Planning for a Net-Zero Future: Evolution of Electricity System Models

Over the last few decades, electric power systems globally have been undergoing a rapid transition toward carbon-free energy resources, primarily driven by environmental concerns, technological innovations, economic advantages, and shifts in socioeconomic patterns. The integration of carbon-free electricity generators introduces challenges related to complexity, variability, and uncertainty of system operations. With mainstreaming and upscaling of these solutions, stranded assets, social acceptance, geopolitics of critical material security, disaster resilience, resilience to medium- to long-term variations in climate, constraints on availability of land, and end-of-life disposal issues have emerged and are inviting increasing attention. Recognition of these challenges has led to the emergence of an ensemble of electricity system models to plan and track energy transitions by accounting for these constraints. In this article, we review the coevolution of the required decision support and models. We summarize the evolution across key themes and reflect on the gaps in this evolving planning landscape of actors and networks.