Update Coal and Uranium Prices to AEO2026

[wesleyjcole]

Summary

Add AEO2026 inputs for coal and uranium fuel prices and remove corresponding AEO2023 coal and uranium prices. Coal prices are on average slightly higher, and uranium prices are slightly lower.

Technical details

Both the Conterfactual Baseline and Alternative Electricity scenarios were added as ReEDS inputs. The Alternative Electricity scenario inputs are smoother because they do not include the current Clean Air Act implementation, which phases out a large portion of the coal fleet in AEO2026. The Counterfactual Baseline is set as the default in ReEDS, but the Alternative Electricity inputs are available and are more appropriate if running scenarios with the Clean Air Act turned off.

The input processing updates for pulling the AEO2026 data are available here: ReEDS-Model/ReEDS_Input_Processing#5.

Additional changes

Deflator and inflation values were added for 2025 because the new AEO data is in 2025$, so these were needed for the dollar year conversion.

The script that creates sources_documentation.md was also adjusted to be able create an updated sources_documentation.md (the file paths needed updated). The new sources_documentation.md includes some legacy changes that weren't captured in a previous update.

Validation, testing, and comparison report(s)

The change leads to less coal capacity and generation, primarily in the 2030s.

Capacity:

Generation:

Comparison report with the Baseline and Alternative Electricity scenarios is here: results-Main,AEO26UC_baseline,AEO26UC_altelec.pptx

Checklist for author

Details to double-check

• Charge code provided to reviewers
• Included comparison reports for appropriate test cases
• Documentation updated if necessary
• If input data added/modified:
  • Dollar year recorded and converted to 2004$ for GAMS
  • Units are specified
  • Preprocessing steps have been documented and committed to ReEDS_Input_Processing

General information to guide review

• Zero impact on results of default case
• No large data file(s) added/modified
• No substantive impact on runtime for full-US reference case
• No substantive impact on folder size for full-US reference case
• No change to process flow (runreeds.py, reeds/core/solve/solve.py)
• No change to code organization
• No change to package requirements (environment.yml or Project.toml)

Did you use LLM tools (chatbot or copilot) in the preparation of this PR? If so, describe how

Yes, I used it to create the plot in the Technical Details section.