin led the Astrapé team for nearly 20 years before its acquisition by PowerGEM in April 2024. He holds a U.S. patent in Generation Reliability Modeling techniques and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama.
Registration Cost: FREE
Moderator: James Okullo, Director of System Planning, ESIG
Q&A Session: We will be using the Slido platform for Q&A. Please submit your questions and follow along during the event at this link.