Tool box

STEM is an energy systems model, based on the TIMES open source modelling framework, representing the entire Swiss energy system by all essential current and future energy technologies from the primary energy supply over the processing, conversion, transport, distribution of energy carriers (e.g. gas, electricity, hydrogen, biofuels, e-fuels) to the end-use sectors and the energy service demands. These demands are linked to exogenous underlying drivers like population and GDP growth. STEM includes more than 90 energy service demands for industry, services, residential and transport sectors. STEM identifies the least-cost combination of technologies and fuels to meet the energy service demands in future, while fulfilling other technical, environmental and policy constraints (e.g. CO2 mitigation policy). STEM has a high level of technology detail to ensure feasibility of future energy pathways from an engineering perspective. It has a century-long horizon to analyse long-term goals. It also has a high intra-annual resolution to account for temporal variations in energy demand and supply.

Base year: 2015 (to be updated to 2019 in the context of SURE)
Time Horizon: 2020 – 2050 (with possibility to be extended until 2100)
Time periods/steps: currently 4 time periods of 10 years each (2020, 2030, 2040, 2050)
Intra-annual resolution: 288 timeslices (or typical operating hours) in a year, representing 12 average days at hourly resolution organised in 4 seasons x 3 days/season (Working day, Saturday, Sunday)

National model, i.e. NUTS-1 for Switzerland. For electricity grid a pseudo regional NUTS-2 representation is used with 15 grid nodes (7 Swiss nodes/regions, 4 nodes for existing nuclear power plants, 4 import/export nodes for the neighbouring countries).
The model covers all sectors of the Swiss energy system from imports/exports, to energy conversion (e.g. electricity, hydrogen, synthetic fuels, biofuels) and energy use in industry, residential, services and transport sectors.

STEM can represent several energy and climate policies, such as:

  • Energy efficiency directives and standards (e.g. eco-designs, building standards, labeling)
  • Renewable technologies financial supports (e.g. subsidies)
  • Phase-out of existing nuclear power plants
  • Emission trade schemes and carbon markets
  • Emissions standards in different sectors (e.g. buildings, vehicles)
  • Energy and emissions taxation (per fuel/emission and sector)
  • Emissions ceilings and targets
  • Biofuels directives and standards
  • Technology-specific or specific conversion pathways supporting schemes (e.g. e-fuels)
  • Energy market regulations and agreements
  • Infrastructure development supporting measures

STEM currently is more suitable to capture long-term effects of shocks with a nation-wide impact. As a technology rich bottom up model it can quantify different types of shocks as long as these have an effect on the deployment or operation of energy supply and demand technologies.

STEM is more suitable for shocks lasting/or having an effect that spans from months to years (in its current version). Short-term shocks can be quantified but at a coarse detail.

STEM cannot quantify shocks outside Switzerland, but it can consider their impact as boundary conditions. Also, STEM is weak in quantifying shocks occurring at sub-national scales, unless if their impact is extrapolated at the national scale.

Examples of shocks that can be modeled with the current version of STEM include:

  •  Transient events: rapid technology diffusion, drop-in technology costs, energy trade disruptions, energy supply/demand disruptions
  • Disruptive events: low/high population/economic development, changes in consumer preferences and technology acceptance, digitalisation in energy demand and supply

Examples of indicators that can be quantified by STEM (directly, from the model’s output) include:

  • Energy and process related CO2 emissions
  • Physical investment in energy supply and demand technologies
  • Energy consumption by energy carrier in different end use sectors
  • Investment expenditures in energy supply and demand technologies
  • System cost (CAPEX, OPEX, fuel costs) in different sectors for different years
  • Energy costs to consumers
  • End-use prices (approximation via marginal cost of energy commodities)
  • Net Import dependency
  • CO2 intensity in industry, services, residential and transport, and the whole energy system
  • Energy intensity per demand sector and in the whole energy system, per GDP or capita
  • Shares of renewables in energy supply and in final energy consumption
  • Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Technical parameters related to technologies:

 

Efficiency

%

Availability factor

%

Consumption of energy per unit of activity

PJ

Shares of fuels per unit of activity

%

Technical life time

Years

Construction lead in time and dismantling times

Years

Amounts of commodities consumed during construction

PJ

Amounts of commodities released during dismantling

PJ

Contribution of technology to peak and ancillary markets

%

Ramping rate

%

Part load efficiency losses

%

Minimum online/offline times

Hours

Maintenance cycles and duration

Hours

Maximum number of cycles (for storages)

 

Maximum capacity

GW, veh

Economic and policy parameters related to technologies

 

Investment costs

CHF/kW, CHF/veh

Annual fixed O&M costs

CHF/kW, CHF/veh

Variable O&M costs (other than fuel costs)

CHF/PJ

Taxes and subsidies

CHF/kW, CHF/PJ

Construction and dismantling costs

CHF/kW

Economic lifetime

Years

Discount rate or hurdle rate

%

Technical parameters attached to commodities (fuels, emissions)

 

Efficiency of transmission/distribution

%

Projected energy service demand (for demand commodities only)

 

Energy service demand load curve

% per timeslice

Resource potential

PJ, Mt CO2 seq

Resource load curve (e.g. wind/solar/water inflow profiles=

% per timeslice

Economic and policy parameters attached commodities (fuels, emissions)

 

Gross production bounds (minimum, maximum)

PJ, Mt CO2

Net production bounds (minimum, maximum)

