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Publication: User needs and modeller-driven improvements of energy system models

The EU-funded H2020 project SENTINEL (Sustainable Energy Transitions Laboratory) is developing a user-friendly online modelling platform, which, with its modular design, will respond to the needs of modelling users. Nevertheless, in order to design such platform it is of utmost importance to understand what these needs are, and whether there are visible differences between the expectations and requirements of modellers, in comparison to stakeholders, which make use of the modelling results.

SENTINEL researchers asked this question and conducted a study to investigate what are the differences between energy model improvements as perceived by modellers, and the actual needs of users of model results. Based on the literature review, expert interviews and an online survey they found out that user needs and ongoing improvements of energy system models align to a large degree, but some mismatches persist, especially in modelling of social, behavioural and political aspects, the trade-off between model complexity and understandability, and the ways that model results should be communicated.

The findings presented in the paper confirm the relevance to develop the causal models in WHY, which could address the shortcomings in modelling of behavioural and social aspects. Moreover, this study constitutes a good starting point to compare it with the findings of the WHY's WP1 and the stakeholders' requirement analysis. Stay tuned!

The publication presenting the results can be...