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Tools for modeling energy systems and processing data

The members of the Helmholtz Association apply and develop computational tools for facilitating research in energy systems with their partners.

Introduction

The Helmholtz Association and its partners have developed ground-breaking modeling tools to research future energy systems. These tools are collected and made openly available to fellow researchers and to the open public by the Helmholtz Energy Computing Initiative (HECI).

Transforming the energy system so that it is secure, sustainable, and affordable is an enormous technical and societal challenge that requires complicated computer models of everything from buildings, transportation, and industry through to energy grids, energy storage, and socio-economic interactions. HECI makes the Helmholtz modeling software, data, and benchmarking datasets available to everyone for inspection, reuse, modification, and distribution following the Helmholtz Open Science principles

An open ecosystem for energy modeling has several advantages: Openness improves the transparency and reproducibility of research, thereby enhancing its scientific credibility. Energy policy can be a highly politicized and sometimes controversial area, and openness can help to build trust among policymakers and the public about the modeling results. Openness allows research institutes to share models more easily between each other, which enhances cooperation and avoids duplication of work, thus freeing resources for productive research. Finally, openness can improve the quality of models, by allowing the possibility for feedback and correction by a broad audience. 

The contributions below are divided into three categories: tools, data, and benchmarks. Tools includes energy model frameworks and libraries for preparing and processing data. Data refers to the raw and processed datasets used by the models. Finally, benchmarks provide model data for testing different simulation and optimization methodologies

Tools for modeling energy systems and processing data

The members of the Helmholtz Association apply and develop computational tools for facilitating research in energy systems with their partners.

Data for Simulation and Optimization

Realistic and open data are provided for the use in simulation and optimization.

Benchmarks

Parts of the models presented in HECI were developed in public projects and with financial support from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.

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