PJ, Mt CO2

Max/min imports per region

PJ

Max/min exports per region

PJ

Taxes and subsidies

CHF/GJ, CHF/tCO2

Delivery and variable costs

CHF/GJ

Energy prices (for imported commodities only)

CHF/GJ

Output variable short description

Unit

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

GW, veh

Early retired capacity per year, technology and sector

GW, veh

Total scrapped capacity per year, technology and sector

GW, veh

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

GW, veh

Activity level per year, technology and sector

PJ, vkm

Energy consumption per year, timeslice, commodity, technology and sector

PJ

Energy production per year, timeslice, commodity, technology and sector

PJ

Emissions per year, timeslice, pollutant, technology and sector

Mt CO2eq

Input to storage per year, timeslice, commodity, storage technology and sector

PJ

Output from storage per year, timeslice, commodity, storage technology and sector

PJ

Imports from international trade per year, importing region, timeslice, commodity

PJ

Exports from international trade per year, exporting region, timeslice, commodity

PJ

Energy service demand per year, timeslice, sector and end-use

PJ

Commodity load profiles per year, timeslice, commodity, sector, end-use

PJ

CAPEX per year and technology

MCHF

FIXOM per year and technology

MCHF

VAROM per year and technology

MCHF

Construction costs per year and technology

MCHF

Dismantling costs per year and technology

MCHF

Import/export costs pear year and neighbouring region

MCHF

Delivery costs per year and commodity

MCHF

Taxes and subsidies per year and technology/commodity

MCHF

Investment expenditures per year and technology

MCHF

Marginal cost of commodity (fuel, emissions)

CHF/GJ, CHF/tCO2

Parameter short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

“Willingness to pay” parameter to reflect “uneconomic” decisions in the past

Behavioural aspects in decision making might change in the future

Overall potential of non-site-specific renewable energy carriers (e.g., biomass or biogas) for heating in buildings

Each sector has own cost curve for using such resources. The allocation of resources to the specific demand sectors is relevant for robustness of results.

STEM has been used in quantifying Net-Zero pathways for Switzerland in the SCCER Joint Activity Scenarios and Modelling. Detailed report and scenario results can be found here:
https://www.psi.ch/en/eem/projects/sccer-joint-activity-scenarios-and-modelling

Parameter short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

Investment cost of technologies

Technology costs influencing the uptake of technologies and the overall abatement cost. Because are taken exogenously from literature or studies, consistency among the costs of technologies in different sectors needs to be ensured (especially in a context of sector coupling). Moreover, the projections of costs of the new technologies (e.g. CC(U)S, H2-related technologies, batteries) show high variability in literature.

Resource potential

Domestic resource potentials influencing the costs for mitigation. For many resources, their potential shows high variability in literature. A particular case is the sequestration of CO2, which besides the technical uncertainty is also subject to social acceptance.

Projected energy service demand

Energy service demands depend on socioeconomic conditions, which are evaluated outside STEM (e.g. population, GDP, structure of economy, societal values and norms, consumer energy behaviour). These socioeconomic conditions are surrounded by enormous uncertainty, especially when one attempts projections in 30-40 years from now.

Max/min Imports and Exports

STEM is a national model in scope, and international trade is not represented endogenously. The exogenous assumptions regarding the availability to import zero carbon energy carriers (e.g. biofuels, e-fuels, etc.) are highly uncertainty and depend not only on economic conditions (e.g. prices) but also on geopolitical conditions. The availability of imports highly influences the deployment of domestic options and costs of mitigation.

Energy prices for imported commodities

Besides the availability of imports, the energy prices of zero carbon fuels are also surrounded by high uncertainty, influencing the deployment of domestic options and the mitigation costs.

Discount rate and hurdle rates

STEM takes decisions based on the NPV of the total system costs depending on a social discount rate and possibly on other technology-specific hurdle rates. These discount and hurdle rates depending on the socioeconomic conditions, which are highly uncertain when projections for the next 30-40 years are made, and highly influence the uptake of technologies (including the timing of investments).

Variable short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

Investment decisions depend not only on technology production costs but also on integration and system costs for this technology, which account, among others, for flexibility and security of supply. These costs are highly influenced by the scenario assumptions, e.g. costs of technologies, availability of resources, discount rates, policies, etc. Besides, the deployment of technology is also dependent on social acceptance which is also subject to scenario assumptions.

Activity level per year, technology and sector

The activity level (i.e. production or level of use) of a technology is subject to its installed capacity and technical constraints, as well as it is subject to its coordinated integration with other technologies. All these factors are correlated with the investment decisions and hence, the activity level variable inherits the uncertainties described above.

CAPEX, FIXOM, VAROM, costs per technology

The technology costs depend on investment and operational decisions, and as such they are characterised by the same uncertainties as the investment and activity variables.

Marginal cost of commodities

The marginal cost of commodities, often used as a proxy for the “price” of the commodity in a competitive market, is subject not only to uncertainties related to investment and activity variables of the different technologies in the model, but also to the various specific-scenario constraints imposed by the scenario story line.

