Whole Systems Energy Modelling Consortium (WholeSEM)

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources

Abstract

Energy models provide essential quantitative insights into the 21st Century challenges of decarbonisation, energy security and cost-effectiveness. Models provide the integrating language that assists energy policy makers to make improved decisions under conditions of pervasive uncertainty. Whole systems energy modelling also has a central role in helping industrial and wider stakeholders assess future energy technologies and infrastructures, and the potential role of societal and behavioural change.
Despite this fundamental underpinning role, the UK has not had a national strategic energy modelling activity. Models have been developed on a fragmented, reactive and ad-hoc basis, with a critical shortfall in the continuity of funding to develop new models, retain human capacity, and link modelling frameworks in innovative ways to answer new research questions.
The whole systems energy modelling (wholeSEM www.wholesem.ac.uk) consortium is explicitly designed to enable the UK to make an internationally leading research impact in this critical area, and hence to provide cutting-edge transparent quantitative analysis to underpin public and private energy systems decision making. Following a rigorous selection process, the wholeSEM consortium encapsulates leading and interdisciplinary UK capacity in quantitative whole systems energy research.
The key aims of the interdisciplinary wholeSEM consortium are:
1. Undertake internationally cutting edge research on prioritised energy system topics;
2. Integrate whole energy systems modelling approaches across disciplinary boundaries;
3. Build bilateral engagement mechanisms with the wider UK energy systems community in academia, government and industry.
The wholeSEM consortium will prioritise on key modelling areas of high relevance to interdisciplinary energy systems. Internationally leading research will focus on:
1. How does energy demand co-evolve with changes in practice, supply, and policy?
2. How will the endogenous, uncertain, and path dependent process of technological change impact future energy systems?
3. How can the energy supply-demand system be optimised over multiple energy vectors and infrastructures?
4. What are the major future physical and economic interactions and stresses between the energy system and the broader environment?
The consortium, will employ extensive integration mechanisms to link and apply interdisciplinary models to key energy policy problems. This will take place across the conceptualisation and development of innovative modelling approaches, model construction, and through an integrated set of use-cases.
A key element of the wholeSEM is substantive bilateral engagement with stakeholders in academia, government and industry. Multi-layered integration mechanisms will include:
- A high-profile advisory board, with key policy/industry representation plus wider academic experts;
- An innovative fellowship programme to enable bi-directional UK academic, policy and industrial and international experts to work with wholeSEM research teams;
- A range of workshops including four internationally high profile annual UK energy modelling conferences, technical workshops focused on key modelling issues, and non-technical stakeholder workshops on model conceptualisation, development and use-cases;
- Detailed and transparent documentation for all of the consortium's new energy models;
- Model access, based on collaborative agreements with an expert model user group. This will ensure best-use of models, accountability and two-way flows of information from/to model developers, users and critics;
- Collation and curation of energy modelling data sources (building off and working with the UKERC Energy Data Centre);
- Provision of training in modelling techniques and software platforms, to train and develop the next generation of energy systems modellers, including interactions with centres for doctoral training (CDTs);
- Interactive web-based information dissemination

Planned Impact

Comprehensive bi-directional collaboration with the full range of UK and international energy systems experts and stakeholders is a core goal of the wholeSEM project, and is well resourced, constituting around 20% of the overall budget. Crucially, these activities will be coordinated by a full time project administrator.
With UK policy makers: A next generation of whole systems energy models will support decision-making in a more uncertain, heterogeneous and complex future. An important success criteria for the project will be the ability of policy decision makers to understand, critique, deploy and exploit such next generation models. Project support letters include DECC, CCC, and OFGEM.
With UK industrial and wider energy stakeholders: Interdisciplinary model outputs will be invaluable to the full range of decision makers in the energy value chain, in providing information on the opportunities, emerging risks and values of new technologies, energy vectors and services. Project support letters include ETI, National Grid, BP, Redpoint, PPA Energy, and WWF-UK.
With UK consumers: Public engagement will be heavily facilitated via electronic communication (based on the UKERC success in these methods), including the project website and wiki, social networking and a two-way blog function.
With international experts: Effective engagement with the main international players and energy modelling networks is critical to ensure that the UK is at the forefront of developing the next generation of tools. A key element will be the series of high-profile annual conferences each built around innovative modelling methodologies. Research outputs will be evaluated against those in other countries, through two-way visits and exchanges. Project engagement letters are included from IEA-ETSAP, IIASA (Austria), FEEM (Italy), ECN (Netherlands), PNNL-JGCRI (USA), RITE (Japan), UCT (South Africa), and TERI (India).
Other specific bilateral networking and outreach activities include:
- An expanded high-profile advisory board - chaired by Prof Jim Skea - with existing key policy/industry representative plus wider academic experts;
- An innovative fellowship programme (12 Fellows over the 4-year project lifetime) to enable bi-directional UK academic, policy and industrial and international experts to work with wholeSEM research teams;
- Four internationally high profile annual UK energy modelling conferences;
- Technical workshops focused on key modelling issues (6 per year, 24 in total);
- Non-technical stakeholder workshops on model conceptualisation, development and use-cases (3 per year, 12 in total);
- Mapping out and enabling new links between the UK's energy modelling research capacity;
- Collation and curation of energy modelling data sources (building off and working with the UKERC Energy Data Centre);
- Provision of training in modelling techniques and software platforms, to train and develop the next generation of energy systems modellers through Masters level course materials and interactions with relevant centres for doctoral training (CDTs);
- Provision of responsive engagement - to regulators, government officials and energy industry staff - to understand and assess analytical approaches to key energy issues;
- Detailed and transparent documentation for all of the consortium's new energy models;
- Model access, based on collaborative agreements with an expert model user group. This will strive to ensure best-use of models, accountability and two-way flows of information from/to model developers, users and critics;
- Traditional methods of academic dissemination including leading peer reviewed journals and international conferences;
- Interactive web-based information dissemination routes. These include a detailed website, wikis to share and store detailed modelling discussions, and extensive use of web-based visual communications, webinars and blogs to share information.

Publications

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Ahrweiler P (2015) Modelling Research Policy: Ex-Ante Evaluation of Complex Policy Instruments in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation

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Allwood J (2016) Sustainable materials in Nature Reviews Materials

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Allwood J (2017) Industry 1.61803: the transition to an industry with reduced material demand fit for a low carbon future in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences

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Allwood J. (2017) Industry 1.61803: the transition to an industry with reduced material demand fit for a low carbon future in Industry 1.61803: the transition to an industry with reduced material demand fit for a low carbon future, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 375, 2095

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Bajželj B (2014) Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation in Nature Climate Change

 
Title Animation UCL model of the UK energy system explained - UKTM (UK Times Model) 
Description A short animation to explain the work done at the UCL Energy Institute working to build a computer model called the UK Times (UKTM) Model that maps the complex UK Energy System. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact More than 1000 views on youtube - disseminated through the wholeSEM, UCL-Energy, Bartlett and UCL website and newsletters, twitter and research councils - outreach and engagement with stakeholders and general public 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOV5Q0e_RW0
 
Title Annimation High Spatial Temporal Resolution Electricity Model (highRES) 
Description As part of wholeSEM, researchers at the UCL Energy Institute have developed the high spatial and temporal resolution electricity model (highRES). 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact Disseminated through the wholeSEM, UCL-Energy, Bartlett and UCL website and newsletters, twitter and research councils - outreach and engagement with stakeholders and general public 
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-news-publication/highRES
 
Title Annimation UCL-Energy and wholeSEM BLUE model explained 
Description BLUE model is a system dynamic model of the UK energy system that tries to capture important parts of how we use energy in the UK today, the large number of different ways we might use energy in future, and the journey we might go on to get there by simulating future energy transitions and the associated changes to technologies, energy use and emissions. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact More than 500 views on youtube - disseminated through the wholeSEM, UCL-Energy, Bartlett and UCL website and newsletters, Twitter and research councils - outreach and engagement with stakeholders and the general public 
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-news-publication/TheBLUEmodelexplained
 
Title Understanding the dynamics of household energy use animation 
Description A short animation explaining the research exploring the complex nature of household energy use to benefit consumers and meet the UK government's 2050 energy reduction targets, as part of the WholeSEM project. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact 738 views on youtube - publicised through twitter and wholeSEM website and through research councils and university news - used to market the work of wholeSEM - wider outreach and engagement 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnlFQ0J2EA4
 
Description Why is whole systems energy modelling so important? Energy models provide essential quantitative insights into the interlinked 21st century challenges facing the UK energy system:
- Decarbonisation
- Energy security
- Energy equity
- Cost-effectiveness

The wholeSEM research teams firstly focused on completing full new versions of their own modelling frameworks.
Surrey collected innovative data to define a set of social energy practices and then built an agent based model of energy demand around these practices.
UCL built a new energy systems model (UKTM) and extended this to include endogenous technological change, non-price behaviour, temporal and spatial factors, and macro-economic linkages.
Cambridge built a resource simulation model (UK Foreseer) and added land, water and critical materials flows to understand trade-offs and constraints.
Imperial incorporated spatial and temporal detail, linking with flexible storage options, and combining with infrastructure decision making within a whole energy system context, with a particular focus on the power sector.
In addition to these individual institutional led model developments we have undertaken a matrix of interdisciplinary model linkage mechanisms in a bottom up research led process with 10 top level journal papers.

