Modelling of a village-scale Multi-Energy System (MES) for the integrated supply of electric and thermal energy

Energy system models for off-grid systems usually tend to focus solely on the provision of electricity for powering simple appliances, thus neglecting more energy-intensive and critical needs, such as water heating. The adoption of a Multi-Energy System (MES) perspective would allow not only to provide comprehensive solutions addressing all types of energy demand, but also to exploit synergies between the electric and thermal sectors. To this end, we expand an existing open-source micro-grid optimization model with a complementary thermal model and show how the latter allows to achieve optimal solutions that are otherwise restricted.