Modelling framework

Direction (From, To)

Exchanged data

Comment

BSM

From

Differential investment level per year, technology, and sector

Possibly by new/existing buildings, multi-family/single family

BSM

From

Refurbishment rate per building element and building period

BSM

From

Total installed capacity per year, technology, and sector (for buildings and services)

BSM

From

Refurbishment costs per year and building element

BSM

From

Projected energy service demand (buildings, services)

BSM

From

Energy service demand load curve

EXPANSE

From

Local constraints on tech investment

It needs confirmation with the EXPANSE team and further clarification

GRID

From

Grid loading indicators

To get a proxy of congestion issues that need to be accounted in STEM runs

GEM-E3

From

Gross Domestic Product

 

GEM-E3

From

Sectoral Production (for each economic activity)

 

GEM-E3

From

Private Consumption

 
    

BSM

To

Marginal cost of energy commodities in STEM

It can be perhaps used as a proxy for prices for energy commodities needed in BSM

BSM

To

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

For all sectors not covered by BSM, the developments of which are needed to be considered in the decisions taken by BSM

BSM

To

Activity level per year, technology and sector

BSM

To

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

EXPANSE

To

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

Needs confirmation with the EXPANSE team, but perhaps some exchange is needed here to ensure consistency

EXPANSE

To

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

GRID

To

Time profiles for production (fixed and flexible) and demand

 

GEM-E3

To

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

 

GEM-E3

To

Activity level per year, technology and sector

 

GEM-E3

To

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

 

LCA

To

Activity level per year, technology and sector

 

LCA

To

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

 

LCA

To

Marginal cost of energy commodities in STEM

It can be perhaps used as a proxy for prices for energy commodities

Flexi-TI

To

Marginal cost of energy commodities in STEM

It can be perhaps used as a proxy for prices for energy commodities

Flexi-TI

To

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

For all sectors and technologies not covered by Flexi-Ti and the developments of which are needed to be considered in the model. Also, to ensure a kind of consistency with national developments

Flexi-TI

To

Activity level per year, technology and sector

Flexi-TI

To

Total installed capacity per year, technology and sector

Building Stock Model of Switzerland (BSM)

TEP Energy GmbH

Ulrich Reiter

The Building Stock Model is a simulation model, representing the complete Swiss building stock on single building level. It is used to calculate and estimate the todays and future energy demand from buildings and related services and appliances. The model is based on Swiss, cantonal and communal statistics, the Swiss 3-D mapping, results of surveys, studies and potential analyses, data from the Buildings and Housing Register (GWR) and the Company Register (STATENT). In addition, energy consumption data and waste heat sources, zone plans as well as maps of site uses, grid-bound energy supplies such as gas, district and local heating networks and renewable energies are used. Key features are the integration of GIS-based data in terms of e.g., resource potentials, grid spanning algorithms as well as techno-economic parameters into the analysis for various types of future energy demand scenarios.

Base year: 2018/2019 where applicable (to be updated to 2020 in the context of SURE)

Time Horizon: 2020 – 2060 (with the possibility to be extended to 2100)

Time periods/steps
: annual resolution

Intra-annual resolution
: depending on the appliance on hourly level (temperature depending) or by hourly resolution organised in 4 seasons x 3 days/season (Working day, Saturday, Sunday) -> hourly load profiles can be provided for electric appliances.

GIS-based single building level if needed, generally aggregated on cantonal or Swiss level for different building sectors, branches, and typologies:

  • Residential sector: Single and multi-family houses
  • Tertiary sector: 8 branches of tertiary sector (Noga-Codes) plus agricultural sector

BSM can represent several energy and climate policies, such as:

  • Energy efficiency directives and standards (e.g., eco-designs, building standards, labelling), potentially on cantonal level
  • Renewable technologies financial supports (e.g., subsidies)
  • Phase-out of heating technologies
  • Emissions standards in different sectors (e.g., heating in buildings)
  • Energy and emissions taxation (per fuel and emission)
  • Indirect emissions ceilings and targets
  • Biofuel’s directives and standards
  • Technology-specific or specific conversion pathways supporting schemes (e.g., e-fuels)
  • Local constraints on renewable resources and potentials,
  • Infrastructure development supporting measures

BSM currently is more suitable to capture long-term effects of shocks with a nation-wide or cantonal impact (e.g., cantonal building regulations). As a technology rich bottom-up model, it can quantify different types of shocks if these influence the deployment or operation of energy demand technologies.

BSM is more suitable for shocks lasting/or having an effect that spans over years (in its current version). Short-term shocks on sub-annual level cannot be quantified now.

BSM cannot quantify shocks outside Switzerland and can only consider their impact as boundary conditions in terms of energy carrier prices.

Examples of shocks that can be modelled with the current version of BSM include:

  • Transient events: rapid demand technology diffusion (e.g., heating systems), drop in technology costs, energy potentials limitation (e.g., ground source heating without regeneration)
  • Disruptive events: low/high population/economic development, changes in consumer preferences and technology acceptance, digitalisation in energy demand, cold or hot years.
  • Policy failure on cantonal/Swiss level (e.g., acceptance of new regulations)
  • Demographic: densification of building stock in urban or non-urban areas

Examples of indicators that can be quantified by BSM (directly, from the model’s output) include:

  • Energy and process related CO2 emissions per energy reference area (ERA) or demand driver (e.g., full-time equivalents, building typology)
  • Physical investment in demand technologies and insulation materials
  • Energy consumption by energy carrier in different end use sectors
  • Investment expenditures in energy demand technologies, heating grid infrastructure (local and district heating networks) and refurbishment measures
  • System cost (CAPEX, OPEX, fuel costs) in different sectors for different years
  • Energy costs to consumers
  • CO2 intensity of buildings
  • Energy intensity per building typology and energy reference area (kWh/m2)
  • Shares of renewables in energy demand
  • Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements
  • Useful and final energy demand differentiation
  • Cost and savings of efficiency measures

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Technical parameters related to technology

 

Efficiency

%

Full load hours per year

hours

Consumption of energy per unit of activity

GJ

Shares of fuels per unit of activity

%

Technical lifetime of heating systems and building elements

years

Capacity installed

kW

Economic and policy parameters related to technologies

 

Investment costs

CHF/m2 and CHF/kW

Annual fixed O&M costs

CHF/kW

Taxes and subsidies

CHF/GJ

Economic lifetime

years

Discount rate or hurdle rate

%

GDP and population/employment development

Mio CHF / Mio empl.

