Applying energy system models to a range of user applications is a vital step to ensure that they work not only in theory, but also in practice. To this end, SENTINEL includes a set of case studies at three different geographical levels: national (Greece), regional (Nordic countries), and continental (Europe), to identify the main issues and challenges of the energy transition, which modellers and policymakers will be faced with in the future. The selection of the SENTINEL case studies has been determined by the idea to provide the modelling teams with diverse spatial scales, which, as a result, would generate a variety of contextualised challenges that the SENTINEL models would need to deal with.
In the context of each case study, SENTINEL partners have been in contact with different stakeholders from the policymaking sphere, energy industry, civil society, and the field of science and research. This engagement enabled us to understand critical issues and priorities of the energy transition in different geographical settings. Results of this exchange in the context of the Greek case study can be found here, for the Nordic case study can be found here, while for the European case study can be found here.
Additionally, involving external actors from the climate and energy world allowed us to define case study-specific scenarios and to identify specific contextual challenges and research questions, which should be addressed by the SENTINEL models. More information can be found here.
Through a cooperation with external stakeholders, SENTINEL modellers can calibrate their models to respond to users’ needs and collaboratively evaluate the quality of the output, both from a technical standpoint and in terms of its practical usefulness to stakeholders.
Currently, we are running the different scenarios in our SENTINEL models, and the outcomes will be discussed with the stakeholders as well.
Finally, next to serving as the testing grounds for the models and the platform, the case studies will provide the basis for a models’ intercomparison. This exercise aims at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the different SENTINEL models, both with respect to each other and to other models outside the platform (e.g., PRIMES, POLES, GEM-E3, Prometheus, POTENCIA). Intercomparison results will be documented as a resource for future model users.