Infrastructural Cyber-Physical Energy Systems: Transformations, Challenges, Future Appearance

In line with the Swedish target of carbon neutrality by 2045, the municipality of Växjö in Kronoberg County has set its own target to be carbon neutral in 2030. Currently, the Municipality's partially decentralized energy system relies heavily on interconnected electricity supply from the national grid, and fuels imports from other parts of Sweden. Under this circumstance, several concerns arise, including: in which ways future demand changes induce supply changes, and whether a future carbon-neutral energy system will be less costly in a sustained-electricity supply condition. In this study, techno-economic evaluations are conducted for different carbon-neutral scenarios for Växjö’s future energy system in 2030 and 2050, using an hour-by-hour dynamic energy simulation tool of EnergyPLAN. Projections for the future energy demands for Växjö were developed and modeled, based on the development strategies and on the national sustainable future scenarios in Sweden. Results for the Växjö’s carbon-neutral scenarios showed that the current energy system is sufficient to satisfy future heat demand. However, fulfilling demands of electricity for all sectors and fuels for transport and industry is a challenge. In the short term and at increased energy demand and price, being carbon neutral is technically viable without major changes in energy supply technologies. However, in the long term, investment for intermittent renewable energy resources, together with carbon capture and storage is considered to be viable financially. Therefore, planning for a carbon-neutral Växjö based on local investments showed to be a feasible strategy.

Introduction: To date, a variety of studies have been published on the topic of long term energy system transition. Most studies on future energy systems, however, have a shorter time frame or adopt a supranational focus (e.g. the Energy Roadmap, 2011 or the World Energy Outlook, 2015). It then constitutes a sincere challenge to perform a national energy system transition study with as time horizon 2050 and covering a far-reaching transformation of the energy system. VITO, together with the FPB (Federal Planning Bureau) and ICEDD, performed a study to scrutinise the transition of the Belgian national energy system towards a future mix entirely based on renewable energy sources. The focus on renewable energy sources and on building a national energy system completely running on renewable energy can be traced back to three main concerns: – Climate change: Renewable energy sources (RES) are a major instrument in the fight against climate change as RES do not release (net) greenhouse gas emissions. – Security...

BackgroundThis paper seeks to explore the roles of distribution system operators (DSOs) in future energy systems. Measures to combat climate change have led to a transition in the energy sector, where old system fundamentals are becoming obsolete, which results in changing rules for incumbent actors, such as DSOs. These actors must uphold heavily regulated operations within their distribution networks, while landscape trends are changing with a growing number of prosumers and distributed energy resources. To understand these future roles and increase the preparedness for future scenarios and facilitate thinking beyond current lock-ins, action-oriented workshops were held with two Swedish DSOs, departing from pre-developed future imaginaries, structured through transition theory. Researchers were actively involved in the workshops, to guide the participants in the discussions and to provide additional knowledge from transition processes. This was structured through transition theory, mainly in terms of linking transition management fundamentals to the topics in the workshops and basing the workshop discussions on an imagined future socio-technical system-wide approach using four focus areas.ResultsResults included descriptions of roles within future energy systems and their connection to specified value logics from different target groups which would, from the DSO perspective, create value in a future energy system. Roles included sustainable developer, facilitator for increased collaboration, balancing actor, and communicator. In addition, competence requirements were outlined concerning the described roles. The future logic was also described in a conceptual value model for an active DSO in a prosumer-oriented energy system, creating value in all different value logics. Moreover, it provided the steps necessary to develop a pathway aimed at the transformation of DSOs.ConclusionsThe study provided a constructive approach for DSOs to prepare for a future, more prosumer-oriented and flexible energy system, avoiding being locked in current system thinking and focusing on necessary roles and competencies suitable for a DSO. In addition, the utilization of the value logics approach helped place the prosumers in a differentiated manner, which can have implications for strategies among DSOs to create the necessary relations and collaborations for an efficient and value-creating future energy system.