Technical parameters attached to commodities (fuels, emissions)

 

Projected energy service demand (for demand commodities only)

GJ

Energy service demand load curve

GJ/hr

Resource load curve (e.g., heating and cooling degree days)

HDD & CDD

Economic and policy parameters attached commodities (fuels, emissions)

 

employment

Full time equivalent

Specific energy demand per employee

GJ/FTE

Socio-economic parameters related to decision finding

 

Willingness to pay

 

Variable short description

Unit (optional)

Output variable short description

 

Differential investment level per year, technology, and sector (scenario comparison)

 

Refurbishment rate per building element and building period

 

Total installed heating capacity per year, technology, and sector

kW/MW

Activity level per year, technology, and sector

 

Energy consumption per year, time-slice, commodity, technology, and sector

GJ

Emissions per year, time-slice, pollutant, technology, and sector

Mt CO2-eq

Energy service demand per year, time-slice, sector and end-use

 
  

CAPEX per year and technology

Mio CHF

FIXOM per year and technology

Mio CHF

VAROM per year and technology

Mio CHF

Any other comments that should be known about the model and its usage/applicability
BSM has been used in quantifying Net-Zero pathways for Switzerland for the energy perspectives 2050+ scenarios and modelling, for the tertiary buildings and the agricultural sector. Detailed report and scenario results can be found here:
Swiss Energy Perspectives – TEP Energy (tep-energy.ch)

Parameter short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

“Willingness to pay” parameter to reflect “uneconomic” decisions in the past

Behavioural aspects in decision making might change in the future

Overall potential of non-site-specific renewable energy carriers (e.g., biomass or biogas) for heating in buildings

Each sector has own cost curve for using such resources. The allocation of resources to the specific demand sectors is relevant for robustness of results.

Variable short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

Energy carrier price relation (e.g., ratio electricity price to district heating price)

The development of some energy carrier prices is highly uncertain compared to other energy carriers (e.g., price of district heating or biomass-based heat supply). The differential between main energy carriers (e.g., natural gas, electricity, and renewable alternatives) is affecting the choice of heating system investments.

Modelling framework

Direction (From, To)

Exchanged data

Comment

 

From TIMES to BSM

Energy carrier prices (electricity, oil, gas, biomass, district heating)

 
 

From E3M to TEP

Economic activity (number of employees per sector/sub-sector)

 
  

Effects on willingness to pay

This is not an established link, but if we get additional insights from socio-economic modelling on the willingness to pay, we could discuss adjusting assumptions

 

UniGE to TEP

The use of solar thermal potentials and heat pumps

We should align assumptions and results

 

From TIMES to TEP and vice versa

Potentials and use of district heat / waste heat from industries / data centres

Exchange in both directions

TI use case

Bi-directional

Exchange on potentials and results for the use case of canton Tessin

 

EXploration of PAtterns in Near-optimal energy ScEnarios

University of Geneva

Prof. Evelina Trutnevyte

EXPANSE is a spatially-explicit, bottom-up, technology-rich, single-year optimization model of the Swiss electricity system. The model accounts for up to hourly operation and long-term capacity planning of electricity generation, storage, and transmission. EXPANSE has three key features. First, the model is spatially resolved at the level of 2’172 Swiss municipalities. Second, EXPANSE applies Modeling to Generate Alternatives (MGA) to compute many alternative scenarios of different spatial configurations of the electricity system with cost-optimal and near-optimal costs. Third, EXPANSE quantifies regional impacts associated with the capacity and operation of electricity system infrastructure, including investment and divestment needs, job gains and losses, and regional impacts on electricity prices, greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter emissions, and land use.

In SWEET SURE, EXPANSE is used in combination with statistical modeling of spatial growth of new renewable electricity installations in Switzerland. This statistical approach uses spatial data on past installations since 2008 and other technical and socio-economic indicators to calculate forward-looking projections of new installations. This statistical modeling hence helps improving the realism of EXPANSE spatial scenarios.

