Research project DestinE: Destination earth use case energy systems
Providing tools and guidance to support the European transmission and distribution system operators in improving the energy system modelling
As we move away from fossil fuels and electrify heating and transport, the demand for solutions to integrate weather-dependent renewable energy into a reliable power supply is increasing across Europe. A key prerequisite for this is the consideration of climate and weather-based uncertainties in the modelling of energy systems. However, existing climate information systems often have only low regional accuracy, making it difficult to predict changes on both short and long timescales. Against this backdrop, in 2021 the European Union launched the ambitious Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative, which focuses on creating digital twins of our planet. To enable a seamless fusion of real-time observations and high-resolution forecasts and projections, two different digital replicas of the highly complex Earth system are to be created during the project: one for weather-related and geophysical extremes, and the other for adaptation to climate change. Both serve the goal of improving our knowledge of the Earth's climate and its interaction with other sectors concerning human action and life, such as agriculture, water supply or energy. This should help to better predict disasters and ultimately support policymakers in managing climate-related changes.
Research project DestinE: Destination earth use case energy systems | |
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Duration | January 2023 to October 2024 |
Funded by | European Commission/European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) |
Project participants | - DLR Institute of Networked Energy Systems
- Renewables Grid Initiative
- Aarhus University
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Within the overall DestinE undertaking, experts from various scientific fields are implementing several sub-projects. The "DestinE Use Case Energy Systems" is directly linked to the EU initiative RePowerEU, adopted in May 2022, which aims to end the dependence on Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the transformation of the European energy supply. This initiative has an impact, among other things, on grid planning and operation departments in Europe. The increasing share of volatile renewable energies in the electricity supply system increases vulnerability to meteorological variability. This formulates new requirements for the operation of the electricity grid and, with regard to the design of future energy systems, requires the inclusion of information about climate change in decision-making processes.
Power generation, transmission and storage facilities typically have a lifespan of 20 to 80 years. During this period, meteorological conditions can change significantly depending on the course of climate change. For the “DestinE Use Case Energy Systems”, the Institute of Networked Energy Systems is therefore focusing on the modelling and simulation of energy systems, in particular on the integration of high-resolution climate and weather information into the modelling of energy systems in a single workflow.
The main goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of continental and regional energy systems and their interactions with the changing environment. Using specialised software and algorithms, forecasts and scenarios are created that are intended to help develop optimised strategies for energy generation and distribution. The result of this work will be an application-oriented tool that will enable European transmission and distribution system operators to align their systems purposefully with the expected conditions. In this way, a valuable contribution is to be made to achieving the political goals defined by the European Parliament and Member States.
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