Most analyses of the future European energy system conclude that in order to achieve energy and climate change policy goals it will be necessary to ramp up the use of renewable energy sources. The stochastic nature of those energies, together with other sources of shortand long-term uncertainty, already have significant impacts in current energy systems operation and planning, and it is expected that future energy systems will be forced to become increasingly flexible in order to cope with these challenges. Therefore, policy makers need to consider issues such as the effects of intermittent energy sources on the reliability and adequacy of the energy system, the impacts of rules governing the curtailment or storage of energy, or how much backup dispatchable capacity may be required to guarantee that energy demand is safely met. Many of these questions are typically addressed by detailed models of the electric power sector with a high level of technological and temporal resolution. This report describes one of such models developed by the JRC's Institute for Energy and Transport: Dispa-SET 2.0, a unit commitment and dispatch model of the European power system aimed at representing with a high level of detail the short-term operation of large-scale power systems. The new model is an updated version of Dispa-SET 1.0, in use at the JRC since 2009. Table of

An evaluation framework for future integrated energy systems: A whole energy systems approach

Future highly renewable energy systems will couple to complex weather and climate dynamics. This coupling is generally not captured in detail by the open models developed in the power and energy system communities, where such open models exist. To enable modeling such a future energy system, we describe a dedicated large-scale dataset for a renewable electric power system. The dataset combines a transmission network model, as well as information for generation and demand. Generation includes conventional generators with their technical and economic characteristics, as well as weather-driven forecasts and corresponding realizations for renewable energy generation for a period of 3 years. These may be scaled according to the envisioned degrees of renewable penetration in a future European energy system. The spatial coverage, completeness and resolution of this dataset, open the door to the evaluation, scaling analysis and replicability check of a wealth of proposals in, e.g., market design, network actor coordination and forecasting of renewable power generation.

IEA EBC Annex 67 Energy Flexible Buildings

Pakistan is currently undertaking a substantial expansion of electricity generation capacity to provide electricity for all its end‐users and to satisfy a fast‐growing economy. Adoption of low‐cost, abundant and clean renewable energy will not only fulfil its growing electricity, heat, transportation and desalinated water demand but also help achieve the goals set under the Paris Agreement. A technology‐rich energy system model applied in hourly resolution has been used for investigating the transition in 5‐year periods until 2050. This study demonstrates that a 100% renewable energy system across the power, heat, transport and desalination sectors is not only technically feasible but also economically viable. Solar photovoltaics emerges as a key technology to generate electricity and contribute a share of 92% to the total primary energy demand across all sectors by 2050. The levelised cost of energy for a 100% renewable energy system is calculated as 56.1 €/MWh in 2050, lower than 70 €/MWh for the current fossil fuel‐based system. A key feature of Pakistan's future energy system is the huge increase in demand across all energy sectors, particularly for desalinated water, which is almost 19% of the final energy demand. This share of energy for desalination is among the highest in the world. Direct and indirect electrification across all demand sectors increases the efficiency of the future energy system. Moreover, GHG emissions from all the sectors will drop to zero by 2050 in a fully sustainable energy scenario.

Energy security and environmental problems are important factors behind the increasing biomass consumption around the world including the lower-income countries such as Pakistan. To utilize local biomass reserves more efficiently in the context of future energy demand, the possession of knowledge about recent energy system in different sectors of the country has become interestingly important. A few initiatives and technologies are currently under process in order to move towards renewable resources from non-renewable resources and minimizing dependency on fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In recent past, some ideas have been developed for sustainable biofuel production which will make sure a rapid shift from an unsustainable attitude towards a potentially sustainable approach. Hence, in this review, detailed data about the potential of biomass for the production of renewable energy in Pakistan have been presented, keeping in view the recent energy mix and future perspectives. The feasibility of local/indigenous biomass reserves and important conversion methods to transform such biomass reserves to bioenergy has also been discussed. Here, we also highlighted the drivers for consumption of local/indigenous biomass reserves in future energy system along with the challenges related to energy systems among various stakeholders. Finally, the suggestions/recommendations on the government policies and future directions for successful implementation of the energy production from local/indigenous biomass resources have been given which could be sufficient to meet increasing energy demands of Pakistan.