The consortium employed extensive integration mechanisms to link and apply interdisciplinary models to key energy policy problems through substantive bilateral engagement with stakeholders in government and industry, academia and wider society.
• A series of major annual conferences that have brought together the leading energy modelling practitioners and users in the UK with leading model developers from the top tier of global modelling teams around the world.
o These conferences have compared and contrasted the strengths and shortcomings of current energy modelling, including conceptual issues in combining disciplinary approaches, the benefits and pitfalls of hard- and soft-linking energy models, and the balance between simplicity vs. complexity for transparent yet authoritative findings.
o They have also refined our use cases for energy systems modelling - to enable our (linked) models to ask the right questions
• A series of in-depth workshops advancing the state of the art in interdisciplinary energy modelling, including:
o Social energy practices and other drivers of household energy use
o New techniques in formulating and applying energy scenarios
o The energy-land and energy-water nexus
o Incorporating behavioural responses in a whole systems context
o Future events include spatio-temporal energy systems modelling
• A ground-breaking initiative to make fully transparent and then embed an energy systems model (UKTM) as the primary long-term energy model for the UK government (DECC), underpinning the government's analysis for the 5th carbon budget (2027-32).
• A range of other key stakeholder interactions including underpinning electricity scenarios for the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advice on the 5th carbon budget
Based on teh range of outputs, new insights and stakeholder influencing done by teh consortium, we met our orginal objectives:Main objectives of the wholeSEM consortium were:
- Undertake internationally cutting edge research on prioritised energy system topics;
- Integrate whole energy systems modelling approaches across disciplinary boundaries;
- Build bilateral engagement mechanisms with the wider UK energy systems community in academia, government and industry.
Exploitation Route In additional to underpinning modelling for the UK Government (DECC) and the Committee on Climate Change for future energy pathways, we are collaborating with key industry groups (Energy Technologies Institute and the Energy Systems Catapult) to enhance their modelling capacity and feed into investment decisions on innovative new energy technologies. Furthermore we are influencing the EU and global energy debate through work with a range of modelling-policy networks (e.g., IIESI, EERA, ETSAP, IPCC), key publications (e.g., Nature Climate Change, Nature Energy), and presentations with a global reach (e.g., TEDx)
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Communities and Social Services/Policy

Energy

Environment

Government

Democracy and Justice

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology

URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/
 
Description wholeSEM provides insights into policy, industry and societal decision making processes on energy futures. How have our findings been used? As a key policy example, the UCL team worked with BEIS to make its UKTM energy systems model the UK government's core tool in assessing long term energy pathways for the 5th carbon budget negotiation. Innovatively we are making UKTM fully open source (a global first for a fully fledged energy system model) and are building a high powered user community (including UCL, BEIS, CCC, ETI, National Grid, National Infrastructure Commission, Imperial College, and Baringa). As another policy example, Prof Goran Strbac and the Imperial College Team's detailed electricity sector modelling underpinned the Committee on Climate Change's analysis when setting the UK's 5th carbon budget. These two modelling strands are an example of the multi-level and interdisciplinary modelling that wholeSEM is nationally and internationally known for. An industry example: Prof Goran Strbac is a Steering Committee member of the SmartGrids European Technology Platform, Chair of the EU Stakeholder Platform on Smart Cities Energy Supply & Networks, Director of the UK Centre for Grid Scale Energy Storage, and member of the IET Power Networks Joint Expert Group. As another industry example, Prof Neil Strachan was invited to be a non-executive director of the Energy Systems Capapult - the UK Governament primary mechanism for innovation with large and small UK businesses working in the energy sphere. A societal example, is our highly popular website (www.wholesem.ac.uk) and our Twitter feed (@wholeSEM) to reach the next generation of energy modellers. A further societal example is the publication by Prof Julian Allwood of a highly popular book aimed at the general public: Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open wholeSEM is academically excellent: We undertake cutting edge analysis across disciplinary boundaries. For example, Dr Julian Allwood and colleagues at Cambridge published a very high profile new study in Nature Climate Change: Importance of food-demand management for climate mitigation, that found a shift towards a more balanced diet and less food waste would significantly reduce the pressure on the environment. As another example research working with Prof Nigel Gilbert at the University of Surrey published groundbreaking work in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Why on earth did I buy that? A study of regretted appliance purchases - that empirically challenges simple assumptions on the relationship between consumption and happiness wholeSEM is an international player in the application of energy modelling: For example Prof Neil Strachan was an energy system chapter lead author of the IPCC 5th Assessment report on Mitigation of Climate Change WholeSEM serves as a de-facto centre for UK energy modelling This can be seen in the range of specialist workshops and events, notably our internationally renowned annual energy modelling conferences, as well as data curation and methods training that have brought together this disparate community.
First Year Of Impact 2013
Sector Energy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Societal

Economic

Policy & public services

 
Description "Delivering future-proof energy infrastructure": report for the National Infrastructure Commission
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact The report to the National Infrastructure Commission provided quantitative evidence based on advanced modelling, on the value of flexibility for the infrastructure in the future decarbonised energy system. Smart power - principally built around three innovations, interconnection, storage, and demand flexibility - could save consumers up to £8 billion a year by 2030, help the UK meet its 2050 carbon targets, and secure the UK's energy supply for generations.
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-power-a-national-infrastructure-commission-report
 
Description BEIS Select Committee Industrial Strategy Paper - Neil Strachan collaborating with BEIS Select Committee's future work on the UK's industrial strategy
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Citation in Committee on Climate Change 'Power sector scenarios for the fifth carbon budget' report
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact Members of wholeSEM's Imperial team produced the report 'Value of Flexibility in a Decarbonised Grid and System Externalities of Low-Carbon Generation Technologies' for the Committee on Climate Change to inform the 'Power sector scenarios for the fifth carbon budget' report. The report demonstrates that the "system integration cost" of low carbon technologies will depend significantly on the level of flexibility that may be available, particularly provided by demand side response, potentially energy storage and more flexible conventional gas plant.
URL https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/value-of-flexibility-in-a-decarbonised-grid-and-system-externa...
 
Description Deep Decarbonization Pathway Project (DDPP)
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) was a key input mechanisms into the international negotiations on the mitigation of climate change culminating in the historic agreement for action at the COP21 meeting in Paris. The DDPP is a collaborative global initiative led by IDDRI and SDSN that aims to demonstrate how individual countries can transition to a low-carbon economy consistent with the internationally agreed target of limiting the increase in global temperature to less than 2°C. Achieving this target will require a profound transformation of energy systems by mid-century, a "deep decarbonization". The project comprises 16 research teams composed of leading institutions from the world's largest GHG emitting countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States. Each team is exploring what is required to achieve this transformation in their own country's economy while taking into account socio-economic conditions, development aspirations, infrastructure stocks, natural resource endowments, and other relevant factors.
 
Description Dr Ilkka Keppo member of Technical Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change Analysis for Scottish Government
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Co Investigator Ilkka Keppo is a member of the Technical Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change Analysis for the Scottish government and attended a meeting on the 23rd of October to discuss the progress of the Scottish TIMES development. The model will use existing evidence to allow the Scottish Government to consider the cost and benefits of all policy options in combatting climate change, across all policy areas
URL http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0046/00469235.pdf
 
Description Evidence to the National Assembly of Wales' Environment, Climate Change and Rural Affairs Committee
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL http://senedd.assembly.wales
 
Description Gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's inquiry into security of supply
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL http://www.scottish.parliament.uk
 
Description Goran Strbac, and Marko Aunedi from Imperial College London conducted dedicated modelling of the UK's electricity system for report published by The Carbon Trust
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact The report found that: Technologies that provide flexibility will be critical for solving the future challenges of a low carbon electricity system at least cost and lowest risk. The UK could save £17-40 billion across the electricity system from now to 2050 by deploying these flexible technologies. Not deploying any additional sources of flexibility ('do nothing') by 2020 is the Pathway that delivers the greatest overall regret for the UK energy system A 'balanced' strategy of deployment across different sources of flexibility is the 'least worst regret' pathway for the UK energy system.
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/568982/An_analysis_of_elec...
 
Description Goran Strbac, and Marko Aunedi joint industry project with RWE Innogy, Renewable Energy Systems and Scottish Power Renewables - report published 'Whole-system cost of variable renewables in future GB electricity system'
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact One of the reports conclusions was that up to £4.2bn/year could be saved by improving system flexibility from today's level; most of these savings are already achievable with moderately enhanced flexibility.
URL http://energysuperstore.org/esrn/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Whole-system-cost-of-variable-renewables...
 
