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Operating power grids in the course of the ongoing decarbonization of energy systems is increasingly challenging. More and more decentral renewable energy sources are contributing to the supply of electricity and cause higher transport demands in the power grids. The necessary grid expansion is running behind schedule required to meet the targets of the Paris Climate Accords for reasons of social acceptance and high costs. Therefore, transmission system operators as well as regulatory authorities are investigating new approaches to enable higher network utilization. One way to alleviate the situation, is to shift from preventive n-1 safe grid operation to curative n-1 safe grid operation. To enable such a change, operational degrees of freedom are needed, which can stem from different sources. In this work, the focus is on flexibility provided by distribution grids and how it can be used as an operational degree of freedom for curative grid operation. Flexibility allocated by adapting the schedules of distributed energy sources is provided in such a way, that the resulting power-flow changes relieve congestion in the transmission system. These distributed energy sources can be generators, such as wind-power or photovoltaic power plants, as well as flexible loads, such as power-to-heat plants or heat pumps. Two key questions in the context of this concept are treated in this thesis: Firstly, is there enough flexibility in the German distribution grids to use those grids for curative transmission grid operation? And secondly, how can a distribution system operator calculate the flexibility of his grid that can safely be provided? To answer the first question, an energy system model of Germany in the year 2030 is set up and available flexibility for curative transmission system operation is calculated. Time-steps are selected, in which a loss of transmission capacity leads to critical states in the grid, and the available flexibility in the regions adjacent to the crit

Analysis of Earth system dynamics in the Anthropocene requires explicitly taking into account the increasing magnitude of processes operating in human societies, their cultures, economies and technosphere and their growing feedback entanglement with those in the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet. However, current state-of-the-art Earth system models do not represent dynamic human societies and their feedback interactions with the biogeophysical Earth system and macroeconomic integrated assessment models typically do so only with limited scope. This paper (i) proposes design principles for constructing world-Earth models (WEMs) for Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene, i.e., models of social (world)-ecological (Earth) coevolution on up to planetary scales, and (ii) presents the copan:CORE open simulation modeling framework for developing, composing and analyzing such WEMs based on the proposed principles. The framework provides a modular structure to flexibly construct and study WEMs. These can contain biophysical (e.g., carbon cycle dynamics), socio-metabolic or economic (e.g., economic growth or energy system changes), and sociocultural processes (e.g., voting on climate policies or changing social norms) and their feedback interactions, and they are based on elementary entity types, e.g., grid cells and social systems. Thereby, copan:CORE enables the epistemic flexibility needed for contributions towards Earth system analysis of the Anthropocene given the large diversity of competing theories and methodologies used for describing socio-metabolic or economic and sociocultural processes in the Earth system by various fields and schools of thought. To illustrate the capabilities of the framework, we present an exemplary and highly stylized WEM implemented in copan:CORE that illustrates how endogenizing sociocultural processes and feedbacks such as voting on climate policies based on socially learned environmental awareness could fundamental