Opportunities and Challenges in the Visualization of Energy Scenarios for Decision-Making

Scenario studies are a technique for representing a range of possible complex decisions through time, and analyzing the impact of those decisions on future outcomes of interest. It is common to use scenarios as a way to study potential pathways towards future build-out and decarbonization of energy systems. The results of these studies are often used by diverse energy system stakeholders — such as community organizations, power system utilities, and policymakers — for decision-making using data visualization. However, the role of visualization in facilitating decision-making with energy scenario data is not well understood. In this work, we review common visualization designs employed in energy scenario studies and discuss the effectiveness of some of these techniques in facilitating different types of analysis with scenario data.