EXPANSE is a single-year model for the years 2035 and 2050 with up to hourly representation of electricity generation, storage, and transmission. Time steps can be flexibly changed in the settings in order to account for the computational tractability of modeling many scenarios at high spatial resolutions.
EXPANSE represents electricity demand and electricity generation for 2’172 individual Swiss municipalities. This can be flexibly changed to cantonal or country level as well. Electricity storage and transmission is represented by eight clustered transmission grid nodes and this can be flexibly changed to higher or lower numbers of transmission grid nodes.
  • Technology-focused: e.g., nuclear phase-out
  • Subsidies and taxes: e.g., carbon tax, feed-in tariffs
  • Resource-focused: e.g., minimum generation targets from renewable resources
  • Environment-focused: e.g., greenhouse gas emission targets
  • Society-focused: e.g., no reduction in jobs in the electricity sector
  • Demand-focused: e.g., reduced electricity demand from higher efficiency
  • Natural shocks: e.g., effects of extreme weather on hourly solar and wind resource availability and the hourly operation of the electricity system
  • Technical shocks: e.g., outages of individual elements of the electricity system (e.g., individual transmission lines or power plants) and hourly security of supply
  • Economic shocks: e.g., effects of international technology or fuel prices on the hourly and regional operation of the electricity system
  • direct jobs in electricity sector jobs
  • electricity curtailment (e.g., hourly curtailment of wind electricity)
  • electricity prices (locational marginal prices)
  • greenhouse gas emissions
  • investment and divestment
  • land use
  • particulate matter emissions
  • total system costs
  • transmission line loading

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Technology characterization (e.g., capacity factor, efficiency)

Technology and fuel costs (e.g., capital and operation costs)

Renewable energy resources potential

International energy prices (e.g., natural gas, oil, electricity import)

Policies (e.g., emission targets, nuclear phase-out)

Electricity demand

Discount rate

Slack (cost deviation of near-optimal scenarios from cost-optimal scenario)

Variable short description

Unit (optional)

Installed capacity of electricity generation, storage, and transmission

MW

Hourly operation of electricity generation, storage, and transmission

MWh

Primary energy demand in the electricity sector

MWh

Fuel use in the electricity sector

MWh

Renewable electricity generation

MWh

International electricity trade volume: import and exports

MWh

Electricity system costs (fuel, investment, etc.)

CHF

CO2 emissions

Mt CO2

Direct employment

Jobs

Particulate matter emissions

t PM10-eq

Electricity prices

CHF/MWh

Land use

km2

Parameter short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

Investment costs of renewable electricity technologies

All cost assumptions are drivers of uncertainty in optimization-based EXPANSE. In the case of renewable electricity technologies, there is a certain convergence of investment costs of multiple technologies, making the results sensitive to minor differences in costs.

Investment costs of storage technologies

All cost assumptions are drivers of uncertainty in optimization-based EXPANSE. In the case of storage technologies, investment costs of new technologies, like batteries, hydrogen technologies etc., are especially uncertainty.

Technical and realistic potentials of renewable electricity technologies

In scenarios with high-levels of renewable generation, technical and realistic potential of technologies, like solar PV or wind power, contribute a lot to uncertainty because these technologies are increasingly cheaper and hence some scenarios show their high deployment.

Technical and realistic potentials of new storage technologies

In scenarios with high-levels of renewable generation, the potential to integrate variable generation is dependent on the availability of storage. See the previous point.

Uptake rates of renewable generation and storage

For shorter-term scenarios, e.g. 2030-2035, the full potential of renewable technologies and storage is unlikely to be used, hence making the annual uptake rates into important uncertainties.

Electricity prices abroad

All cost assumptions are drivers of uncertainty in optimization-based EXPANSE. In the case of electricity import/export, the results depend on the difference between the domestic and foreign prices.

Electricity demand and load curves

EXPANSE assumes electricity demand and respective load curves exogenously, conducting scenario analysis of electricity demand and adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps outside the model. Yet, the electricity demand drives the composition of the generation and import/export.

Slack

This is an EXPANSE-specific parameter that defines an acceptable deviation in costs from the cost-optimal solution.

Policy assumptions

While some policies are part of the scenario analysis, e.g. year of nuclear phase out, there are other types of policies that remain outside the model, e.g. R&D investment, global climate commitments, cantonal policies etc.

Variable short description

Influencing factor or reason for uncertainty

Investment costs, technical and realistic potentials of storage technologies

In some scenarios with high-shares of variable renewable generation, the results are particularly sensitive to the availability and costs of new storage technologies, like batteries and hydrogen.

Modelling framework

Direction (From, To)

Exchanged data

Comment

STEP

From

Investment capacity per year, technology and sector

Electricity demand changes due to sector coupling

To be discussed

STEP

To

Local constraints on technology investment

To be discussed

GRID

From

Datasets for validation of transmission grid modelling

To be discussed

GRID

To

Hourly electricity generation in shock scenarios, related to extreme weather

To be discussed

EXPANSE model references:

J. Müller, E. Trutnevyte, Spatial projections of solar PV installations at subnational level: Accuracy testing of regression models. Applied Energy 265, 114747 (2020).

J.-P. Sasse, E. Trutnevyte, Regional impacts of electricity system transition in Central Europe until 2035. Nat. Commun. 11, 4972 (2020).

J.-P. Sasse, E. Trutnevyte, Distributional trade-offs between regionally equitable and cost-efficient allocation of renewable electricity generation. Appl. Energy 254, 113724 (2019).

E. Trutnevyte, M. Stauffacher, M. Schlegel, R. W. Scholz, Context-Specific Energy Strategies: Coupling Energy System Visions with Feasible Implementation Scenarios. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46, 9240–9248 (2012).