Morphing wings are expected to have transformative impact on future transportation and energy systems. To enable analysis and optimization of morphing wings, efficient numerical models are critically important. In this work, we present an accurate and tractable reduced-order model embedded in a genetic-algorithm-based optimization framework. The modeling and optimization framework allows concurrent aerostructural design and flight trajectory optimization of morphing wings considering complete flight missions. The approach is demonstrated on a camber-morphing wing airborne wind energy (AWE) system. The system’s power production capability is improved by enabling wing shape changes, and thus adaptation of the aerodynamic properties through morphing at different flight conditions and operating modes. The results of this study highlight the potential of the proposed modeling and optimization approach: 1) the power production capability of the investigated AWE system is improved by 46.0% compared to a sequentially optimized wing design; and 2) by exploiting camber morphing to adapt the aerodynamic properties of the wing at different flight conditions, the power production is further increased by 7.8%.

As the share of variable renewable energy (VRE) such as wind and solar power continues to grow across Europe, understanding how climate change may affect their short-term variability and extreme events is critical for energy planning, system stability, and resilience. This study investigates projected changes in sub-daily variability and the frequency of extreme conditions in wind and solar energy resources using regional climate model simulations over Europe.We employ a suite of features to characterize the short-term dynamics of VRE resources, including ramp rates, lag-1 autocorrelation, and event-based metrics such as the duration and persistence of power drops (e.g., time below the P10 threshold). These features are computed from 3-hourly wind speed and surface solar radiation data, covering both historical and future periods from the Euro-CORDEX ensemble under the RCP8.5 scenario. To support the robustness of the analysis, model outputs are compared against long-term observations from tall towers and surface radiation stations at selected European sites.The results suggest that future climate conditions could lead to both beneficial and adverse changes in VRE variability: increased persistence may enhance predictability in some regions, while intensified ramp events and prolonged low-production periods may pose challenges for grid management and storage needs elsewhere. The spatially diverse impacts highlight the need for regional-scale assessments.These findings demonstrate the importance of integrating short-term variability and extremes into long-term energy system modeling and risk assessments, and they provide actionable insights for improving the resilience of future low-carbon energy systems.

The creation of future sustainable and efficient energy systems requires a cross-disciplinary approach in engineering education. In order for energy-related engineering students to be prepared for real-world situations after their studies, it is important that, while they are still studying, they obtain the basic skills for handling different concepts, theoretical frameworks and solution types created in the various disciplines involved. At the Tampere University of Technology (TUT), a cross-disciplinary team was formed from four different departments in three different faculties to create a platform for research and education purposes on the university campus. The purpose was to coordinate research and provide students with a wider picture and a concrete implementation of the different layers and aspects that need to be taken into account when creating innovative solutions for future digital energy systems. The creation of the platform started from a successful student ideation competition that produced many viable solutions. This paper describes the bottom-up incremental process by which the cross-disciplinary platform was created. The innovative solutions created in the student ideation competition convinced the university organization that the cross-disciplinary collaboration should have a more permanent platform on the university campus, allowing researchers and students to incorporate more sustainability and systemic aspects into their work, and having a positive impact on the sustainable energy consumption on the campus.

Review of models and actors in energy mix optimization – can leader visions and decisions align with optimum model strategies for our future energy systems?

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles (EVs), and demand-side flexibility presents both new opportunities and problems for future energy systems. This work proposes a smart grid-based charging architecture that is intelligent and robust to combine EV charging, demand response (DR), and renewable energy generation under a stochastic control mechanism. Unpredictable EV charging patterns, fluctuating electricity consumption, and the inherent uncertainty in solar and wind output are all addressed via probabilistic modeling and optimization techniques. By combining energy storage devices with real-time demand projections, the system ensures efficient energy distribution while lowering grid stress and operational costs. Deep learning and reinforcement learning approaches are used to forecast energy consumption and schedule charging behavior, while fairness-based algorithms keep the distributed EV loads balanced. By adapting demand to grid conditions, demand response programs increase system flexibility. Simulation findings against uncertain and changeable energy conditions verify the system's stability, emission minimization, and dependable operation. Future green energy systems, also known as grid-responsive, adaptable, and sustainable ones, would look just like this. The suggested method is adaptable to city distribution networks and community microgrids, and it is scalable. It also supports policy-driven energy prices and environmental regulations. Research Difficulties Future research challenges will include online hardware deployment and interoperability with national grid architectures. This opens up new possibilities for creating environmentally friendly, intelligent, and robust EV charging infrastructure. Keywords: Demand Response, Renewable Integration, Electric Vehicles, Smart Grid, and Stochastic Strategy

Post COVID-19 ENERGY sustainability and carbon emissions neutrality