EMP-E 2020 – Recordings and Key Takeaways

The fourth conference of the Energy Modelling Platform for Europe (EMP-E) took place on 6th–8th October 2020. The conference was put together in co-operation with the H2020 Energy Modelling Group, made up of eight Horizon 2020 projects.  Thank you to everyone who took part in this year’s conference. For those who were unable to attend, we have gathered all video recordings and presentations, as well as summaries of the key takeaways below. Enjoy!

Day 1 – Opening Session

Plenary 1 – Impacts of COVID-19 on the energy system – What are the consequences for future energy modelling?

The COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented shock to the global energy system that may result in long term changes to the structures of energy supply and demand. This session began the process of incorporating this shock into energy system models.

Presentations:

Introduction to the session	Jed Cohen,Energy Insitute at Johannes Kepler University
The macro-economic and energy system impacts of COVID-19 so far (no presentation available)	Prof. Claudia Kemfert, DIW Berlin
Energy system modelling under shocks and disruption	Prof. Reinhard Haas, TU-Wien
Modelling the French power system during COVID-19: Cascading effects from stay-at-home regulations	Dr. Clemence Alasseur, EDF
Transport, mobility patterns and digitalization in Italy during and after COVID-19	Prof. Manfred Hafner, FEEM

Plenary 2 – Climate Neutral Pathways, scenarios and storylines: Useful lessons learned and strategies for the European Green Deal

This plenary gave room for presentation of the newest results of H2020 projects on assessing climate-neutral pathways for the EU. Discussions focused on identifying similarities/differences in projects’ outcomes to address key issues of energy modelling.

Presentations:

Introduction to the session	Pao-Yu Oei, TU Berlin
Modelling carbon neutral pathways for EU Green deal and climate neutrality	Alessia De Vita, E3Modelling
Quantitative Scenarios for Low Carbon Futures of the pan-European Energy System	Karlo Hainsch, TU Berlin
The path to climate neutrality – residual sector emissions and CDR	Jessica Strefler, PIK
Civil society’s Paris Agreement Compatible (PAC) scenario for net-zero emissions by 2040	Jörg Mühlenhoff, CAN Europe

Focus Group 1 – Climate Neutrality: energy modelling, weather and climate

This session explored the field of interdisciplinary modelling of spatially and temporally highly resolved energy & power system models and meteorology & climate models. Crucial steps to provide policy-relevant research results were discussed.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session (no presentation available)	Stefan Pfenninger, ETH Zürich
Key insights from the most recent generation of spatially and temporally resolved energy system models	Tim Tröndle, IASS Potsdam
Energy-relevant weather and climate data through the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and related initiatives	Alberto Troccoli, WEMC
Critical questions at the intersection of weather, climate, and energy models	David Brayshaw, University of Reading

Focus Group 2 – Circularity and use of raw materials

The aim of this session was to discuss the nexus between raw materials and energy technologies and learn about how some energy systems models (ESM) are working to consider raw materials and circularity in their models.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session and recap of survey results	Laura Talens Peiró, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB)
2020 list of CRMs for the EU and JRC foresight study on CRMs in strategic sectors	Prof. Gian Andrea Blengini, European Commission, DG JR
Mineral requirements associated to energy transitions: the MEDEAS approach to identify availability risks	Iñigo Capellán-Pérez, University of Valladolid
Development of an environmental and Bio-economic assessment for Energy System models: the case of ENVIRO	Cristina Madrid López, ICTA-UAB, SENTINEL project

Day 2

Plenary 3 – Socio and economic impacts of the transition

The aim of this session was to create politically relevant analysis of distributional impacts of various energy transition pathways to allow for higher societal and political acceptance, while minimizing the negative impacts.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session and presentation of results from registration questionnaire	Pao-Yu Oei, TU Berlin and Diana Süsser, IASS Potsdam
Tackling social drivers and constraints of the energy transition in energy modelling	Diana Süsser, IASS Potsdam
Socio-economic and competitiveness impacts of EU Green deal and climate neutrality	Leonidas Paroussos, E3Modelling
Regional impacts of electricity system transition in Central Europe until 2035	Jan-Phlipp Sasse, UNIGE
Addressing issues of inequality	Johannes Emmerling, CMCC

Plenary 4 – Sector Integration – Decarbonisation through multi-energy carrier integration

This plenary has presented sector integration from the perspective of different actors in the energy system. Spatial aspects of integrating energy sectors at all levels were considered. Barriers, approaches and recommendations were discussed.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session (master presentation)	Alessandro Provaggi, Euroheat & Power / DHC+ Technology Platform
The whole system approach: a regulatory perspective on sector integration	Luca Lo Schiavo, ARERA – Italian Authority for energy
Sector integration from the multi-energy system operator and aggregator perspective	Christophe Gutschi, cyberGRID
Small and medium prosumers in Flexibility Markets: the Italian case and some highlights of IREN related innovation activities	Federico Boni Castagnetti, IREN
Impact of Sector Coupling – Some Exemplary Aspects from Heating and Power-To-Ga	Dieter Most, Siemens

