AI Infrastructure, Energy Policy, Civic Tech
Pranava Raparla
I'm a Senior Program Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy. I lead the Data Center Engagement Team, build AI tools for environmental review and permitting, and work on AI policy for science and international partnerships. I came to DOE as a Presidential Innovation Fellow; before that I was a product manager at Microsoft, working on performance, battery life, and sustainability for apps and silicon. Each project below starts with a policy question and ends with a working tool.
The views expressed here are my own and don't represent my employer or any affiliated organization.
FirstPassRx What can a doctor prescribe within a patient's plan, without triggering a prior authorization?
Data Center Community Benefits What specific community benefits are major data centers actually delivering?
FERC Large Load Orders How are FERC's June 2026 show cause orders reforming large-load interconnection across the six RTOs and ISOs?
Brownfield Opportunities Where are the prime brownfield sites for redevelopment and new power?
Tools, dashboards, and side quests... newest first.
| Project / Policy Question | Links | Status |
|---|---|---|
 Plant TrackerA camera-first plant-care PWA — photograph a plant and get a species ID, a health score, and a sourced care schedule. Local-only, for one very alive indoor jungle. |
Dive in | Active |
 Deployment CoreWhich U.S. nuclear companies have actually generated a megawatt — and which are only holding announcements? An evidence-led race board for new-design reactors. |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 PPA HelperHow do US power purchase agreements work, and how do you originate, negotiate, and settle one? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 FirstPassRxFind the first-pass drug least likely to trigger a prior authorization for each major insurance plan — across seven states and seven therapy areas, with a cited source on every result. |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Vibe Coding SecurityTracks supply-chain attacks, malicious MCP servers, and prompt-injection campaigns aimed at AI "vibe coders" — with dated advisories and recovery playbooks. |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Fantasy GMAn AI GM for an ESPN fantasy WNBA league that surfaces waiver targets and each team's biggest positional need. |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 DryDockAn orchestration deck for coding agents — dispatches Claude Code and Gemini CLI runs into isolated git worktrees and streams them live to a phone-pinned PWA. |
Dive in | Code | In Progress |
 Robotics Industry & Policy TrackerWhat's the current state of robotics across startups, federal and state policy, and market signals? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Data Center Water UsageHow much water are modern data centers consuming and what is their environmental footprint? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Brownfield OpportunitiesWhere are the prime brownfield sites for redevelopment and new power? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Data Center Community BenefitsWhat specific community benefits are major data centers actually delivering? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 FERC Large Load OrdersHow are FERC's June 2026 show cause orders reforming large-load interconnection across the six RTOs and ISOs? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 SettleAn app that ends group chat arguments once and for all. No appeals allowed. |
Website | Code | Live* |
 FERC Form 1 Audit ExplorerWhat recurring findings of noncompliance surface across FERC's audits of electric utilities? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
| KeeperA collaborative, low-friction tool designed to help families organize elder care and daily check-ins. | Code | Active |
 ShirtPostPrint-on-demand fast-fashion for family-friendly internet trends: a trend radar, a human-approval studio, and an automated Printful + X factory. |
Website | Code | In Progress |
| BubbleBookA storybook maker for parents and toddlers — tap a character, and Claude writes and illustrates a 3–5 page board book you read together. | Code | Active |
 Vision Zero DC Crash MapWhere are DC's traffic crashes concentrated and what do the city's official safety datasets reveal? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 DC Elections TrackerWho is running in local DC elections and how is the race evolving? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Virginia Budget ExplorerA source-verified static dashboard of Virginia's general-fund budget — every figure and quote is validated verbatim against its official source document, and the build fails if a number drifts. |
Website | Code | LIVE |
 USGS Mineral Commodity SummariesWhat do the latest USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries reveal about U.S. mineral supply and import reliance? |
Dive in | Website | Code | LIVE |
 Days Since Last BlunderA brutally honest, zero-dependency tracker of consecutive days without a catastrophic mistake. |
Website | Code | LIVE |
| Rate My PupusaThe definitive crowdsourced rating platform for local pupusas. A serious culinary endeavor. | Website | Code | Live* |
 Taco Bell DC 50KThe official tracker for the completely unofficial Taco Bell DC 50k ultra-marathon. |
Website | Code | LIVE |
 Iran Infrastructure TrackerWhat is the current state and progression of critical infrastructure in Iran? |
Website | Code | LIVE |
 USCBP Trade TrackerHow are trade volumes and enforcement actions trending at U.S. borders? |
Website | Code | LIVE |
 US Tech Prosperity Deals TrackerWhat is the scope, status, and impact of U.S. Tech Prosperity Deals? |
Website | Code | LIVE |
* Rate My Pupusa and Settle run on free Vercel deploys, so the live demos may be offline. The code is always on GitHub.
General Press Releases
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and OpenAI partner to accelerate federal permitting (OpenAI, February 26, 2026)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Paducah Site (Department of Energy, November 4, 2025)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Oak Ridge (Department of Energy, September 30, 2025)
- NNSA Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Savannah River Site (Department of Energy, September 30, 2025)
- Energy Department Seeks Proposals for AI Data Centers, Energy Projects at Idaho National Laboratory (Department of Energy, September 8, 2025)
- PermitAI Ushers in a New Era for Faster, Better Federal Permitting (PNNL News Release, August 21, 2025)
- PNNL PermitAI NEPATECv2 Public Release (PNNL Report, August 20, 2025)
- DOE Announces Site Selection for AI Data Center and Energy Infrastructure Development on Federal Lands (Department of Energy, July 24, 2025)
- Faster, Better Permitting with PermitAI (Department of Energy, July 10, 2025)
- Presidential Innovation Fellows: Pranava Raparla (Presidential Innovation Fellows, GSA, 2023)
Media (Featured, Quoted, or Speaker) & Publications
- DraftNEPABench: A Benchmark for Drafting NEPA Document Sections with Coding Agents (PNNL / PolicyAI, February 2026)
- How a national lab is using data and AI to try to speed up permitting (Nextgov/FCW, August 2025)
- Local Environmental Impacts of Data Center Proliferation (Co-Author, Environmental Law Review, April 2025)
- Data Center Proliferation in the US (ERIS Information, January 2025)
- How a national lab is using data and AI to try to speed up permitting (Quoted, Route Fifty, August 2025)
- How can Load Growth Supercharge the Energy Transformation? (Deploy Together, 2025)
- Using NEPA-Customized AI Tools for More Efficient Environmental Permitting (PNNL Event, 2025)
- Sustainable Infrastructure and AI (Speaker, ANB Systems Energize 2025, January 2025)