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In the 1950s, scholars and electricity utilities began using linear programming techniques to model the power system, focusing primarily on capacity expansion to meet growing demand. Prior to the 1973 oil crisis, electricity planning was relatively straightforward, as demand increases were fairly predictable. Today, however, electricity system modelling has become significantly more complex. Advanced modelling methods are essential to evaluate the impact of decision-making, policies, and business strategies, so that to guide governments and industries toward an economical electricity supply that maintains both quality and reliability. The new approaches must also consider technical features such as fuel availability and costs, grid and generation constraints, market fluctuations, shifts in demand and technological advancements along with regulatory frameworks and environmental concerns, but not only. The PLEXOS Energy Market Simulation Software, developed by Energy Exemplar, is designed to support these comprehensive analyses.

TET uses PLEXOS for:

  • Market analysis, market design, and capacity expansion planning and portfolio optimization.
  • Modelling changes in market structure (from monopoly to liberalized market regimes).
  • Forecasting the effect of changes in key policy areas in order to support decision-making (in particular leading to targets for an improved management of electricity demand, an increased share of renewable energy and a reduced level of associated emissions).
  • Performing Long-Term generation and transmission expansion plans coupled with Cost-Benefit Analysis.
  • Security and adequacy assessment of the power system.
  • Conducting high granularity chronological optimization of unit commitment and economic dispatch decisions.

To date, TET has developed Linear Mixed Integer Energy models to disclose:

  • The development of decarbonization scenarios and energy transition of the Italian power and gas systems based on policy updates such as PNIEC projections.
  • The needs for power system flexibility including energy storage and balancing services (flexibility expansion planning) for European countries.
  • The impact of interregional interconnections for Europe and the Caucasus, quantifying the socio-economic outcomes for various stakeholders.
  • The trajectory of new clean technologies penetration and the impact on import and export flows, taking into account the forecast of electricity consumption, including electric transport, as long as hydrogen production.
  • The simulation of the Italian Day-Ahead and Ancillary Services markets’ prices in different scenarios of electrochemical storage penetration taking into account the policy updates in market design (MACSE e TIDET).

TET works by developing own datasets, with the use of public data too, and through the utilization of the Pan European dataset by Energy Exemplar, comprehensive of Central and Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Nordics and South Eastern Europe countries. The use of Plexos for the research group is enhanced by the integration of Application Programming Interfaces (API).