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On the roadmap to reach the climate targets, Europe is committed to increase offshore wind power generation substantially from today towards 2050. This raises the question, what infrastructure layout efficiently integrates offshore wind power into the transmission grid. It is commonly addressed via scenario based optimisation studies to benchmark arbitrarily defined grid topology layouts such as radial connections of wind farms to shore against multi terminal offshore hubs or hybrid interconnectors. This paper proposes a new workflow to improve the design and calibration of topology scenarios for offshore grid studies with help of an automated process in a geographical information system. Against the backdrop of the recently adopted maritime spatial plans by EU member states, a high-resolution and large scale search graph of the future offshore grid is created with a multi-criteria analysis. Complexity reduction techniques are proposed to simplify this graph for subsequent investment optimisation studies. It is found that respecting the geographic reality of the heavily managed sea space not only reduces uncertainty for future offshore projects for more accurate cost estimates and cable trajectories. The consideration of designation areas in the sea also consolidates future grid planning options into common paths of transmission which facilitates the identification of relevant scenarios for analysis. It can be shown, that the commonly chosen benchmark of an “all radial” connection of wind farms to shore is a questionable choice to which an alternative is provided. The strategic relevance of the existence of spatial planning and access to high-resolution data for an improved grid development is demonstrated at the example of Baltic and North Sea.

Scenarios have become an influential tool in the process of energy system transitions, as they form a basis for, e.g., investment decisions or legislative frameworks. In this respect, researchers have recently focused on the technological viability of normative targets (e.g., emissions reduction). Beyond that sufficient condition, experience has shown that missing social acceptance may serve as a severe hurdle to the actual implication. Furthermore, the functional principles of the surrounding political system may prove inconsistent with the scenario's assumptions or implications. As a contribution to scenario methodology, this paper presents an analytic framework with a focus on the German energy transition. Accounting for transparency, social acceptance and political feasibility, future energy scenarios might be inclined to be more mindful of societal limitations. These hurdles may range from subjectively ascribed characteristics of the energy system to political veto-players. While the analytic framework is applied, it is not limited to the four recent energy scenarios published by German public actors. This study's results highlight the need for an advanced scenario construction process, which becomes eminent given that the emphasis is currently moving from ifan energy transition is possible to howthis goal can be achieved.

AbstractThe aim of the research project MeRegio is to meet the claim for more efficient decentralized energy systems by integrating advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) into all stages of the energy supply chain. Several marketplaces — in particular for power and for ancillary services — which are coupled to the technical energy infrastructure through a powerful and lawful ICT infrastructure should serve as a basis for an efficient and transparent coordination of energy supply, energy demand, and services. The developed concepts will be both validated by simulations and tested within a model region.

Egypt’s power system is facing major changes. Rising demand, scarcity of fossil resources and the falling capital costs of solar and wind energy technologies pose the potential to fundamentally remake the national power fleet. Against this backdrop, the paper at hand investigates potential pathways of the domestic power system with a particular focus on regional deployment and associated impacts on the transmission network. To this end, the open-source modelling framework OSeMOSYS was adapted and deployed. The analysis evaluates renewable energy potentials for 320 sites across Egypt in eight different sub-regions. The study concludes that wind and PV installations prove to be cost-competitive and capable of shouldering a large share of projected demand growth, while their regional deployment should take required grid investments into consideration. The results also indicate that a restrained expansion of renewable energy technologies targeted by the government proves to be more costly than a more aggressive deployment pathway.

•Provision of a guide to the main steps and parameters of flow-based market coupling.•Learning goals to help readers understand actions by transmission system operators.•Provision of an open-access model (code and data) based on free-to-use software.•Case studies and sensitivity analyses based on a modified 118-bus IEEE network.•Quantifying effects of generation shift keys, critical lines and security margins.

Our society currently faces complex ecological, social, and economic challenges that require collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches. Although interest in interdisciplinary research is growing, it is still confronted with significant obstacles stemming from difficulties in establishing a common understanding. While others have evaluated interdisciplinary in a top‐down funding‐oriented ex ante manner or a result‐oriented ex post manner, this focus paper intends to create a framework that enables the measurement of interdisciplinary understanding within a group. Therefore, using the case of the interdisciplinary Boysen‐TU Dresden Research Group, a framework for measuring interdisciplinary understanding (MIU) is presented. The basis of the framework is the development of dimensions based on the specific composition and requirements of the interdisciplinary group. With this framework, two main contributions are provided. First, interdisciplinary understanding within a research group can be measured with respect to the defined dimensions. Through discussions on the differences of the understanding of projects over the dimensions, it is possible to establish a common understanding of projects. Second, the interdisciplinarity within a group or interdisciplinary distance between two specific research projects can be evaluated in order to identify possible difficulties in understanding, as well as recognizing potentials for interdisciplinary research. The MIU framework and the dimensions established in this paper can be adapted and transferred to any interdisciplinary research group to improve joint understanding of researchers and enable them to tackle complex techno‐societal problems of the future. This article is categorized under:Energy and Climate > Economics and PolicyEnergy Research & Innovation > Economics and Policy Measuring interdisciplinary understanding (MIU) framework.