Focus Group 4 – Smart cities, smart grids and digitalisation: modelling insights and lessons learned

This session addressed four main topics in urban environments: multi-energy systems, renewables & flexibility resources, electrification of transportation, and the evolution of distribution system operators. Priority was given to real-life case studies.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session	Andrea Mazza, Politecnico di Torino
Multi-energy systems in their urban environment	Edoardo Corsetti, RSE, H2020 MAGNITUDE project
Renewables and flexibility resources in the cities – how to integrate and exploit them?	Vittorio Verda, Politecnico di Torino, H2020 RE-COGNITION project
Electrification of transportation at city level	Cristiana Botta, Links Foundation, H2020 INCIT-EV project
Evolution of the role of distribution system operators	Gianluigi Migliavacca, RSE, H2020 FlexPlan project

Day 3

Focus Group 5 – Infrastructure for integrating open-source models across spatial and sectoral scales to facilitate open science and transparency

This focus group presented the state of the art development in Horizon2020 projects and other initiatives, and discussed possible improvements regarding open-source modelling frameworks and infrastructure for open model integration.

Presentations:

Introductory presentations by the organizing consortia on complementary aspects of their infrastructure and modelling platform solutions (no presentation available)	Daniel Huppmann, openENTRANCE/IIASA
The OEP data model	Sarah Berendes, OEP/Reiner Lemoine Institute
Serving different models from the same database	Juha Kiviluoma, Spine/VTT
A data package for linking models from different fields	Stefan Pfenninger, SENTINEL/ETH Zürich
Packages to build scripted workflows between models and the openENTRANCE platform	Daniel Huppmann, openENTRANCE/IIASA

Focus Group 6 – How can energy modelling tools from H2020 projects contribute to National Energy and Climate Plans?

The objective of this session was to enhance exchanges and discussions between H2020 funded projects and national authorities in charge of National Energy and Climate Plans, regarding “How can EC funded projects support national policy makers”.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session	Ingeborg Graabak, SINTEF
National Energy and Climate Plans: what are they, why they need be built on strong analytical foundation?	Clement Serre, European Commission, DG ENER
NECP in Bulgaria (no presentation available)	Zhecho Stankov, Deputy Minister of Energy, Bulgaria
NECP in Spain	Miriam Bueno Lorenzo, Deputy Directorate General of Prospective, Strategy and Regulation on Energy, Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain
Energy Planning in Regione Piemonte	Silvio De Nigris, Public Officer at the Sustainable Energy Sector of Piemonte Region.
GENeSYS-MOD (openENTRANCE)	Karlo Hainsch, Technische Universität Berlin
Multi-Carrier Market-Design tool (Magnitude)	Ana Virag, EnergyVille / VITO
Plan4EU (plan4res)	Sandrine Charousset, EDF
TEPES (openENTRANCE)	Andres Ramos, Universidad Pontificia Comillas
FRESH:COM and GUSTO (openENTRANCE)	Sebastian Zwickl, Technische Universität Wien
EXIMOD (openENTRANCE)	Hettie Boonman, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)
REMES (openENTRANCE)	Paolo Pisciella, NTNU

Focus Group 7 – Transformation of the Energy system: centralisation vs further decentralisation

The aim of this session was to provide insights into the transformation of the European energy system and to deliberate on how to reconcile the need for a coordinated European approach with the ever-increasing degree of specialisation in decision making.

Presentations:

Welcome and introduction to the session (no presentation available)	Jasper Geipel, TU Wien
European Auctions for renewable support	Gustav Resch, TU Wien
Quantifying the impact of decentralization on investment decisions	Nadia Oudjane, EDF
Planning and Operational Tools for Optimal Flexibility Exploitation in Integrated Local Energy Systems	David Greenwood, Newcastle University and Vasiliki Katsiki, Hypertech Energy Labs

Focus Group 8 – Uncertainty and modelling: lessons learned and gaps

This session revolved around two key issues:
1. Techniques to deal with uncertainty.
2. Case studies and their main findings in terms of key policy messages and recommendations. 

Presentation:

Welcome including explanation of the structure of the session, discussion of the results of the survey	Sara Lumbreras, Danny Pudjanto
Senior expert presentation of state-of-the art methods	Prof Tomasgard Asgeir – Director FME NTRANS, Director NTNU Energy Transition Initiative
Transmission Investments Under Long-Term Uncertainty in the European Electricity System	Paola Falugi
Accounting for uncertainty in power system planning – The OSMOSE approach	Jean-Yves Bourmaud

Closing Session

The Closing session gave an overview on all sessions that took place throughtout the EMP-E2020 conference.

Presentation: 

Overview slides from each session

Ingeborg Graabak