General Equilibrium Model for the Energy – Economy – Environment with Finance and Technical Progress

E3-Modelling

Leonidas Paroussos,

GEM-E3[1] is a large scale multi-sectoral CGE economic model that covers all countries aggregated to 56 regions. The key innovations of the model relate to the explicit representation of the financial sector, semi-endogenous dynamics based on R&D induced technical progress and knowledge spillovers, the representation of multiple households (the model represents 460 households distinguished by income group), unemployment in the labour market and endogenous formation of labour skills. The model is calibrated to a wide range of datasets comprising of IO tables, financial accounting matrices, institutional transactions, energy balances, GHG inventories, bilateral trade matrices, investment matrices and household budget surveys. All countries in the model are linked through endogenous bilateral trade transactions identifying origin and destination. Particular focus is placed on the representation of the energy system where specialized bottom-up modules of the power generation, buildings and transport sectors have been developed.  The model is recursive dynamic coupled with a forward-looking expectations mechanism

[1] For a detailed technical presentation of the model its manual is available at: http://e3modelling.gr/modelling-tools/gem-e3/

Base year: 2015

Time Horizon: 2020 – 2100

Time periods/steps: 5 yr (option for yearly time steps until 2030)

The model covers 47 Countries/Regions. For each EU27 member state and Switzerland a separate regional satellite module is used for NUTS2 (7 regions for Switzerland).  Each economy is fully represented through an aggregation of 67 economic activities.

The following key policies are represented in the model:

  1. Fiscal policies (VAT, Direct-Indirect taxes, Subsidies, Duties)
  2. ETS market and recycling options for ETS revenues
  3. Carbon border adjustment policies
  4. RES targets
  5. Energy efficiency targets (industry, household)
  6. CO2 Standards in transport
  7. Social Policies (unemployment benefits, support schemes for low-income households)
  8. GHG emission reduction targets for different emission reduction clubs (country/region/economic activity)
  9. Feed in Tariffs
  10. R&D subsidies
  11. Adoption of alternative financing schemes (debt / interest rate by economic agent)
  12. Trade Integration

International transportation costs

The model can simulate economic shocks and capture their impact through time and among countries/sectors and regions. All countries and economic activities of the model are captured through endogenous bilateral trade transactions.

The shocks can relate to

  1. Changes in technical progress that are exogenously specified (i.e. accelerated technical progress in a specific sector with mass diffusion and productivity effects in other sectors)
  2. Destruction of capital stock (natural disaster etc.)
  3. Changes in Population
  4. Transient events like the impact of COVID-19 onto different economic activites
  5. Changes in consumer behaviour / consumption pattern (car pooling, diet etc)
  6. Changes in international trade

The most important results, provided by GEM-E3 are: Full Input-Output tables for each country/region identified in the model, dynamic projections in constant values and deflators of national accounts by country, employment by economic activity and by skill and unemployment rates, capital, interest rates and investment by country and sector, private and public consumption, bilateral trade flows, consumption matrices by product and investment matrix by ownership branch,  GHG emissions by country, sector and fuel and detailed energy system projections (energy demand by sector and fuel, power generation mix, deployment of transport technologies, energy efficiency improvements).

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Population

in m. persons

Investment (by economic activity)

b. $

Fossil Fuel Prices

$/toe

Capital Costs of clean energy technologies

$/unit

Variable short description

Unit (optional)

Gross Domestic Product

b. $

Investment

b. $

Public Consumption

b. $

Private Consumption

b. $

Exports

b. $

Imports

b. $

Balance of Trade

% of GDP

Employment

in m. persons

Population (in m. persons)

in m. persons

Labour Force (in m. persons)

in m. persons

Working age population (in m. persons)

in m. persons

Unemployment

%

Wages and Salaries

(m. €/yr)

Average Wage rate

(€/hour)

Sectoral Production (for each economic activity)

b. $

Sectoral Employment (for each economic activity)

b. $

FlexiTI

SUPSI

Jalomi Maayan Tardif

FlexiTI is an energy system model based on the System Dynamics approach for simulating socio-technical transitions. The model currently focuses on the electric system and on the diffusion of four distributed technologies in the residential sector that can impact the amount of flexibility that could be available within the territorial boundaries of a DSO. These technologies are: photovoltaics, heat-pumps, stationary batteries, and electric vehicles. The model considers archetype residential buildings, that are characterized in terms of four floor areas, four thermal performance levels, and four electrification levels. The adoption rate of the technologies changes endogenously over the years as a function of their perceived economic, social, environmental benefits. The purpose of the model was to mirror socio-political trends and simulate their direct impact and their side effects on the adoption or dismissal of technologies. Such information is meant to support the DSO in mid-long-term planning or resources and pre-emptive testing of innovative business models that could be applied along with the probable shifts in energy demand and supply.

Base year: 2015

Time Horizon: 2020-2050

Time periods/steps: currently 4 time periods for each year (these are to be updated in the context of SURE)


Intra-annual resolution: 4 seasons, 3-hour bins, no variation in terms of week-weekend (these are to be updated in the context of SURE)

Regional model (NUTS-2/3) – the model was first built based on Cantonal statistics but was then adapted to the specific territory serviced by a DSO.

FlexiTI can integrate several energy and climate policies, such as:

  • Energy efficiency directives and standards
  • Renewable technologies financial supports
  • Phase-out of existing nuclear power plants
  • Energy and emissions taxation (per fuel/emission and sector)
  • Emissions ceilings and targets
  • Energy market regulations and agreements

Infrastructure development supporting measures

FlexiTI is based on a top-down approach and, in its current form, could evaluate the response of the system to economic and socio-political shocks within Ticino. FlexiTI cannot evaluate the impact of shocks occurring within Ticino on higher spatial levels (CH, International) or adjacent territories (other Cantons, other DSOs). For example, FlexiTI could be used to model transient events: changes in user and supplier choice parameters and effects on technology diffusion; gradual and/or drastic changes in cost of technologies due to technology constant/changing learning parameter, business models, policies.  

