Book Description

The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) is a computer-based, energy-economy modeling system of US energy markets for the midterm period of 1990 to 2010. NEMS projects the production, imports, conversion, consumption, and prices of energy, subject to assumptions on macroeconomic and financial factors, world energy markets, resource availability and costs, behavioral and technological choice criteria, cost and performance characteristics of energy technologies, and demographics. This report presents an overview of the structure and methodology of NEMS and each of its components. The first chapter provides a description of the design and objectives of the system. The second chapter describes the modeling structure. The remainder of the report summarizes the methodology and scope of the component modules of NEMS. The model descriptions are intended for readers familiar with terminology from economics, operations research, and energy modeling. Additional background on the development of the system is provided in Appendix A of this report, which describes the EIA modeling systems that preceded NEMS. More detailed model documentation reports for all the NEMS modules are also available from EIA.