Energy models meet manyuser needs, but still largely ignore social and environmental aspects – to increase policy relevance of models, it is necessary to integrate such non techno-economic factors.

Researchers are constantly working to improve energy modelling tools. Yet, it is not clear whether these efforts meet the needs of the model’ users in politics, industry, and civil society. To find out, we conducted a literature review, semi-structured interviews, an online survey and an expert workshop with European stakeholders – both modellers and model users. We found that user needs and ongoing improvements of energy system models align to a large degree: future models are indeed likely to be better than the current ones. However, we also found mismatches between the needs of modellers and users, especially in the modelling of social, behavioural, and political aspects, the trade-offs between model complexity and understandability, and the ways that model results should be communicated. Deeper and explicit integration of social and environmental aspects is needed, such as developed within the SENTINEL project, for example in the QTDIAN and ENBIOS modelling tools.

Papers:

Süsser, D., Gaschnig, H., Ceglarz, A., Stavrakas, V., Flamos, A., Lilliestam, J., Better suited or just more complex? On the fit between user needs and modeller-driven improvements of energy system models, Energy, Volume 239, Part B, 15 January 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.121909

Süsser, D., Martin, N., Stavrakas, V., Gaschnig, H., Talens-Peiró, L., Flamos, A., Madrid-López, C., & Lilliestam, J. (2022). Why energy models should integrate social and environmental factors: Assessing user needs, omission impacts, and real-word accuracy in the European Union. Energy research & social science, 92: 102775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102775

Gaschnig, H., Süsser, D., Ceglarz, A., Stavrakas, V., Giannakidis, G., Flamos, A., Sander, A., & Lilliestam, J.(2020). User needs for an energy system modeling platform for the European energy transition. Deliverable 1.2. Sustainable Energy Transitions Laboratory (SENTINEL) project. Potsdam: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS).

Models used

SENTINEL case study

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