Ignacio J. Pérez Arriaga was born on June 23, 1948, in Madrid, Spain. He is a Spanish professor who teaches engineering, economics, and how to regulate the electric power sector. He currently works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, the ICAI School of Engineering at Comillas Pontifical University in Spain, the Florence School of Regulation in Florence, Italy, and the African School of Regulation. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain. Throughout his career, he has made important contributions to the study of electric power systems, including analyzing how they work and change over time, monitoring their performance, diagnosing problems, and studying economic and regulatory issues.

Background

Pérez-Arriaga was born in Madrid and graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the ICAI School of Engineering. He earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and 1981. After completing his Ph.D., he became a professor at the ICAI School of Engineering. In 1984, he founded the Institute for Research in Technology (IIT) at Comillas Pontifical University and served as its director until 1994. Since 2009, he has worked at MIT in the Engineering Systems Division, CEEPR, and MIT Sloan School of Management. There, he teaches a graduate course called "Engineering, Economics, and Regulation of the Electric Power Sector." He is also the Director of Training at the Florence School of Regulation at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. In addition to his teaching, he has been involved in making the electric power sector more open. He helped create the European Internal Market for Electricity and was one of the early leaders of the Electricity Regulatory Forum in Florence, part of the European Commission. He also served as President of the Advisory Council of the Central American Electricity Market until 2005. He worked as a Commissioner for the Spanish Electricity Regulatory Commission from 1995 to 2000. Later, he was an Independent Member of the Single Electricity Market Committee in Ireland from 2007 to 2012. He is currently a member of the Board of Appeal of the Agency for the Coordination of Energy Regulators (ACER) in the EU, as archived on February 4, 2014. He also serves as a Review Editor for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has also provided consulting services to governments, regulatory agencies, international organizations, industry groups, and energy companies in more than 30 countries.

Relevant academic contributions

Pérez-Arriaga's research has focused on studying electric power systems. His work has changed over time, covering different areas. His early research included modeling, controlling, and analyzing the stability of power systems. Later, he studied how to improve the expansion and operation of power generation systems. He also researched electricity transmission and distribution, as well as how to regulate the electricity sector. This included topics like transport, supply security, designing regional electricity markets, setting prices, and recently, making energy models sustainable and ensuring everyone has access to energy.

His work in electrical engineering began with earning his PhD at MIT under Prof. Fred Schweppe. During this time, he created a new method called Selective Modal Analysis to study how small changes affect power systems. This method helps solve complex problems in power system stability and control, such as analyzing oscillations, subsynchronous resonance, and small signal stability across different areas.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he developed new algorithms and methods to help plan and operate power systems. He created models to calculate electricity prices in connected systems and methods to solve problems related to reactive power planning. He also worked on computer-aided designs for electrical machines and industrial equipment, and on expert systems for detecting issues in industrial systems.

In the early 1990s, during changes in Argentina's power sector, he studied how to best regulate electricity transmission pricing. He introduced the idea that those who benefit from a service should pay for its costs. Since then, he has focused much of his research on regulating and restructuring the power industry.

He continued the work of his mentor, Prof. Schweppe, on pricing theories for power systems. On the generation side, he studied how to set wholesale prices that consider planning and operation challenges. On the transmission side, he explained why traditional pricing methods fail to cover all network costs. He also contributed to debates about electricity supply security, creating the reliability options mechanism in Colombia in 1999. This idea later influenced capacity auctions in Colombia and New England. He has also worked on designing regional electricity markets and user tariffs. In 2013, he edited the book Regulation of the Power Sector, used in his MIT course and in training programs for energy regulators.

Currently, he leads the Comillas University – MIT Electricity Systems Program. He was the main researcher for the MIT Utility of the Future study, published in 2016.

His current research focuses on regulating the power sector and planning for universal energy access in low- and middle-income countries. He leads the MIT-Comillas Universal Energy Access Lab, which studies electrification planning, uses computer models, and applies machine learning and remote sensing to estimate electricity demand and access rates. He also provides advice on regulation. He directs the Global Commission to End Energy Poverty, developing the Integrated Distribution Framework (IDF). In 2023, he founded the African School of Regulation.

Articles

Pérez-Arriaga has guided over 25 doctoral theses, 100 master theses, edited three books, published one book, and written more than 200 articles for international conferences and journals. Some of his notable works include:

• "Selective Modal Analysis with Application to Electric Power Systems, Part I: Heuristic Introduction," IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-101, no. 9, September 1982, pp. 3117–3125 (co-authors: G.C. Verghese and F.C. Schweppe).
• "JUANAC: A model for computation of spot prices in interconnected power systems," 10th PSCC Conference, Graz, Austria, August 1989 (co-authors: M. Rivier and G. Luengo).
• "A security constrained decomposition approach to optimal reactive power planning," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 6, no. 2, August 1991, pp. 1069–1076 (co-authors: T. Gómez, J. Lumbreras, and V.M. Parra).
• "On sensitivities, Residues and Participations. Applications to Oscillatory Stability Analysis and Control," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. PWRS-4, no. 1, February 1989, pp. 278–285 (co-authors: F. Luis Pagola and George C. Verghese).
• "Multi-area analysis of small signal stability in large electric power systems by SMA," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. PWRS 8, no. 3, pp. 1257–1265, August 1993 (co-authors: F. L. Rouco).
• "Wholesale marginal prices in competitive generation markets," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, May 1997, vol. 12, no. 2 (co-author: Claudia Meseguer Velasco).
• "Marginal pricing of transmission services: an analysis of cost recovery," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 546–553, February 1995 (co-authors: F. J. Rubio, J. F. Puerta, J. Arceluz, and J. Marin).
• "A market approach to long-term security of supply," IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 349–357, May 2002 (co-authors: C. Vázquez and M. Rivier).