Chiara Lo Prete

About:

Chiara Lo Prete is associate professor of energy economics and Wilson Faculty Fellow in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University.

Her research centers on the economics of energy markets, with a focus on competition and design in electricity markets, electric and natural gas industry interdependencies, and the integration of hydrogen into natural gas and power systems. Ongoing work examines long-term contract design to ensure compatibility with short-term electricity market operations, reforms in natural gas markets to support grid reliability, and the regulation of hydrogen pipelines in the United States.

Before joining Penn State, Lo Prete was a Ziff Environmental Fellow at Harvard University from 2012 to 2014. She earned a B.A. in economics (summa cum laude) from LUISS University, a M.A. in energy economics from the Scuola Mattei, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.

For additional information on Lo Prete’s research, see her research map.

Research Projects

RECENTLY FUNDED PROJECTS:

SH2INE: Sustainable, Holistic Hydrogen INtegration Evaluation: models and analyses of human, environmental and policy dimensions. National Science Foundation. Role: PI. Total awarded: $999,628. Funded: September 01, 2024 – August 31, 2027. In collaboration with J. Dunn and K. Suiseeya, Northwestern University; Z. Guo, University of Central Florida, and H. Wiseman, Penn State.

SAI: Strengthening energy infrastructure resilience and equity during extreme cold weather events. National Science Foundation. Role: PI. Total awarded: $750,000. Funded: September 15, 2023 – August 31, 2026. In collaboration with A. Dubey, Washington State University; B. Ünel, Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU, and C. Mason, University of Wyoming.

CAREER: Capacity adequacy options for electricity markets with increasing renewable penetration: equilibrium models and laboratory experiments. National Science Foundation. Role: PI. Total awarded: $500,000. Funded: March 01, 2020 – February 28, 2025.

Publications

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

C. Lo Prete, K. Palmer and M. Robertson (2024). “Time for a market upgrade? A review of wholesale electricity market designs for the future”. Resources for the Future Report 24-09.
S. Fang, A. M. Jaffe, T. Loch-Temzelides and C. Lo Prete (2024). “Electricity grids and geopolitical coercion: a game theoretic analysis of the synchronization of the Baltic states’ networks with continental Europe”. Energy Policy 188, 114068.
C. Lo Prete, A. Tyagi and Q. Xu (2024). “California’s cap-and-trade program and emission leakage in the Western Interconnection: comparing econometric and partial equilibrium model estimates”. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 11(2), 359-402.
C. Hohl, C. Lo Prete, A. Radhakrishnan and M. Webster (2023). “Intraday markets, wind integration and uplift in a regional U.S. power system”. Energy Policy 175, 113503.
C. Lo Prete and A. Radhakrishnan (2023). “Leaker-follower equilibria to examine investment decisions in grid resilience-enhancing measures”. Risk Analysis 43, 280-307.

SELECTED WORK IN PROGRESS

Grid reliability and competing claims for natural gas during winter storms, with A. Radhakrishnan and J. Wu.
Electricity market structure, wind penetration and information aggregation: an experimental study, with A. Kwasnica, R. Rong, C. Hohl, and F. Zhu.

Awards

National Science Foundation, Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2020
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Early Career Researcher Award, 2018