Development of energy system models to improve treatment of energy system architecture

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April 2018 to March 2021

Project team

Steve Pye

This part of the project looked at how different modelling approaches can be used and developed to assess different decarbonisation of heat architectures.

Development of energy system models to improve treatment of energy system architecture

This part of the project tested different modelling approaches, to draw insights on the how different future net-zero energy systems perform against different features of energy system architecture. Two key whole energy system modelsUKTM and ESTIMO, were applied to explore different features. Playing to their relative strengths, UKTM is used to assess system evolvability (using a myopic foresight version) and robustness to uncertainty (using probabilistic analysis), while ESTIMO is focused on issues of system flexibility. As part of the work, energy system architecture thinking was developed further, exploring the metrics that are needed to assess different future system configuration. 

What we asked:

  • What are the challenges to effectively modelling the decarbonising heat?

Banner photo credit: Drew Beamer on Unsplash