Resilient (Resilient Energy System Infrastructure Layouts for Industry, E-Fuels and Network Transitions)

About

The energy transition faces many uncertainties, yet planning tools are often deterministic. Our proposal aims to develop the first truly multi-vector energy infrastructure planning tool that represents this uncertain environment at regional, national, and European levels.

We will build on the widely used, open-source sector-coupled energy planning tool PyPSA-Eur, by adding stochastic optimization capabilities and a deeper representation of industry transformation, e-fuel conversion, biomass, and carbon capture infrastructure.

Our analysis will consider uncertainties such as fuel and technology costs, hydrogen availability, network expansion delays for electricity, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, value chain restructuring in industry, imports of e-fuels and secondary materials, renewables build-out, and social acceptance. Additionally, we will explore novel computational techniques to efficiently address stochastic problems.

For this project, we have assembled a team of leading academic researchers and industry need-owners at the forefront of energy system modeling. We will demonstrate our tool’s capabilities through case studies on resilient infrastructure planning in France, Germany, Sweden, and Finland.

To maximize impact, we will organize workshops and training events involving a broader circle of need-owners and stakeholders, ensuring the wide adoption of project results.

Deliverables

D1.1: Project website
D1.2: Project data management plan
D2.1: Intermediate release of SMS++ and PyPSA integration
D2.3: Intermediate releases of PyPSA-Eur
D3.2: Interim release of PyPSA-Eur with improved biomass and carbon management representation
D*: Introducing OpenStreetMap high-voltage grid to PyPSA-Eur

Completed workshops and training events

Workshop with North Rhine-Westphalia industry stakeholders
Organised by IN4climate.NRW, 08 October 2024

• Project introduction and research goals
• PyPSA-Eur model: overview and applications
• How does uncertainty impede industrial transformation? (in German)

Energy modelling training workshop with PyPSA & PyPSA-Eur
Organised by TransnetBW and TUB, 27-28 January 2025

• Invitation
• Teaching materials for PyPSA-Eur training
• Teaching materials for PyPSA training

Research papers

Millinger et al. Diversity of biomass usage pathways to achieve emissions targets in the European energy system, Nature Energy, 2025

Millinger et al. Biomass exclusion must be weighed against benefits of carbon supply in European energy system, Policy brief in Nature Energy, 2025

Hazem et al. PyPSA-Earth sector-coupled: A global open-source multi-energy system model showcased for hydrogen applications in countries of the Global South, Applied Energy, 2025

Xiong et al. Modelling the high-voltage grid using open data for Europe and beyond, Nature Scientific Data (accepted), 2025

Brown, Neumann & Riepin Price formation without fuel costs—the interaction of elastic demand with storage bidding, arXiv preprint (in review), 2024

Zachmann, Meißner & Riepin Mitigating Ukraine’s Looming Electricity Crisis, SSRN preprint (in review), 2024

Research talks, media and public outreach

CETpartnership TRI1 2022 Project Leaders meeting
Online, 20 October 2023
RESILIENT project overview

RESILIENT Kick-off meeting
Berlin, 22 February 2024
Methanol for hard-to-electrify sectors

Insight Harvesting Workshop of the CETPartnership projects
Online, 16 October 2024
Building Resilient Energy Infrastructure: Hydrogen, Import, and Carbon Management Strategies

CETPartnership workshop on flexibility in integrated industrial energy systems
Online, 6 November 2024
Energy flexibility from industrial process heating - Relevance, system impacts and ways forward

Energy resilience symposium
IER, Stuttgart, 11-12 November 2024
Resilient strategies for the European energy system. A case study on 2030 EU policy targets

Partners

• At the Technical University of Berlin (TUB), the department of Digital Transformation in Energy Systems is the lead developer of the open energy system modelling framework PyPSA and the high-resolution model PyPSA-Eur of the European sector-coupled energy system. The group leverages cutting-edge research from a variety of disciplines to understand the most cost-effective pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy system. The department will lead the project overall, as well as the integration of new modelling features and the training of need-owners.