Description Industrial Metamorphosis BEIS Green Paper
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/263494/Final-pages.pdf?sequence=1
 
Description Meeting between BEIS Smart meter group and University of Surrey about the HOPES model.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Prof Goran Strbac: Chair of the EU Stakeholder Platform on Smart Cities Energy Supply & Networks,
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact Advising the EU Commission on the roll out of smart electricity grids and the mechanisms to spur investment and enable demand side participation
 
Description Prof Neil Strachan joins the Energy Systems Catapult as a non executive director
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact The Energy Systems Catapult is the UK's technology and innovation centre set up to support companies and Government in developing products and services to address the new commercial opportunities created by the transformation of UK and global energy systems (covering electricity, heat and combustible gases).
URL https://es.catapult.org.uk/
 
Description Professor Goran Strbac gave evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact On Tuesday 2nd December 2014, wholeSEM's Co-Investigator Professor Goran Strbac gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. As part of an inquiry examining the resilience of the electricity system, Professor Strbac offered expert advice on storage, interconnection and demand side response. Report and Government Response is now published with debate to take place in Chamber.
URL http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201415/ldselect/ldsctech/121/121.pdf
 
Description Professor Goran Strbac member of the SmartGrids European Technology Platform Steering Committee
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact The Steering Committee is an executive group of individuals representing various groups of stakeholders: TSO, Electrical systems manufacturers, DSO, ICT service providers, Regulation Metering manufacturers, Centralized generation, Customer interaction and metering, Renewable generation, Industrial R&D, Users, Academic and governmental R&D. Their main role is setting the vision and strategy for Europe's electricity networks of the future.
URL http://www.smartgrids.eu/node/7
 
Description Professor Neil Strachan energy system chapter lead author of the IPCC 5th Assessment report on Mitigation of Climate Change
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact This landmark report embeds state-of-the-art modelling of long term decarbonisation pathways within an expert meta-review and analysis on the best peer reviewed literature. Professor Neil Strachan was a lead author of Chapter 7 on Energy Systems. The report considers the improvement in new technologies and the assessment of their overall potential throughout the energy supply, buildings and transport sectors, as well as the range of policy initiatives enacted by countries across the world. It notes that the scale of the challenges to limit climate change to acceptable risk levels is daunting and relies on massive redirection of energy investment, the success of key low carbon energy technologies, the recognition of the critical role of energy demand reduction, and the setting up of new institutions to coordinate such a transition.
URL http://www.ipcc.ch/
 
Description Professor Nigel Gilbert member of working group for Royal Academy of Engineering report 'A critical time for UK energy policy'
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
Impact Co-Investigator Professor Nigel Gilbert was part of the working group that produced the report 'A critical time for UK energy policy' for the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology with other members of the consortium interviewed as part of the study. The report details the actions needed now to create a secure and affordable low carbon energy system for 2030 and beyond.
URL http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/a-critical-time-for-uk-energy-policy
 
Description The Council for Science and Technology round table discussion on the UK's Energy landscape
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Professor Neil Strachan was invited to take part in a round table discussion on the UK's Energy landscape on 2nd March 2015. This was part of The Council for Science and Technology's project to map the major elements of the UK science and research landscape. The science landscape project aims to provide a mapping that shows the interconnectivity of research disciplines, funders and international partners, and a series of products that will inform longer term decision making.
 
Description UCL net zero research aknowledged in CCC report as contributing to UK efforts to reduce climate change
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact This report considers The Paris Agreement and makes positive conclusions about the efforts to limit climate change the agreement initiated. It also surmises that our existing UK targets are already high and our priority at this time should be to meet these targets rather than set new ones. The report acknowledges the wholeSEM/UCL-Energy teams work through net zero modelling as supporting the efforts to address our targets.
URL https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/UK-climate-action-following-the-Paris-Agreement...
 
Description UKTM training for DECC staff
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Dr Peihao Li, wholeSEM Research Associate delivered training to staff at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) on 29th February 2016. The purpose of the training was to teach staff how to create scenarios in the UKTIMES energy systems model currently being developed as DECC's core tool in assessing long term energy pathways for the 5th carbon budget negotiation.
 
Description wholeSEM Fellowship programme
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description wholeSEM's UK TIMES model used by DECC to set fifth carbon budget
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://www.gov.uk/guidance/carbon-budgets
 
Description Assess-BECCS Assessing potential, feasibility and impacts of Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) in the UK
Amount £205,000 (GBP)
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2017 
End 02/2018
 
Description British Academy Grant
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2015 
 
Description Complex Built Environment Systems (CBES) Platform Grant Renewal Bid: Built Environment Systems Thinking
Amount £1,564,041 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/P022405/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2017 
End 04/2023
 
Description DECC Consultancy Agreement
Amount £70,000 (GBP)
Organisation Department of Energy and Climate Change 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2014 
End 07/2016
 
Description EPSRC/ESC Follow on Funding: Operationalising Socio-Technical Energy Transitions
Amount £510,111 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/S002707/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2018 
End 10/2021
 
Description ETSAP Research Fund
Amount € 24,000 (EUR)
Organisation International Energy Agency (IEA) 
Department Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program (ETSAP)
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Global
Start 03/2015 
End 04/2016
 
Description Energy Revolution Research Consortium - Plus - EnergyREV - Next Wave of Local Energy Systems in a Whole Systems Context
Amount £935,829 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/S031898/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 03/2023
 
Description HomeSense: digital sensors for social research
Amount £798,000 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/N011589/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2016 
End 12/2019
 
Description Innopaths - Innovation pathways, strategies and policies for the Low-Carbon Transition in Europe
Amount £917,976 (GBP)
Funding ID 730403 
Organisation European Commission 
Department Horizon 2020
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 12/2016 
End 11/2020
 
Description QUAL2RULE Workshop
Amount £500 (GBP)
Organisation European Social Simulation Association 
Sector Learned Society
Country Switzerland
Start  
 
Description REEEM - role of technologies for an energy efficient economy model
Amount £701,807 (GBP)
Funding ID 691739 
Organisation European Commission 
Department Horizon 2020
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 03/2016 
End 07/2019
 
Description RESTLESS - Realising Energy Storage Technologies in Low-carbon Energy Systems
Amount £1,758,715 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/N001893/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2015 
End 08/2019
 
Description UK FIRES: Locating Resource Efficiency at the heart of Future Industrial Strategy in the UK
Amount £5,176,327 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/S019111/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 03/2024
 
Title BLUE 
Description The Behaviour, Lifestyles and Uncertainty Energy model (BLUE) is a system dynamic model of the UK energy system that simulates future energy transitions and the associated changes to technologies, energy use and emissions. BLUE is conceptually aligned with the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions in that it has landscape (government and the macro-scale socio-political environment), regime (the existing energy system) and niche (disruptive technology and lifestyle innovations) levels. Rather than relying on a single omnipotent social planner to allocate resources, BLUE is instead configured with multiple actors, each representing a decision-maker that is independently responsible for a single economic sector. Further work under the O-STET project aims to capture the imperfect socio-political elements of transition pathways, operationalising both the concept of political capital and of public willingness to participate 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Journal papers Trutnevyte E., Barton J., O'Grady Á., Ogunkunle D., Pudjianto D. and Robertson E. (2014) Linking a storyline with multiple models: A cross-scale study of the UK power system transition. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 89, 26-42. Li, Francis G. N. and Strachan, N. (2016) Modelling Energy Transitions for Climate Targets under Landscape and Actor Inertia. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. Li, Francis G. N. (2017) Actors behaving badly: Exploring the modelling of non-optimal behaviour in energy transitions. Energy Strategy Reviews, 15, 57-71. Li, F. G. N. and N. Strachan (2017). "Modelling energy transitions for climate targets under landscape and actor inertia." Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 24: 106-129. Li, F. G. N. and N. Strachan (2019). "Take me to your leader: Using socio-technical energy transitions (STET) modelling to explore the role of actors in decarbonisation pathways." Energy Research & Social Science 51: 67-81. Conference papers Strachan N. and Warren P. (2011) Incorporating Behavioural Complexity in Energy-Economic Models. Energy and People: Futures, Complexity and Challenges , 20-21 September, Oxford. 
URL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/energy-models/models/blue
 
Title CGEN 
Description Combined Gas and Electricity Network Operation Model (CGEN) CGEN is a modelling and optimisation tool for the gas and electricity transmission infrastructure. CGEN model minimises the total operational cost of the combined gas and electricity system including the costs of gas supplies, gas storage operation, power generation and load shedding over the entire time horizon while meeting gas and electricity demand. Work under wholeSEM has enhanced: o Assessing the value of enhancing flexibility (large-scale gas storage and bi-directional gas compressors) associated with gas transmission and use o Assessing the importance of integrated combined gas and electricity modelling - when and why these systems need to be integrated 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Input into the International Institute for Energy Systems Integration (iiESI) - a global institute aimed at tackling the challenges of energy systems integration through collaboration and education. 
 
