Energy Systems Modelling
Energy systems modelling is the process of creating simulations of energy systems, including the sources, pathways, and end uses of energy. This can include models of individual components, such as power plants or electric vehicles, as well as models of entire energy systems, such as a national electricity grid or a city's transportation system.
They have become essential tools for assessing future energy needs and designing flexible energy systems to meet supply and demand across diverse communities and geographies.
The goal of energy systems modelling is to understand the interactions and dependencies between different components of the energy system and to identify opportunities for improvement, optimisation and decarbonisation. This can be used to inform energy policy and decision-making, as well as to design and test new technologies and infrastructure.
With tens of thousands of variables, across so many aspects of human society, developing these tools to create reliable and useable scenarios is cutting-edge science. As with most computer simulations, the quality of output is highly dependent on the quality of data programming, so using these tools requires specialist training, time and experience.
The SGI contributes our expertise to a number of programmes overseas where we are helping to build this expertise more widely, particularly in developing countries. It’s a constructive contribution to designing decarbonised energy systems that we hope will help the world towards a Net Zero future.
In the rest of this section, you can find out more about how and where we work overseas to build capacity in energy systems planning and the variety of tools we use – including our new in-house next-generation platform: MUSE.
MUSE - a new Energy Systems Model
The SGI has developed a new Energy Sytems Model, called MUSE. It takes a whole systems approach to simulate energy transitions towards a low carbon world.