Modelling flexible power demand and supply in the EU power system: soft-linking between JRC-EU-TIMES and the open-source Dispa-SET model

Modelling the variability of renewable energy sources together with flexible and/or storage technologies is highly relevant for the current EU power system. Dispa-SET is an open-source unit commitment and optimal dispatch model that covers various energy sectors (power systems, heating cooling, transportation) and the 26 European countries plus Switzerland and Norway. It uses high-resolution time series for the demands, renewable generation and outages to optimize the system operation under technical constraints (e.g. maximum ramping rates of power plants, interconnection capacities, heating cooling constraints, etc.). This work evaluates the application of the model on the ENTSOE EU28 open-dataset and calibrates critical inputs such as renewables availability, power plant outages, hydro levels and power demands to match historic data for the year 2016. The calibrated model is finally used to assess the implementation of future low carbon EU strategies and policies through several “what if” scenarios and soft linking with the JRC-EU-TIMES model.