The electricity system is encountering significant impacts from climate change. Thus, planning for planning for future extreme weather events and climate change is necessary to achieve a resilient European electricity grid.
This is, however, a complex task, because when looking into future climate scenarios, the impacts on the electricity sector can be both significant and uncertain.
Partnerships between grid and system planners with climate modellers can facilitate the integration of climate information into energy models, where data on predicted future weather can be used as a tool for resilient planning of energy infrastructure.
RGI, while working together with German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Aarhus University, contributes to Destination Earth (DestinE) – a European Commission initiative that aims at creating a model version of Earth that monitors and simulates the interactions between human activities and natural phenomena. RGI will engage with energy system modellers and grid operators to ensure the compatibility between the tools to be developed under the Use Case Energy Systems and the users' needs and workflow.
Under the DestinE initiative, several Use Cases will validate how the innovative DestinE tools can enhance the climate change adaptation of different sectors. The Use Case Energy Systems aims at demonstrating the value of DestinE’s enhanced climate and weather models for power system operators seeking accurate, decision-ready data to ensure a reliable, optimised electricity supply to consumers.
Destination Earth (DestinE) is a European Commission-funded initiative implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) , the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
The Use Case Energy Systems was awarded by ECMWF to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and its Institute of Networked Energy Systems, the Aarhus University and RGI. The Use Case aims to uplift collaboration between the climate sciences and the energy sector to explore new approaches for data processing, management and computing through open data and open modelling.
On 28 February 2023, RGI together with DLR and the Aarhus University organised a “User Needs” workshop on how energy system modellers and operators can enhance the use of climate information in modelling workflows. The hybrid workshop was attended by a group of 40 experts representing several user perspectives, including transmission and distribution system operators, researchers in energy and climate modelling, and representatives of the European Commission.
Throughout the Use Case Energy Systems, the outcomes of this workshop and the following future collaborations will contribute to the development of tools, meeting user needs, for better representation of climate information in energy models.