Title Data from: Why on earth did I buy that? A study of regretted appliance purchases 
Description If targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby tackle climate change are to be achieved, it will be necessary to reduce both embodied energy costs (e.g. in terms of producing and manufacturing the products and services that society consumes) and operational energy costs. Reducing the number of purchases that people regret could be a first step in changing the overall dynamic of consumption patterns. This research looks at some potentially adverse effects of consumption on well-being (e.g. negative emotions), applying social practice theory to give insights into why people make purchases that they feel negatively about. This paper draws from: (i) findings of a national survey of over 2000 respondents which found that 53% of adults had reported regretting purchasing an electrical device at some point, and that 23% regretted making such a purchase within the past year; and (ii) a series of walking interviews around people's homes that provide detailed insights into the nature and extent of regretted purchases of electrical goods (e.g. resentment at built-in obsolescence, frustration at the pace of technological change). By combining the qualitative and quantitative data, we develop a typology of regretted consumption and explore the underlying factors that lead to such purchases. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of this research. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.s05q6
 
Title Foreseer 
Description Model for visualising the influence of future demand scenarios on requirements for energy, water and land resources The Foreseer tool at the University of Cambridge investigates the 'nexus' of water, energy and land resources. It is a scenario generation tool which includes natural resource supply, transformation, and use, as well as the ways in which they affect each other. The Foreseer tool also calculates greenhouse gas emissions and other measures of stress, such as groundwater depletion, in response to user-defined scenarios. The basis of the tool is a set of linked physical models for these resources plus the technologies that transform these resources into final services. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Academic publications. Expert practitioner events. Presentation and engagement with technical policy makers in UK, China and California 
URL https://www.foreseer.group.cam.ac.uk/
 
Title HOPES model 
Description University of Surrey team are developing an agent based model of household energy demand called HOPES HOPES will provide a systematic understanding of the performance and spread of domestic energy consuming social practices. • HOPES will provide insight into the temporal dynamics of domestic social practices on both short and long timescales, which may be crucial for motivating short-term practice changes that can influence more permanent lifestyle changes. • We are collecting household energy demand data on perceptions of energy consumption and energy saving, on energy use and factors influencing energy-related decisions • We demonstrate that it is essential to find ways in which to engage people in discussions about routine and mundane aspects of their daily lives if their energy consumption is to be moderated. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Seek to refine and clarify important concepts in Social Practice Theory, and to model energy consumption as a by-product of social practices performed at households (e.g., washing clothes, watching TV etc.). 
 
Title STEMES 
Description STeMES (Spatio Temporal Model of Energy Systems) STeMES is a generic optimisation model of energy systems comprising technologies for generation/conversion, transport and storage and transport infrastructures. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Academic publications. International conference presentations 
 
Title UKTM 
Description UKTM (the UK TIMES Model) portrays the UK energy system, from fuel extraction and trading, to fuel processing and transport, electricity generation and all final energy demands. The model generates scenarios for the evolution of the energy system based on different assumptions around the evolution of demands, future technology costs, measuring energy system costs and all greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with the scenario. UKTM is built using the TIMES model generator: As a partial equilibrium energy system and technologically detailed model, is well suited to investigate the economic, social, and technological trade-offs between long-term divergent energy scenarios. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2015 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact UKTM will be the central long-term energy system pathway model used for policy analysis at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), including the 5th Carbon Budget Report. In research, UKTM will be used for a variety of cutting-edge research topics including behavioural modelling, the representation of technology learning and diffusion, increasing the spatial and temporal detail in energy systems modelling, linking UKTM with macroeconomic modelling frameworks as well as exploring the land-energy-water nexus. In an ongoing full open-source launch in January 2015, UKTM will be the first full scale energy systems optimisation model to be made fully open to the research community 
URL http://www.ucl.ac.uk/energy-models/models/uktm-ucl
 
Title University of Surrey Household energy use: UK survey 
Description The University of Surrey ran a survey with Ipsos MORI to collect data on household energy demand in the UK. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The data from the survey will feed into the HOPES model, an Agent-based model of energy consumption as a by-product of social practices performed at households. The data collected in the survey will be made available to the wider UK community through UKERC's Energy data centre shortly. 
 
Title WeSIM 
Description WeSIM is a comprehensive electricity system analysis model simultaneously balancing long-term investment-related decisions against short-term operation-related decisions, across generation, transmission and distribution systems, in an integrated fashion. Work under wholeSEM has enhanced time and space granularity to assess the value and the system integration costs of different technologies in electricity system decarbonisation 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Underpinning power sector scenarios for the Committee on Climate Change advice on the 5th carbon budget to the UK Government 
 
Title highRES 
Description An electricity dispatch model analysing the integration of renewables into the UK electricity generation system. The spatially and temporally high-Resolution Electricity Model (highRES) is used to identify cost-effective, flexible and robust electricity systems for the UK. The model is specifically designed to analyse the effects of high shares of variable renewables and explore integration/flexibility options. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Conference Papers Zeyringer, M., Daly, H., et al. (2014). Spatially and Temporally Explicit Energy System Modelling to Support the Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Infrastructure - Case Study for Wind Energy in the UK. International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure Conference Proceedings (IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria). 
URL http://www.ucl.ac.uk/energy-models/models/highres
 
Description Agent-based modelling introductory course 
Organisation University of Essex
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Contributed to running and teaching at two one-day agent-based modelling introductory courses at the University of Essex (July 2017 and August 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Contributed to running and teaching at two one-day agent-based modelling introductory courses at the University of Essex (July 2017 and August 2017)
Impact Taught at two one-day events
Start Year 2017
 
Description Assessment of the resiliency of the water and energy systems to climate change in UK and California 
Organisation Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Dennis Konadu visited Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, USA, as a wholeSEM Fellow to collaborate with Dr Andrew Jones on the assessment of the resiliency of the water and energy systems to climate change in UK and California (January to March 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Collaboration with Dr Andrew Jones on the assessment of the resiliency of the water and energy systems to climate change in UK and California (January to March 2017)
Impact Dennis Konadu visited Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California, USA, as a wholeSEM Fellow to collaborate with Dr Andrew Jones on the assessment of the resiliency of the water and energy systems to climate change in UK and California (January to March 2017)
Start Year 2017
 
Description CRESS Surrey Collaboration HOPES 
Organisation University of Surrey
Department Centre for Research in Social Simulation - CRESS
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Two MSc students completing an internship at CRESS, University of Surrey based on HOPES (started January 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Two MSc students completing an internship at CRESS, University of Surrey based on HOPES (started January 2017)
Impact Collaboration
Start Year 2017
 
Description Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) 
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert, wholeSEM Co Investigator, has been appointed Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), a multi-partner consortium funded by ESRC. The new national research hub, initiated by a consortium of leading UK bodies, will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the 'nexus'), and how they affect wider society.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert led the proposal and is Principal Investigator for the 3year project.
Impact No outputs yet as the consortium has just launched.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert, wholeSEM Co Investigator, has been appointed Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), a multi-partner consortium funded by ESRC. The new national research hub, initiated by a consortium of leading UK bodies, will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the 'nexus'), and how they affect wider society.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert led the proposal and is Principal Investigator for the 3year project.
Impact No outputs yet as the consortium has just launched.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert, wholeSEM Co Investigator, has been appointed Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), a multi-partner consortium funded by ESRC. The new national research hub, initiated by a consortium of leading UK bodies, will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the 'nexus'), and how they affect wider society.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert led the proposal and is Principal Investigator for the 3year project.
Impact No outputs yet as the consortium has just launched.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) 
Organisation Food Standards Agency (FSA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert, wholeSEM Co Investigator, has been appointed Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), a multi-partner consortium funded by ESRC. The new national research hub, initiated by a consortium of leading UK bodies, will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the 'nexus'), and how they affect wider society.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert led the proposal and is Principal Investigator for the 3year project.
Impact No outputs yet as the consortium has just launched.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert, wholeSEM Co Investigator, has been appointed Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN), a multi-partner consortium funded by ESRC. The new national research hub, initiated by a consortium of leading UK bodies, will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the 'nexus'), and how they affect wider society.
Collaborator Contribution Professor Nigel Gilbert led the proposal and is Principal Investigator for the 3year project.
Impact No outputs yet as the consortium has just launched.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Collaboration to produce a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review 
Organisation Energy Technologies Institute (ETI)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Produced a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review.
Collaborator Contribution Produced a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review.
Impact The report
Start Year 2016
 
