Originally published in our July 2025 newsletter (Issue 27)
Kendall Mongird is a Data Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where she’s worked since 2017. She has a BSc. in Quantitative Economics from California Polytechnic State University and a MSc. in Economics from the University of Edinburgh. Kendall’s research focuses on geospatial analysis, modeling, and visualization and on identifying how dynamic geospatial constraints may impact energy systems in the future. Kendall enjoys developing open-source software and datasets and is the scientific lead for the Capacity Expansion Regional Feasibility (CERF) model
Kendall has led development of CERF, an open-source geospatial power plant siting model developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, since 2021. CERF was developed to translate long-range energy planning capacity outputs into projected site-specific power plant locations. The model bridges the gap between regional planning and the spatial precision needed for electric grid operations modelling, land use analysis, and other impacts. Energy infrastructure decisions are deeply spatial. Siting depends not only how much capacity is needed, but on where development is even technically feasible and how it might interconnect to the electric grid. Operating at 1 km resolution, CERF incorporates key constraints such as land availability, slope, protected areas, population density, water availability, and natural hazard exposure. Kendall has applied CERF in various integrated modelling experiments to explore how the electricity system may evolve over time, ensuring that long-term energy planning models align with onthe-ground feasibility. This capability is increasingly important given the uncertainty in both long-term planning assumptions and changes in site-level geospatial constraints.
Building on CERF’s flexible framework, Kendall has recently developed a modeling extension that supports data center siting. As artificial intelligence and cloud computing continue to grow, the siting of large-scale data centers has become a multisectoral challenge, influenced by power demand, fiber connectivity, and physical siting constraints. The modeling extension leverages CERF’s high-resolution geospatial data and siting evaluation capabilities to determine where data centers may be built in the future. By evaluating potential siting patterns, Kendall and her colleagues explore how different data center growth scenarios may impact the electric grid and water systems under alternative futures.