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Line graph with power plant in background
Line graph with power plant in background | Image: Getty Images

Who

Le XieDr. Le Xie, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, and assistant director of energy digitization of the Texas A&M Energy Institute.

What

Xie and his team are collaborating on a project to release a first-of-its-kind cross-domain, open-access data hub to track the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on electricity markets in the U.S.

The Coronavirus Disease-Electricity Market Data Aggregation (COVID-EMDA) integrates cross domains of data, including electricity sector, public health COVID-19 case data, weather data, cellular phone location data and satellite imaging data into a compact format, and is updated daily to capture the evolving dynamics.

Why it's important

Due to social distancing protocols and many Americans working from home, there has been a significant change in electricity consumption. This tool allows the team to analyze the scope of this change and better assess how to move forward.

There is still uncertainty on how the gradual reopening of states will impact the electricity sector. The goal of this research is to provide a timely open-access data resource accompanied by rigorous analysis to aid the power community in making scientifically informed decisions in this situation.

“This data hub provides a unique opportunity for a data-driven, scientific approach to tracking and measuring the short-run impacts of COVID-19 on the power sector, and it also supports other interdisciplinary research,” Xie said.

The Team

The development of this data hub comprises of a team of graduate students and postdocs at Texas A&M.

Learn More

Find detailed information on the COVID-EMDA GitHub.