Description Collaboration to produce a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review 
Organisation UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Produced a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review.
Collaborator Contribution Produced a high level report on energy industrial strategy for the current BEIS consultative review.
Impact The report
Start Year 2016
 
Description Collaboration with Goddard Space Flight Centre (NASA) 
Organisation National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Department Goddard Space Flight Center
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Zenaida Sobral Mourao and Dennis Konadu from University of Cambridge are collaborating with Richard Damoah from the Goddard Space Flight Centre (NASA) in Maryland, USA to investigate the air pollution impacts of defining health related priorities to decarbonising the energy system.
Collaborator Contribution Investigating the air pollution impacts of defining health related priorities to decarbonising the energy system.
Impact multi-disciplinary collaboration between researchers at university of Cambridge and NASA
Start Year 2016
 
Description Contribution to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School 
Organisation Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Country Italy 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Impact Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Contribution to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School 
Organisation Royal Institute of Technology
Country Sweden 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Impact Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Contribution to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School 
Organisation UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative
Country Global 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Impact Dennis Konadu contributed to the organisation and delivery of Land-Water-Energy nexus at CLEWS Summer School with KTH, Sweden, UNDP, UNDESA & ICTP Trieste, Italy. (June 2017)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Energy, Resources and Environment 
Organisation European Geosciences Union
Country Germany 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Dennis Konadu convened a session on Energy, Resources and Environment at the 2017 European Geosciences Union Annual Conference in Vienna Austria (April, 2017)
Collaborator Contribution Dennis Konadu convened a session on Energy, Resources and Environment at the 2017 European Geosciences Union Annual Conference in Vienna Austria (April, 2017)
Impact Session convened on Energy, Resources and Environment at the 2017 European Geosciences Union Annual Conference in Vienna Austria (April, 2017)
Start Year 2017
 
Description European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) 
Organisation European Commission
Country European Union (EU) 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Leading the sub-program 4: Energy models for a system assessment of European low-carbon energy futures: markets, environmental and economic impacts. Specific contributions included a 1.5 day modelling and policy workshop with focus on joint modelling activities on uncertainty and the management of intermittent energy generation and storage.
Collaborator Contribution Coordinating the role of 33 member institutions from 15 countries under this EERA programme. EERA brings together key energy research centres and universities under 15 Joint Programmes. It provides a forum to facilitate discussion, research collaborations and joint funding application.
Impact Ongoing proposals for research funding to the EU Horizon 2020 programme
Start Year 2013
 
Description IQ SCENE - Innovative Scenarios Techniques 
Organisation CIRED
Country Belgium 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Co-organised a 2 day international workshop 'IQ SCENE - Innovative Scenarios Techniques' on 26-27 March 2014, which contrasted international approaches on Innovative techniques for Quantitative SCenarios in ENergy and Environmental research.The workshop brought together over 30 researchers from nine countries in Europe and North America, working in energy and environmental fields. The mission of the workshop was: (i) For the first time, to bring together the key researchers that use the innovative techniques for developing, analysing and choosing quantitative scenarios in energy and environmental research; (ii) Gather these existing techniques into one toolbox, share experiences and thoughts for future research; (iii) Actively disseminate the workshop results in the academic community.
Collaborator Contribution Co-organised the workshop and participated in the programme. Co-authored the report and follow up work.
Impact Follow-up activities from the workshop includes a ResearchGate project "IQ SCENE: Innovative Scenarios Techniques" as a platform for knowledge sharing. special or virtual issue of an academic journal will be initiated in order to publish the individual workshop contributions and tie them up into a joint issue. The workshop mission and findings will be further disseminated through other events and meetings, e.g. in 7th International Congress of Environmental Modelling and Software and other conferences.
Start Year 2014
 
Description International BE4 Workshop 
Organisation International Energy Agency (IEA)
Department Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program (ETSAP)
Country Global 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Co-organised a 2 day international workshop 'International BE4 Workshop Including Behaviour in Energy/Engineering/Economy/Environment models' on 20 - 21 April 2015 which brought together 50 participants with speakers from 13 countries working on improving the behavioural realism of E4 models. The aims of the workshop were to: •Bring together for the first time energy system researchers with expertise and interest in representing behaviour in energy/economy/engineering/environment (E4) models; •Develop a common understanding of the state-of-the-art in this emerging field; •Identify knowledge gaps; •Gain exposure to research in other fields which has successfully integrated behaviour into energy-economy approaches;
Collaborator Contribution Co-organised the workshop and participated in the programme. Co-authored the report and follow up work.
Impact Hannah Daly presented poster 'Addressing the behavioural gap in energy/economy models: Outcomes of the BE4 Workshop and outlook for the state-of-the-art' at Our Common Future under Climate Change (CFCC) Conference, Paris, France, 7-10 July 2015.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Open-source version of the UK TIMES (UKTM) energy model 
Organisation Department of Energy and Climate Change
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The UCL team is working with DECC to make its UKTM energy systems model the UK government's core tool in assessing long term energy pathways for the 5th carbon budget negotiation. Working with DECC on ensuring the UKTM model is able to handle the full set of policy analysis for long term UK energy UK pathways, as well as to improve its functionality (in terms of technological change, behaviour, macro impacts and spatial/temporal detail)
Collaborator Contribution 20/01/2014 and 02/04/2014 Meeting with DECC QA team Bevan Freake from DECC started as a wholeSEM fellow in May 2014 at UCL to undertake UKTM model improvements and make sure the data is in line with DECC assumptions and the process and documentation follows DECC's Q&A process 16/07: meeting with Jon Roberts (Analysis Directorate from DECC) on the governance structure for the open source version of UKTM 22/07: meeting with Jon Roberts and Bevan Freake from DECC to discuss the updates to the UKTM power sector implemented by DECC September and October 2014 - a series a workshops between UCL and DECC looking at different sectors (residential, industry and transport sectors) 6th October 2014 - core user workshop with a group of modellers and model users (DECC, CCC, ETI, UCL, ICL, and Baringa) 21st October 2015 - core user workshop with a group of modellers and model users (DECC, CCC, ETI, UCL, ICL, and Baringa) Plus a set of ad hoc meetings between DECC and UCL
Impact Internal review process finished, work ongoing to release the open source UKTM model via UK Governments open source license approach. Currently the model is available via an NDA to members of the expert steering group, and DECC is undertaking a final formulae audit, and reorganistion of the documentation.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Surrey Oct. 2017 EST 
Organisation Energy Saving Trust
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Collaborative proposal between the University of Surrey and the Energy Savings Trust inspired by there wholeSEM work
Collaborator Contribution Collaborative proposal between the University of Surrey and the Energy Savings Trust inspired by there wholeSEM work
Impact Collaboration with EST
Start Year 2017
 
Description Surrey Oct. 2017 PIPER 
Organisation Research Councils UK (RCUK)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution A UK-India joint grant proposal titled 'Promoting Informed Policy making for Energy demand in Residential buildings (PIPER)' inspired by our wholeSEM work was submitted to the UK research council
Collaborator Contribution A UK-India joint grant proposal titled 'Promoting Informed Policy making for Energy demand in Residential buildings (PIPER)' inspired by the University of Surrey's wholeSEM work was submitted to the UK research council
Impact Grant proposal titled 'Promoting Informed Policy making for Energy demand in Residential buildings (PIPER)'
Start Year 2017
 
Description Surrey Oct. 2017 Uni Reading 
Organisation University of Reading
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration proposals between the University of Surrey and the University of Reading), inspired by wholeSEM work, is under preparation
Collaborator Contribution Collaboration proposals between the University of Surrey and the University of Reading), inspired by wholeSEM work, is under preparation
Impact Collaboration with University of Reading
Start Year 2017
 
Title Ricklupton/Bayesian-Mfa-Paper: Initial Published Version 
Description Code and data supporting the paper "Incremental Material Flow Analysis with Bayesian Inference" 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2017 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/581183
 
Description A talk given at Reading University by Dr Kavin Narasimhan: Modelling energy use in households: A practice theory approach 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact In continuation of the LV workshop series, the 4th workshop aims to share learning from the NTVV project on demand analytics and energy storage control for LV network support. The workshop also includes an Energy Seminar arranged in collaboration with Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce (TVCC) and focusing on commercial application of energy storage.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/energy-seminar-series-4th-lv-workshop-1-or-2-day-event-1st-2nd-march-...
 
