I currently have two openings for Postdoctoral Researchers:

• Political Economy of Power Grid Management
• Flexible Thermo-Electric Systems

I am also recruiting PhD and MS students to join the lab: Please see the academic programs and mentoring opportunities page for more information.

I am an assistant professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. My research and teaching center on the engineering implications and institutional conflicts inherent in deploying low-carbon energy at scale. I have a particular interest in understanding the political systems of Asia (with a focus on China and India), as well as the western U.S.

My research topics include renewable resource assessments, power system operations, and political economy of markets:

I welcome inquiries by prospective PhD applicants and postdoctoral fellows, as well as UC San Diego students interested in conducting research. Consult my list of academic programs and mentoring opportunities.

I am a faculty member with the 21st Century China Center and the Center for Commerce and Diplomacy, both located at UC San Diego. I am also a fellow with the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins SAIS. Read more here.

News

The impact of COVID-19 on the power sector in Karnataka, India

Iychettira, K., Hou, X., Davidson, M., & Urpelainen, J. (2020). Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy.

September 17, 2020

This brief analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the power sector in the State of Karnataka, India. We explore demand scenarios across a range of severities of the COVID shock as well as other exogenous factors—namely, agricultural demand, hydro generation, and power market prices—and assess their impacts on discom revenue... [Read More]

Podcast: Clean energy and China’s long road to power market reform

Environment China.

September 7, 2020

Renewable energy is the key to reducing China’s carbon emissions, and for many years experts have seen electricity markets as essential to the promotion of clean energy. [Read More]

New Course FA20: MAE207 Electric Power Systems Modeling

Applying optimization to solve energy systems engineering problems

September 3, 2020

This course will teach students constrained optimization problems and associated solution methods, how to implement and apply linear and mixed integer linear programs to solve such problems using Julia/JuMP, and the practical application of such techniques in energy systems engineering. [Read More]

Power market reform in China: Motivations, progress, and recommendations

Guo, H., Davidson, M. R., Chen, Q., Zhang, D., Jiang, N., Xia, Q., Kang, C., and Zhang, X. (2020). Energy Policy

July 23, 2020

China’s electricity demand has grown rapidly over only two decades and is currently the largest in the world. This was largely owing to a framework of regulation in which governments regulated prices and quantities, and there was ample incentive for investment. As the growth in electricity demand has slowed and... [Read More]

Job Opening: Postdoc in Flexible Thermo-Electric Systems

Model the flexibility requirements of the power system under increasing penetrations of intermittent renewable energy

June 8, 2020

Postdoctoral Researcher, Flexible Thermo-Electric Systems Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering [Read More]

Job Opening: Postdoc in Political Economy of Power Grid Management

Examine the political economy of power grid management under decarbonization

May 30, 2020

Postdoctoral Scholar Employee Appointment, Political Economy of Power Grid Management Department: School of Global Policy and Strategy [Read More]

The Paths to Net Zero: How Technology Can Save the Planet

Azevedo, Davidson, Jenkins, Karplus & Victor. (2020). Foreign Affairs.

April 13, 2020

For 30 years, diplomats and policymakers have called for decisive action on climate change—and for 30 years, the climate crisis has grown worse. There are a multitude of reasons for this failure. The benefits of climate action lie mostly in the future, they are diffuse and hard to pin down,... [Read More]

Avoiding Pitfalls in China’s Electricity Sector Reforms

Davidson, M. R. and Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga. (2020). The Energy Journal.

December 16, 2019

China has recently reinvigorated reforms to its electricity sector, focusing on increasing the role of markets and improving regulation. While restructuring an electricity sector is difficult and can require years of detailed planning, China’s approach relies upon broad central guidelines with many details and initiatives left to provincial governments. We... [Read More]