Examples of indicators that can be quantified by the current FlexiTI model include:

  • Distribution of residential building stock by archetypes
  • Distribution of vehicle stock by drive-train (currently only ICE and BEV)
  • Shares of renewables in energy supply and in final energy consumption in residential sector
  • Range of energy self-sufficiency in the residential sector
  • Electricity cost to consumers
  • CO2 intensity in residential sector and partially in the transport sector

Technical parameters related to supply and conversion technologies:

 

Self-consumption

%

 

Average, maximum, minimum capacity

kWh (or kWh/kW)

 

Technical lifetime

Years

 

Factor of growth

1/year

 

Typical installed capacity

ex: kW per building archetype

 

emissions

ex: gCO2eq./km

 

Typical resource availability

ex: kWh/hr, kW/m2

Economic and policy parameters related to technologies

 

Investment costs

CHF/kW

 

Annual fixed O&M costs

CHF/kW

 

Variable O&M costs (other than fuel costs)

CHF/kW or CHF/kWh

 

Taxes and subsidies

CHF/kW

 

Learning rate

Dmnl

 

Discount rate

Dmnl

Technical parameters related to demand:

 

Building stock, archetypes, and shares

Units, kWh/m2/year, %

 

Vehicle stock, drive-train, and shares

Units, fuels, %

 

Typical usage patterns

ex: kWh/hr, refuelling/recharging

Social parameters related to user choice

 

Social, environmental, and economic weight in choice

%

 

Willingness to consider/participate

Dmnl

 

List of key model output variables (reporting data):

Unit (optional)

Total installed capacity, per year and technology

GW

Total decommissioned capacity, per year and technology

GW

Energy consumption per year, per user type

GWh

Energy production per year, per user type

GWh

Investment in capacity, per year and technology

CHF

Taxes and subsidies per year and technology

CHF

SURE-GRID

ETHZ-FEN (Research Center for Energy Networks)

Alexander Fuchs, Turhan Demiray

This model ensures the consistent modeling of energy grids (electricity, gas, heat) suitable for the modeling approaches and complexities of the different scenario analysis tools used in other SURE-work packages. Model inputs are production and demand from different energy carriers, distributed temporarily and spatially over the entire scope of investigation. The degree to which the different energy grids are represented depends on the application (e.g. for SURE scenario assessments, regional studies, case studies), non-crucial parts of the grid will be aggregated. The methodology performs either a simulates the system state if all productions and demands are determined, or optimizes the system state, if some of the production/load is flexible. Model outputs are a representation of the overall grid state for all temporal and spatial elements of the analysis. The output will be further assessed in the grid-security tool.
Base year of the models is 2020 with appropriate extensions for planned developments (e.g. electricity grid expansion). The model is applied to representative time series for study years of the development path. Important: The intra-annual resolution is always hourly or sub-hourly, since the grid security assessment requires to simulate the actual powers/pressures at critical time-instances, not averaged values.
The models have an inherent spatial dimension, which is the locations of grid elements connecting different geographic regions. Depending on the application this can be countries (SURE scenario assessments), cantons (regional studies) or communities (maybe some of the case studies). Important: Depending on the application and data source, available profiles may lack the spatial granularity (e.g. be only available on a regional or country level) and may be disaggregated before application to the grid model.
This is mostly a technical assessment tool. However strategic energy grid investments can be a part of the development paths and may have a policy dimension to be considered. In general, any grid upgrade within Europe (for electricity and gas) is a highly political and contested issue.
Shocks from the production and demand profiles will be processed with this model, but are generated by the scenario assessment tool. Shocks on the grid infrastructure will be applied to the model (e.g. loss of grid-elements or entire sub-grids), but are represented by a separate tool (SURE-GRID-STRESS).

The model computes the nominal grid loading for each spatial and temporal element of the grid. From there, grid loading indicators are derived.

Resilience indicators (grid security, recovery capability) are represented by a separate tool (SURE-GRID-STRESS).

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Time profiles for production (fixed and flexible) and demand with spatial characteristics.

MW

Variable short description

Unit (optional)

grid loading indicators

[% of capacity]

SURE-GRIDSTRESS

ETHZ-FEN (Research Center for Energy Networks)

Alexander Fuchs, Turhan Demiray

This model assesses the energy grid security Model inputs are (i) grid state simulations and optimization results from the SURE-GRID model, and (ii) stress/shock scenarios of the energy grids. The model performs a security assessment (e.g. of temporary or long-term grid outages/impairments) to quantify the grid security and grid resilience level. Model outputs are grid security and grid resilience indicators.
Base year of the models is 2020 with appropriate extensions for planned developments (e.g. electricity grid expansion). The model is applied to representative time series for study years of the development path. Important: The intra-annual resolution is always hourly or sub-hourly, since the grid security assessment requires to simulate the actual powers/pressures at critical time-instances, not averaged values.
As in the SURE-GRID model, the spatiality varies depending on the use case / subproject within SURE. In addition, the stresses themselves have a spatial component. In the case of the scenario assessment, the focus of the stress analysis will be on Switzerland, while stresses can also be triggered in other parts of the European energy system.
Policy aspects enter the model as inputs, e.g. (i) the Swiss participation or non-participation in energy market agreements (ii) policy-based stresses (e.g. consumption patterns, e-mobility usages etc.)
Shocks on the grid infrastructure include (i) the short-term loss of grid-elements or entire sub-grids (established in electricity grids as N-1 assessment and frequency reserve mechanisms). (ii) unexpected changes in the load balance (e.g. unplanned absence of the wind and solar PV production “Dunkelflaute” with little other flexible generation) (ii) the long-term stress on the grid infrastructure (permanent loss of components due to lack of maintenance).
Security indicators: Worst Grid loading under expected short-term stresses over a given time period Resilience indicators: Ability of the grids to adopt to unexpected and long-term stresses.