Description BIEE Oxford Research Conference (St Johns College, Oxford) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact wholeSEM ran a dialogue session at the BIEE Oxford Research Conference
Title: How Many Energy Models should be Developed, Maintained and Applied to Decision Making?
Abstract: Countries around the world are beginning the process of profoundly restructuring their energy systems to meet an interlinked set of policy goals; notably low carbon, secure and affordable energy supply. Decision makers across industry, government, and wider society needs to make key decisions in the light of this evolving landscape.
This dialogue session was coordinated by the wholeSEM consortium, four leading UK energy modellers - two established and 2 early career researchers - the debate was opened with their own viewpoints on the following interlinked questions:
How many energy models (or modelling platforms) should be developed, maintained and applied?
Who should build, own, use, critique, improve, document and pay for these energy models?
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.biee.org/conference-list/innovation-disruption-energy-sector-transition/
 
Description Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to discuss modelling requirements for Carbon Budget 5. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact wholeSEM's UCL team met with technical experts from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to discuss modelling requirements for Carbon Budget 5. The meeting focused on the UK TIMES model to consider its suitability for Carbon Budget 5 analysis. Carbon budgets were established as part of the Climate Change Act 2008 to set limits on the total greenhouse gas emissions allowed from the UK in successive five year periods.

Long term links between the key UK government advsor (OFGEM) and the wholeSEM Consortium
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description DECC Stakeholder workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This event was designed to introduce a set of energy models and energy modelling approaches to a breadth of technical and policy colleagues within DECC. The aim of this half day event was to explain the key elements of our models and to highlight their strengths and weaknesses to address particular energy policy issues.

A number of follow on meetings and interactions have occurred between DECC and the Consortium
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/decc-workshop
 
Description Dennis Konadu presentation at the 2016 UN General Assembly in New York on 23rd September 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact gave presentation on "Climate, Land, Energy and Water Systems interaction and the UN sustainable development goals - the role of research", at an UNDP/UNDESA event on "Modelling Tools to inform national policies for sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda" during the 2016 UN General Assembly in New York on 23rd September.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.un.org/en/ga/meetings/
 
Description Dr Julian Allwood delivers TEDx talk for 'One World' Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On Saturday 8th March, Dr Julian Allwood, University of Cambridge and Co Investigator for wholeSEM delivered a TEDx talk titled 'Let's just use less energy'. The talk considered our use of energy and the possibilities that we have for addressing climate change. His talk concluded with a recognition that we need a dialogue beyond engineering and science, that we need to consider the role of sociology to understand our use of energy. His closing comment stated that "If we can think about our identity and our use of energy, maybe it will turn out that we are very much better off with using less of it".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Energy Policy in London - security, infrastructure and sustainability 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Energy policy in London - security, infrastructure and sustainability Policy Forum. Neil Strachan presented: Assessing the Capital's future energy needs: key challenges and opportunities ahead' Delegates at this seminar considered the future of London's energy policy - looking in particular at the key challenges facing London's energy infrastructure, and what more can be done to meet rising demand for energy across the Capital. The discussion is scheduled to follow the development of the first London Energy Plan, which will seek to provide a spatial map of energy supply and demand up to 2050, alongside options for delivering the required supporting infrastructure.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/forums/event.php?eid=1140
 
Description European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2016 in Vienna, Austria 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Cambridge's wholeSEM team convened a session at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The session 'Energy and environmental system interactions - Policy and modelling' and presented a poster on 'Air quality and future energy system planning'
The EGU General Assembly 2016 was a great success with 4,863 oral, 10,320 poster, and 947 PICO presentations. 619 unique scientific sessions together with 321 side events created an interesting programme. At the conference 13,650 scientists from 109 countries participated, of which 25% were students and 53% early career scientists (under the age of 35 years), 15,000 copies of EGU Today distributed, keen media presence and reporting, and thousands of visits to the webstreams as well as to the EGU blog GeoLog.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.egu2016.eu/
 
Description Exhibited wholeSEM research and energy monitoring study in households at the University of Surrey Annual Review Event (January 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Exhibited our WholeSEM research and energy monitoring study in households at the University of Surrey Annual Review Event (January 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description First Workshop on Modelling Social Energy Practices 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Modelling Social Energy Practices workshop invited contributions that described computational models inspired by social practice theory, presented models of household energy demand, and evaluated different models of social energy- related practices.

Thirty-eight delegates attended the workshop which covered a range of topics such as the social diffusion of habits, the diffusion of innovation in products that use cleaner technologies, the function of energy labels, energy practices in transition, transport and commuting practices, domestic energy demand, the dynamics of socio-technical regime changes and acceptance of innovation, and low carbon energy behaviour.

Ongoing research collaborations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/modelling-social-energy-practices
 
Description Francesco Fuso Nerini participated and helped organise an IEA event in which experts gathered to provide strategic direction for a new World Energy Outlook special report 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Experts gathered to give strategic direction to upcoming World Energy Outlook special report on energy and development. IEA brought together over 100 experts from 30 countries to provide strategic direction for a new WEO special report titled "Energy Access Outlook: from Poverty to Prosperity". Workshop participants conducted a thorough review of the current energy situation in regions suffering most acutely from a lack of modern energy, in particular Africa and developing Asia, as well as sessions dedicated to identifying a strategy to achieve modern energy for all by 2030, how energy development can unleash productive economic activity and accelerate economic growth, and whether the pathway to universal modern energy access will follow or diverge from the centralised energy sector development path taken by many.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2017/march/experts-gather-to-give-strategic-direction-to-upcoming-w...
 
Description Francis Li Meeting with Innovate UK, London (24/08/2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting on improving the utility of energy models for policy analysis by (1) exploring the role of actor behaviour in energy transitions (2) considering the spatial implications of energy transitions and the potential implications for industrial strategy and regional development and (3) the need to develop new techniques for understanding energy pathways under deep uncertainty.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Goran Strbac - key note presentation at the UK Energy Storage Annual Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote Speaker at the third UK Energy Storage Research Conference (UKES2016), providing an inclusive platform for all researchers in Energy Storage to present their work through talks and poster sessions. In line with the ethos of the Energy SUPERSTORE, the conference endeavours to bring together researchers from academia, industry and policy and across the whole field of energy storage, inspiring collaborations for future research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://ukenergystorage.co/
 
Description IEA ETSAP executive committee 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting defined research and software development priorities for IEA-ETSAP energy modelling tools used in over 100 countries

Continued growth in worldwide user group
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014
URL http://www.iea-etsap.org/web/index.asp
 
Description James Price Presentation at the Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) launch event in Newcastle 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Dr James Price presented on the high spatial and temporal resolution electricity system model (highRES) at the Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) launch event in NewcastleHighRES has been built as part of wholeSEM to study the integration of variable renewables (VRE; usually wind and solar) into the British power system. The model is being used to understand the impact of the variability of weather on electricity systems with high shares of VRE. It is also being used to assess how different social, environmental and technical restrictions on the deployment of VRE affect optimal system designs.

CESI is a new research centre funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Siemens. Research being conducted using highRES under wholeSEM synergises well with multiple work packages across CESI including those focused on energy supply, infrastructure and storage and energy demand
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cesi/launch/
 
Description Marianne Zeyringer presented her research on VRE at the "Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development" at Utrecht University. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Marianne presented her research on integrating variable renewable energy sources (VRE) into the power system at the "Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development" at Utrecht University. The group is a major European energy modelling team and one of the research foci is on modelling of renewable energy sources. In Marianne's presentation "The impact of the variability of weather and socio-environmental constraints on the GB power system with high shares of VRE" she specifically focused on the integration project with the team at Cambridge University. Using several years of weather data to account for the variability of weather and integrating social and environmental factors into power system models raised particular interest among the researches from Utrecht University and PBL (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency). Marianne spent the rest of the day sharing methodologies with individual researchers and discussing ideas around possible joint papers and further cooperation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.uu.nl/en/research/copernicus-institute-of-sustainable-development
 
Description Material Demand Reduction Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Skelton co-editor Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A on "Material Demand Reduction" including 18 contributions, 5 of which were from overseas
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.uselessgroup.org/news/material-demand-reduction-workshop-royal-society-philosophical-tran...
 
