• Energy Research

The dataset contains case studies and verification files for the paper ���Transmission Expansion Simulation for the European Northern Seas Offshore Grid���.

Symbiotic Urban Agriculture Networks (SUANs) are a specific class of symbiotic networks that intend to close material and energy loops from cities and urban agriculture. Private and public stakeholders in SUANs face difficulties in the implementation of technological and organisational design interventions due to the complex nature of the agricultural and urban environment. Current research on the dynamics of symbiotic networks, especially Industrial Symbiosis (IS), is based on historical data from practice, and provides only partly for an understanding of symbiotic networks as a sociotechnical complex adaptive system. By adding theory and methodology from Design Science, participatory methods, and by using agent-based modelling as a tool, prescriptive knowledge is developed in the form of grounded and tested design rules for SUANs. In this paper, we propose a conceptual Design Science method with the aim to develop an empirically validated participatory agent-based modelling strategy that guides sociotechnical design interventions in SUANs. In addition, we present a research agenda for further strategy, design intervention, and model development through case studies regarding SUANs. The research agenda complements the existing analytical work by adding a necessary Design Science approach, which contributes to bridging the gap between IS dynamics theory and practical complex design issues.

Addressing the climate change and energy scarcity problems are two of the most complex sustainability challenges facing not only scientists, but also policy makers. Attempts at tackling these issues should be approached from two fronts: by increasing the energy efficiency (demand side) and by promoting the usage of renewables and non-Greenhouse Gases emitting energy sources (supply side). Usually, there is an agreement among stakeholders about sustainability in general, but there is a notable disagreement about how to achieve it. Thus, this paper proposes a multi-actor modelling and analysis approach as a way forward in systematically studying the system and actors dynamics - this is necessary in order to garner cooperation that will not only get such sustainability projects started, but that will also keep them going. A case study was employed to study the feasibility of using residual industrial heat for sustainable District Heating System. The result of the multi-actor analysis reveals that the Municipality (the initiator of the project) will have far greater success if it includes the perspectives of all the different stakeholders and encourage their participation from the early phases of project design and development.

Energy communities are key elements in the energy transition at the local level as they aim to generate and distribute energy based on renewable energy technologies locally. The literature on community energy systems is dominated by the study of electricity systems. Yet, thermal energy applications cover 75% of the total energy consumption in households and small businesses. Community-driven initiatives for local generation and distribution of thermal energy, however, remain largely unaddressed in the literature. Since thermal energy communities are relatively new in the energy transition discussions, it is important to have a better understanding of thermal energy community systems and how these systems function. The starting point of this understanding is to study factors that influence the formation and continuation of thermal energy communities. To work towards this aim, an abstract agent-based model has been developed that explores four seemingly trivial factors, namely: neighborhood size, minimum member requirement, satisfaction factor and drop-out factor. Our preliminary modelling results indicate correlations between thermal community formation and the ’formation capability’ (the percentage of households that joined) and with the satisfaction of households. No relation was found with the size of the community (in terms of number of households) or with the ‘drop-out factor’ (individual households that quit after the contract time).

The paper presents quantitative RAM-based economic models capable of sup-plying early and realistic information on the envisaged lifespan economic perfor-mance of energy infrastructure systems during their conceptual designs. Unlike the conventional cost models which do not take these RAM characteristics into account, the models in this paper provide an early trade-off between the RAM attributes the designer wants to incorporate in the system and the cost of having them. The economic models thus provide the designer the ultimate leeway of selecting more intrinsically reliable and more inherently maintainable components or subsystem of the infrastructure system at a more affordable investment costs. The paper focusses on a user friendly formulation for incorporating the social costs, which are typical for infrastructures that operate in the public domain, in the cost structure of infrastructure systems. To demonstrate the implementation and utility of these economic models, it has been applied to a District Heating Network (DHN) case study.

The dataset contains case studies, the original files and corrected data setup with parameters tab for the ���Transmission Expansion Simulation for the European Northern Seas Offshore Grid��� dataset (10.4121/uuid:b8d2ddc1-c82b-497e-ba81-6458f4c06de6).

The development of offshore transmission and wind power generation in the North Sea of Europe is advancing fast, but there are significant barriers to an integrated offshore grid in the region. This offshore grid is a multi-level, multi-actor system requiring a governance decision-making approach, but there is currently no proven governance framework for it, or for the expansion planning of the European power system in general. In addition, existing offshore expansion planning models do not endogenously include governance considerations, such as country vetoes to integrated lines. We develop a myopic Mixed-Integer Linear Programming model of offshore generation and transmission expansion planning to study the effect of integrated governance constraints. These constraints limit investments in integrated lines: non-conventional lines linking offshore wind farms to other countries or to other farms. Each constraint affects the system (including the main transmission corridors), transmission technologies and welfare distribution differently. We apply our model to a long-term case study of the 2030–2050 offshore expansion pathways using data from the e-Highway2050 project. Results confirm that the offshore grid is beneficial to society. Integrated governance constraints induce a modest loss of social welfare, but do not change significantly the existing welfare distribution asymmetry between countries and actor groups. They do strongly affect the interaction of line technologies and types (conventional or integrated), so the impact of the integrated governance constraints is more visible on the grid topology than on welfare levels and distribution. We highlight the need to consider technology and type interactions in expansion planning, especially between multiterminal HVDC and integrated transmission lines. Also, an offshore governance framework should address the use of multiterminal HVDC in a non-integrated grid, but this is a second-best option compared to an integrated grid.

Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) are emerging as a modern development to re-organize local energy systems allowing simultaneous integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and engagement of local communities. Although local energy initiatives, such as ICESs are rapidly emerging due to community objectives, such as cost and emission reductions as well as resiliency, assessment and evaluation are still lacking on the value that these systems can provide both to the local communities as well as to the whole energy system. In this paper, we present a model-based framework to assess the value of ICESs for the local communities. The distributed energy resources-consumer adoption model (DER-CAM) based ICES model is used to assess the value of an ICES in the Netherlands. For the considered community size and local conditions, grid-connected ICESs are already beneficial to the alternative of solely being supplied from the grid both in terms of total energy costs and CO2 emissions, whereas grid-defected systems, although performing very well in terms of CO2 emission reduction, are still rather expensive.