Parameter short description

Unit (optional)

Grid state sequences from SURE-GRID

MW, pressures, …

Grid stress scenarios

List of outages and stresses

List of key model output variables (reporting data):

 

Variable short description

Unit (optional)

Security indicators:  

[% of capacity]

Resilience indicators (binary, mean time to recovery, outage probabilities

mixed

See grid related models in https://www.fen.ethz.ch/projekte/systembetrieb.html


https://doi.org/10.1109/PTC.2015.7232811

https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2017.2789187

Multicriteria Decision Analysis framework for integrated assessment

Paul Scherrer Institute

Peter Burgherr, Eleftherios Siskos

The Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodological framework provides a number of powerful tools to support decision making in complex real life decision and evaluation problems. As part of its interactive modular procedure,

  • the exact objective of the assessment is specified and outlined,
  • the alternative actions under evaluation are defined,
  • the different evaluation criteria are selected and modelled,
  • the preference model is developed and applied, and
  • the decision makers (stakeholders) are supported in reaching the final decision.

 

MCDA can provide support to a single decision maker or a group of stakeholders, accommodating their subjective preference input in the carefully built preference model, with a view to reaching a personalized evaluation of the alternative actions. The whole process can be complemented with additional post-evaluation mechanisms, such as robustness analysis, stability testing and consultation procedures.

As part of the SWEET-SURE project, the MCDA framework will perform a holistic evaluation of the different Swiss energy pathways till 2050, considering the potential occurrence of various transient and disruptive shocks. Ultimately, resilience and sustainability will be assessed for all possible future cases, which are modelled within the frame of the SWEET-SURE, leading to an overall performance ranking of the pathways.

Time Horizon: 2020-2050 (with potential extension until 2060)

Time periods/steps: Currently four temporal evaluation points (2020, 2030, 2040, 2050)

The MCDA model will evaluate the pathways specifically for the case of Switzerland as a whole.

MCDA will represent the policies that will be accounted for by the SWEET-SURE models, in the form of the overall energy pathways till 2050.

The MCDA framework will accommodate the shocks that will be modeled and quantified by the SWEET-SURE models. Such shocks include:

  • Transient events: rapid technology diffusion, drop-in technology costs, energy trade disruptions, energy supply/demand disruptions

 

Disruptive events: low/high population/economic development, changes in consumer preferences and technology acceptance, digitalisation in energy demand and supply.

The indicators that are measured and quantified within the scope of the MCDA framework are in their nature composite and subjective/personalized. They include:

  • Resilience and sustainability performance of the pathways
  • Overall performance of the pathways
  • Robustness indicators, focusing on the uncertainty and imprecision of the model parameters and the preference information of the stakeholders
  • Consensus indicators among the diversified stakeholder groups
  • Additional decision making indicators, analyzing the behavior and characteristics of the different stakeholder groups

The MCDA evaluation system requires two kind of input data for its development and implementation, as follows:

  • On one hand, the evaluation criteria require specific input from the SWEET-SURE models and certain other reliable national and international databases, for their processing and quantification. Such input data, include quantitative parameters, such as economic, technological and societal data, as well as non-quantifiable indicators, namely, regulatory control, socio-political acceptance, risk of failure.
  • On the other hand, preference information need to be elicited from the stakeholders, in order to quantify and frame the intra-criteria parameters and other subjective MCDA parameters, such as the criteria trade-offs, vetoes, and aspiration levels. The preference information elicitation is performed within the framework of the MCDA integrated assessment.

The outputs of the MCDA framework consist of the actual evaluation and ranking results of the pathways, together with their individual performance in the pillars of resilience and sustainability. The consensus indicators of the different stakeholder groups, participating and expressing their preference information in the assessment procedure, together with their individual decision making profiles, are also key outputs of the post-evaluation MCDA procedure. All this produced data, will be reported together with a series of corresponding policy recommendations for Switzerland.

Apart from the model input data, the uncertainty of which is appraised and analyzed in the corresponding modeling tools, the uncertainty and imprecision of the preference input, elicited by the stakeholders, plays a key role in the robustness of the MCDA results. Trying to maintain a relatively low cognitive burden, together with an optimal information gain, the stakeholders will be asked to answer appropriate and carefully drafted elicitation questions. In case the robustness of the MCDA model does not reach acceptable levels, additional input will be asked from the stakeholders, until the acquisition of satisfactory results.

The MCDA framework settles linkages with the quantitative models of SWEET-SURE for the acquisition of the required data that will frame the evaluation criteria of the integrated assessment MCDA model. It has not been decided yet, which evaluation criteria will be selected for the evaluation of the pathways and, therefore, which modeling tools will provide data for them.