Description Materials World magazine article 'Steel, the future for the UK and Europe' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Professor Julian Allwood, wholeSEM Co Investigator, considers the recent developments in the European steel industry and offers an approach for the future in 'Materials World' magazine, which is specifically devoted to the engineering materials cycle, from mining and extraction, through processing and application, to recycling and recovery. The magazine is widely accepted as the leading publication in its field, promoting the latest developments and new technologies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.iom3.org/materials-world-magazine/feature/2016/jan/05/steel-future-uk-and-europe
 
Description Meeting with BEIS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting Between the University of Surrey and BEIS to present HOPES and discuss the feasibility of adapting the model for an ABM project of BEIS (May 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Neil Strachan gave a seminar on 'Modelling future UK energy pathways' to the UCL Green Economy society 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact seminar on 'Modelling future UK energy pathways'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://geucl.com/
 
Description Neil Strachan presentation to MSc and PhD Students and Academic Staff at Surrey Energy Economics Centre 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Neil Strachan presented 'Modelling energy transitions under landscape and actor inertia' to PhD and MSc students and academics for the Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC) seminar series at University of Surrey, School of Economics for the first semester of 2016/2017 academic year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Neil Strachan presented at ALPS International Symposium - Tokyo, Japan 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Alternative Pathways toward Sustainable development and climate stabilisation (ALPS) symposium aims to gather prominent international and Japanese experts on energy and climate policy to discuss possible policies and measures for achieving a sustainable society with stabilised climate change. Feb, 7, 2017 in Tokyo. The expected audience is around 200-250 from academia, industry and government (mainly METI). Around five overseas speakers and a few domestic speakers will be invited. 30-40 minutes presentation on the UK's emission reduction measures toward 2050 and the issues to be achieved. The Paris Agreement is the pledge & review type framework that means each nation's activities of emission reductions are important. But there will be many technological, social, and political difficulties for each nation (some are common, some are different across nations) to achieve the mid- and long-term emission reductions. We would like to share such difficulties and to consider the opportunities to be overcome from the lessons.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/Energy/160209-ALPS.html
 
Description Nilay Shah meeting with BEIS to discuss the role of hydrogen in future energy systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Nilay Shah meeting with BEIS to discuss the role of hydrogen in future energy systems
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description OSeMOSYS Steering Committee and workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact OSeMOSYS Steering Committee and workshop. OSeMOSYS is a fully-fledged systems optimisation model for long-run energy planning. It is an open source tool created by a community of leading institutions, including UCL, and is capable of powerful energy systems analysis and prototyping new energy model formulations. It is typically used for the analysis of energy systems looking over the medium (10-15yrs) and long (50-100yrs) term. It is used by experienced modellers as an exploratory tool, by developing country modellers where data limitations are an issue, and as a teaching tool.

Surge in interest from developing country energy modellers and energy policy makers in OSeMOSYS tools
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://osemosysmain.yolasite.com/
 
Description Ofgem: Energy and Economics seminar series 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Professor Neil Strachan, UCL and Principal Investigator for wholeSEM presented at Ofgem as part of their Energy and Economics seminar series. The presentation 'Energy Modelling and the Energy Policy Process' discussed UCL's experiences of producing insights via energy modelling and the subsequent iteration with the policy making process. His talk also considered a case study on this focusing on the challenge of long-term energy system decarbonisation.

Long-term links between regulator (OFGEM) and wholeSEM consortium
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Participate in IEEE PES Super Session on Business Models for Electricity Market 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact G. Strbac gave talk on "Role and value of flexibility in future low carbon energy systems" and inform the debate in this area.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Participate in IEEE PES-GM 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact G. Strbac gave two talks on "From Centralised to Decentralised control & trading" and "Opportunities and challenges for international integration and multi-sector coordination of energy systems"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Participate in International Centre for Mathematical Science Energy Management: Flexibility, Risk and Optimisation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact G. Strbac gave talk on "Quantifying the benefits of flexibility in future lower carbon energy system"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Participated in 11th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact G. Strbac gave talk on "Cost effective transition to low carbon energy systems"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Paticipation in EERA Joint Programme in Energy Systems Integration 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The EERA ESI event held in Copenhagen in November 2016 was attended by 50 energy system researchers from across Europe. The programme included several presentations by Imperial team members.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Pedro Rivotti and Dennis Konadu visit to Terravesta 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Terravesta is a company that serves as an intermediary between farmers and power producers and offers long term contracts to growers who are willing to produce miscanthus. It is often mentioned in the literature and available surveys that the security of these contracts is a key factor for farmers to convert part of their land to energy crop production, and therefore we want to have a solid representation of this kind of company in our modelling. We will be asking questions about their business model, their contracts with farmers, and their contracts with power producers such as Drax.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Pedro Rivotti attended UK-Kazakhstan workshop on low-carbon energy, at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop brought together early career researchers from the UK and Kazakhstan to share their knowledge and experience, exchange ideas and generate future collaborations to promote sustainable energy system research and development in Kazakhstan. The workshop also aims to reduce the gap between scientific findings and industrial implementation and recognise how science and business can collaborate collectively in the field of energy.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.theibest.org/apps/blog/entries/show/44215936-newton-al-farabi-funded-workshop-low-carbon-...
 
Description Pedro Rivotti gave a presentation at the UK-China workshop on low carbon energy, at Queen's University Belfast under the Newton Fund. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Pedro Rivotti gave a presentation at the UK-China workshop on low carbon energy, at Queen's University Belfast under the Newton Fund.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://ukchinaenergy.com/uk-china-workshop-2016/
 
Description Pei-Hao Li Presentation at ETSAP meeting in Spain 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Workshop and training session.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://iea-etsap.org/index.php/etsap-meeting
 
Description Presentation at XIV Congresso de Psicologia Ambiental - Insights from a practice-theory approach 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Abstract is entitled: "INSIGHTS FROM A PRACTICE-THEORY APPROACH TO SIMULATE THE DYNAMICS OF HOUSEHOLD ENERGY USE" authors are HOPE, AIMIE / NARASIMHAN, KAVIN - Presented at Conference in Portugal
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.congresopsicamb2017.com/psicamb/cgi.hrb?idexp=LSYUY&main=homeen
 
Description Presentation to the SINCERE Project Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Skelton A. (2017) "Comparison of energy and material efficiency rebound effects" Presentation to the SINCERE project workshop, UCL, 15th September 2017.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presentation: Computational Social Science Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Paper titled 'Demystifying the Inconspicuous Energy Consumption in Households using an Agent-based Model' selected for presentation at the Computational Social Science conference 2017 (October 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://ic2s2.org/2017/
 
Description Presentation: International Conference on Environmental Psychology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact 'Using a practice-theory approach to simulate the dynamics of household energy use' presented at the 14th Conference on Environmental Psychology, Evora, 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.icep2017.org/
 
Description Presentation: International Conference on Environmental Psychology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Abstract titled 'Insights from a practice-theory approach to simulate the dynamics of household energy use' presented at the International Conference on Environmental Psychology (August 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.icep2017.org/?fwp=29&fwl=2
 
Description Presentation: wholeSEM 4th Annual Conference - Top Down Integration Project 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact presentation at the WholeSEM annual conference 'Presentation of the Top Down Integration Project: Case Study 1: Social Practices' (July 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/annual-conf-2017
 
Description Presentation: wholeSEM Conference - HOPES: An Empirically Informed Practice-centric 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation given at wholeSEM 4th Annual Conference 2017 - HOPES: an empirically-informed practice-centric approach to model the dynamics of household energy use
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/events/annual-conference/annual-conf-2017/annual-conference-2017-presentat...
 
Description Presenting at the International Conference on the European Energy Market, Portugal 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Goran Strbac presented 'Value of Flexibility and System Externalities of Low-Carbon Generation Technologies' Marianne Zeyringer, Birgit Fais, James Price presented old technologies to decarbonize UK's electricity system? At the International Conference on the European Energy Market - EEM Conferences have already established a strong tradition in Europe and in the world in terms of building a forum to exchange ideas and to discuss a wide range of issues related with energy markets, not only associated with different types of mathematical formulations and solution approaches, but also directed to market design, regulatory policies, climate change as well as foresee and debate changes and challenges that this sector will most likely go through in the near and longer terms.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://eem2016.com/
 
Description Public Event: What should the UK's climate targets be in the post-Paris Agreement era? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public event hosted by the UCL Energy Institute and wholeSEM in London. Building on research published in Nature Energy, the authors will highlight the scale of the challenge, and give their insights into the some of the complex political, social, technological and economic issues that this question poses.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/
 
Description Re-Configuring Everyday Practices for a Post-carbon World Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact wholeSEM and the British Sociological Association Climate Change group hosted a 2 day workshop about how everyday social practices can be re-configured to be less energy intensive. An intended output of the workshop is to produce an edited collection, published as part of the Sage Sociological Futures series, on 'Re-Configuring Everyday Practices for a Post Carbon World'.