• The team at University of Pisa (UNIPI) is the core developer of Structured Modelling System (SMS++), an open-source modelling framework that supports advanced decomposition techniques to break down computational requirements for large-scale stochastic optimization problems. It will be a key partner to integrate SMS++ as an backend of PyPSA, needed to enhance its computational capabilities.

• Fraunhofer ISI offers extensive experience in energy system modelling, in particular with respect to long-term energy demand from sectors including industry, and the impact of variable renewable energies in the power system. At Fraunhofer ISI one of the leading industry transformation models, FORECAST, which has been used in several German and European projects, will be integrated into PyPSA-Eur to model fuel and process switching in each industrial sector.

• Chalmers University of Technology provides extensive expertise in the modelling of energy systems, model-based analyses of cost-effective usage of biomass in the energy system for achieving climate targets, as well as modelling of renewable fuels and carbon dioxide capture, usage, transport and sequestration (CCUTS), and are long-standing contributors to PyPSA-Eur. Chalmers will leverage their expertise on the most suitable applications of restricted biomass potentials, and the role of CCUTS infrastructure across different sectors.

• RISE Research Institutes of Sweden works closely with industry and policymakers to accelerate the shift towards sustainable energy systems. Their projects span from developing and demonstrating novel renewable technologies to assessing system-level impacts, bridging the gap between research findings and commercial or public-sector adoption. RISE team brings extensive expertise in energy systems modelling and advanced analyses on cost-effective biomass usage, renewable fuels, and carbon dioxide capture, usage, transport and sequestration.

• Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) is one of the leaders in the research of net-zero energy systems with an energy system model LUT-ESTM applied to energy transition studies for dozens of countries across the globe. LUT will bring a global perspective to model the worldwide trading of hydrogen and derivative chemicals and materials, as well as trade-offs between imports and domestic supply. LUT will also study the role of sustainable point sources of CO2 on the production of e-fuels and other carbonaceous materials with emphasis on Finland.

• TransnetBW is a transmission system operator based in southwest Germany that specialises in the secure and reliable supply of electricity. With extensive experience in the energy industry, it has conducted several studies investigating net-zero energy systems using PyPSA-Eur. They will help the consortium define relevant uncertainties for planners, and play a leading role in the demonstration studies.

• Électricité de France (EDF) is the second world’s leading multinational electricity company, particularly well established in Europe. Its business covers all electricity-based activities from generation to distribution, including energy transmission and trading activities. EDF Research and Development develops models for short to mid-term operation as well as long-term planning of energy systems at national and European levels and performs techno-economic studies for evaluating impacts of regulations, analysing transition scenarios, evaluating economic stakes of new models, and analysing investments in production and storage facilities.

• IN4climate.NRW is the initiative for industry transition towards climate neutrality under the umbrella of the state agency NRW.Energy4Climate. IN4climate.NRW works as a think tank and as a working platform for and with industry, science, and the state government. They will build a bridge to industry needs and federal-state strategies for carbon management and hydrogen.

• Stockholm Exergi is an energy company providing district heat and power and waste incineration in Stockholm, with a pioneering carbon capture research facility that is planned for full-scale operation in 2026 to capture 800 kilotons of biogenic carbon dioxide. They provide expertise and data validation for modelling bioenergy with carbon capture.

• ABB Finland is one of the leaders in electrification and automation, providing technology and knowledge to dozens of projects contributing to the energy transition of Europe. ABB joins the consortium as an associated partner and supports data collection, scenario definition and result analysis in terms related to e-fuels production.

Impressum

Dr. Fabian Neumann
Dr. Iegor Riepin
Bobby Xiong
Prof. Dr. Tom Brown
Technische Universität Berlin Fachgebiet Digitaler Wandel in Energiesystemen
Institut für Energietechnik
Fakultät III
Einsteinufer 25 (TA 8)
10587 Berlin