Coal Market Module - NEMS Documentation
July 2022
Executive Summary
Purpose of the report
This report documents the objectives and the conceptual and methodological approaches used in the
development of the National Energy Modeling System's (NEMS) Coal Market Module (CMM) used to
develop the Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022). This report catalogues and describes the
assumptions, methodology, estimation techniques, and source code of the CMM
This document has three purposes. It is a reference document that provides a description of the CMM for model analysts and the public. It meets the legal requirement of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to provide adequate documentation in support of its statistical and forecast reports (Public Law 93-275, Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, Section 57(B)(1), as amended by Public Law 94-385). Finally, it facilitates continuity in module development by providing documentation from which energy analysts can undertake module evaluations, module enhancements, data updates, and parameter refinements to improve the quality of the module.
Model summary
The CMM provides annual projections of prices, production, and transportation of coal through 2050 for NEMS. The Coal Production Submodule (CPS) generates a set of minemouth coal supply curves by coal supply region, coal type, and mine type. The supply curves are passed to the Domestic Coal Distribution Submodule (DCDS), along with regional coal demand requirements from other NEMS components. The CMM provides regional delivered coal prices and quantities for the end-use sectors in NEMS. The DCDS solves for the interregional flows of coal from supply region to demand region by minimizing the production and transportation costs. The International Coal Distribution Submodule (ICDS) projects annual world coal trade flows from major international supply to major demand regions and provides annual forecasts of U.S. coal exports.
Model archival citation
The documentation is archived as part of the NEMS production runs.