Contributions from researchers at all career stages. Papers may discussed the following and related questions:

• What would everyday practices in a post carbon world look like?
• What role can models play in understanding the transition in everyday practices for a post carbon world?
• What methodological innovations might be needed for exploring what everyday practices may look like in a post-carbon world?
• How might new technologies, such as automated devices, change every day practices and associated energy demand?
• What is the role of government and policy in shaping practice for a post-carbon world?
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/re-configuring-everyday-practices
 
Description Speaking at Chatham House's Transitions 2016 Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Neil Strachan participated in Session Five Big Data in Energy Forecasts and Transitions discussion session. This event draws on Chatham House's extensive international networks to bring together senior policy-makers, business leaders and energy experts to examine policy, business, and investment strategies to support sustainable energy transitions globally. Discussions will assess the status and momentum of energy transitions; the role of big data in improving supply/demand forecasting; the development of appropriate regulatory frameworks; the evolution of potentially disruptive energy technologies; and the levels of investment in hydrocarbons and renewables sectors.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/energy-transitions-2016
 
Description Stakeholder Workshop: Energy Pathways under Deep Uncertainty 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This invite-only workshop will give an introduction to the Energy Pathways under Deep Uncertainty project run with The Energy Technologies Institute and explore some of the key themes emerging from semi-structured interviews with key experts in the UK energy policy community.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/
 
Description Synthesis on Interdisciplinary Collaborative Learning from wholeSEM 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Rembrandt Koppelaar and Nikul Pandya, Imperial College London - Conducted 15 interviews in October - November with the majority of the WholeSEM modellers (UCL, ICL, Cambridge, Surrey) to create a synthesis on interdisciplinary collaborative learning from WholeSEM, and highlight approaches to improve hidden assumptions transparency
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Talk at 4th LV Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Invited Talk at the 4th LV Workshop: Demand analytics and control for networks support, University of Reading. Title: Modelling energy use in households: A practice theory approach (March 2017)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.reading.ac.uk/CMOHB/news/CMoHB-4thWorkshop.aspx
 
Description The role of integrated assessment models (IAMs) in long-term public and private decision making seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Public seminar which had two of the world's leading integrated assessment modellers explained their approach and how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) are applied to the climate mitigation issue. In response we had two senior discussants from public and private energy roles to discuss how insights from such IAMs are used by their organisation and how IAMs can be further improved from their perspective.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/advance-iams-seminar
 
Description Tom Rushby participated in a IMPETUS domestic water modelling workshop at University of Southampton 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The aim of the workshop was to bring together academics interested in the economic analysis of water demand. The workshop included a policy round table with policy makers and representatives from the water industry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.southampton.ac.uk/economics/news/events/2015/09/16-managing-water-demand.page
 
Description UK Land Energy NexuS (LENS) Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop aimed to bring together stakeholders involved in bioenergy and natural resource management, namely research/academia, industry (including agriculture) civil society groups and government agencies to discuss the UK's bioenergy pathways and it's implication for future land use, food production, environmental sustainability and socio-cultural services.

Ongoing research collaborations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/lens_workshop
 
Description UK Times (UKTM) Expert User Group 12/10/16 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Updates and applications of UKTM, User updates on their model development/application/use, Presentation/summary by BEIS on their changes to UKTM for use in 5th carbon budget assessment. Recent applications (5th Carbon Budget, Emissions Reductions Plan), Recent applications (myopic, net-zero, air quality, demand side response, Macro-UKTM, hybrid and etc.), Publication of UKTM, Future model development milestones and plans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description UK Water-Energy Nexus Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The aim of this workshop was to provide a platform for identifying and discussing pathways to building resilience into integrated energy-water systems in the UK, as well as to explore opportunities in harnessing low-carbon energy from water systems. This will be accomplished under three main objectives;

•Identify the main issues associated with the "Geography of water" in the UK and assess the tendencies of potential competition for scarce resources under future stress;
•Identify the critical interdependencies of water and energy, technological efficiencies and low-carbon futures of the water and energy industry;
•Explore the innovative opportunities/technologies in harnessing energy from water systems

35 participants from industry (water and energy), government, academia and NGOs attended the 2 day workshop and are currently collaborating to produce a report
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/uk-water-energy-nexus
 
Description UKERC residential conference chaired by Neil Strachan supported by the RCUK Energy Programme 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Residential conference in Oxford that will brought together different perspectives on the energy system, and identified the key energy system challenges for the research community, government and other actors. The conference, which was supported by the RCUK Energy Programme, was an important opportunity to help inform future research priorities. The conference was being organised in partnership with four other energy systems research centres. It was uniquely framed by their independent, whole systems ethos that took into account technological, economic, political, and social factors and identified which ones are key and how they interact.
Accordingly, the conference was aimed at:
Decision-makers in government and the private sector who want to contribute to a big picture understanding of the energy system and the challenges it faces.
Engineers, scientists and social scientists who want to explore key energy systems challenges from different perspectives - including those relating to governance and co-ordination, innovation, energy security, the role of consumers, and natural resources.
Analysts, consultants, and researchers who want to understand the latest ideas emerging from research and policy as they relate to the whole energy system.
The conference steering group had chosen discussion topics that include energy security, governance, resources, and innovation.
There are plans for discussions in the conference to lead to the production of a briefing document for research funders and decision-makers. The intention was to have a significant impact on energy thinking in the UK.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/events/energy-systems-challenges-in-a-world-in-transition.html
 
Description What do we know about influencing household energy use? workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The workshop aimed to look at the gaps in understanding of how people use energy and how habitual behaviours around energy use can be influenced. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/influencing-household-energy-use
 
Description WholeSEM bilateral Fellowship 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact WholeSEM bilateral Fellowship: Skelton & Parroussos - Skelton: Focussed on completing outputs from the Bilateral Fellowship with Leonidas Parroussos exploring material efficiency rebound effects. Next steps to write up a more discursive paper on different notions of the cost of material efficiency.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Zenaida Sobral Mourao presentation at the Annual Royal Geographical Society conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Zenaida Sobral Mourao presented work on the links between air quality and the energy system during the Annual Royal Geographical Society conference. The presentation was part of a group of sessions on the Water-Energy-Land nexus and the title of the presentation was: "The Geography of air quality - a Sankey diagram representation".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.rgs.org/NR/exeres/3D2D0BA2-4741-45DE-8C91-EB9AEAE860BB.htm
 
Description presentation at 3rd Energy and Society Conference, Leipzig, Germany 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Energy & Society Conferences have been aiming at inspiring and providing networking opportunities for researchers interested in energy and society issues and developing a sense of community. The conference will included keynote presentations, oral presentations. Participants were able to present and discuss their research in roundtables and in poster sessions. The wholeSEM surrey team presented 'understanding the dynamics of energy intensive domestic social practices'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.ufz.de/energyandsociety/
 
Description presentation of HOPES at the Social Simulation for the Energy Transition Workshop at Wuppertal Institute, Germany and Rome, Italy 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The wholeSEM Surrey team presented HOPES. The workshop brought together experts with a deep understanding of the energy system.Network contacts and working collaborations with energy and transitions experts were established. identification of promising topics for future work
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www.openabm.org/event/social-simulation-energy-transition
 
Description wholeSEM Annual Conference 2014 - Modelling Long-term UK Energy Futures: Challenges and Competing Objectives 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation paper presentation
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An invited audience of 100 UK energy modelling practitioners and expert users explored and critiqued the modelling insights generated from interdisciplinary perspectives in their analysis of the UK policy priorities of decarbonisation, energy security and equity.

Increased awareness of the consortium's objectives and models with key stakeholders
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/annual-conf-2014
 
Description wholeSEM Annual Conference 2015: Hybrid Energy Modelling - Linkages and Interdisciplinarity 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 2nd wholeSEM annual conference (Hybrid Energy Modelling - Linkages and Interdisciplinarity) - broadened the wholeSEM brand to a wider set of national and especially international modelling groups, with an invited audience of over 100 leading energy modellers from the UK and 15 other countries. Interestingly this diverse mix of experts was drawn not just from academia but also from government, think-tanks, consulting and firm's in-house expertise. The capacity building aspect of the conference was boosted by a PhD poster session with quick fire presentations. The overall aim of the 2nd wholeSEM conference was to compare and contrast disciplinary energy models approaches, and to discuss the insights they provide. The conference explored the strengths and shortcomings of current energy modelling, conceptual issues in combining disciplinary approaches, and the benefits and pitfalls of hard- and soft-linking of energy models.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/events/annual-conference/annual-conf-15
 
Description wholeSEM Annual Conference 2016: Energy Modelling Insights for Iterative Decision Making 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Our 3rd Annual Conference combined our strands of thinking that try to model the future energy pathways under uncertainty where the demands of policy makers and indeed the framing of the issues are in flux. More than 100 academics, industry experts, policy makers and doctoral students from all over the world came to Cambridge to attend this innovative two day conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/events/annual-conference/annual-conf-16
 
Description wholeSEM Stakeholder Event: Top Down Integration Project - Challenging the Feasibility and Key Elements of a Long Term Decarbonisation Pathway 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Models are often relied upon by policy makers to provide evidence that informs the decision-making process. But what kind of evidence is needed? How is uncertainty communicated? And based upon what assumptions?

A stakeholder workshop exploring the wholeSEM Top Down Integration Project - an iterative interdisciplinary modelling venture. In this workshop stakeholders had early access to research outputs and best practice. We presented a number of case studies selected to illustrate how the align and iterate process offers new insights for long term decarbonisation pathways in the UK.

At this workshop we asked for stakeholder input to help us create highly relevant research outputs that address the challenges they face. We also asked for feedback on the case studies and how the alignment and iteration process can respond to the needs and concerns of different stakeholders.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.wholesem.ac.uk/wholesem-events-repository/wholeSEMstakeholderevent
 
Description • Skelton & Konadu interviewed for wholeSEM project 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Skelton A.; Konadu D. interviewed for wholeSEM project "Making transparent the hidden assumptions in energy modelling and scenarios"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017