ELECTRA (Electricity markets and trade in Switzerland and its neighbouring countries)
ELECTRA is a collaborative project with the Research Lab on the Economics and Management of the Environment (REME) at Ecole Polytechnique Federale du Lausanne (EPFL), and Econability (an economic consultancy in Bern). The project is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, running from August 2011 until September 2014.
The project seeks to develop a coupled techno-economic modeling framework for Switzerland with a suitable representation of international electricity trade, for the analysis of energy and climate policies. That is, the main focus of the project is on methodological development, although the framework will also be applied and tested by examining a small number of scenarios. The motivation for developing such a tool is to analyse energy and climate policy options for the electricity system, taking into account temporal and external (trade) influences on technology choice in Switzerland, and further accounting for interactions with economic structure and output.
Within ELECTRA, EEG is developing a detailed model of the electricity sectors in Switzerland and its four neighbours (Austria, France, Germany and Italy) with a representative hourly time resolution and long time horizon, called CROSSTEM (CROSs border Swiss TIMES Electricity Model). CROSSTEM aims to address potential uncertainties in development of electricity markets in Switzerland’s neighbours through the depiction of demand patterns, technological advancements, and energy and climate policies in each country.
A number of EU electricity models are already in use and despite their proven usefulness in providing insights on some aspect of the energy issues, there are limitations in these analytical tools to address issues specific to the Swiss electricity system. In all the European models, the representation of Switzerland is minimized or highly aggregated due to its small size. Also, some models have short time horizon with detailed intertemporal details whereas others lack in representation of detailed electric load curve. However, combining both inter-temporal details and long model horizons in a technology explicit model at EU level would be complex and extremely challenging.
The development of CROSSTEM seeks to address these issues and extends substantially EEG’s work with the Swiss TIMES Electricity Model (STEM-E), which is a single region, bottom-up, cost optimization model with long time horizon and an hourly load curve. In STEM-E, the four neighbouring electricity markets (Germany, France, Italy and Austria) have been modelled with approximations to represent the trading mechanism affecting the operational schedule of Swiss electricity system. CROSSTEM will enable analysis of the impact on the development of the electricity system in Switzerland of technical and policy decisions in neighbouring countries. At the same time, these four markets cover half of the EU electricity generation and therefore the EU-wide impacts on Switzerland could also be captured.
Regions and temporal resolution in CROSSTEM
The project seeks to develop a coupled techno-economic modeling framework for Switzerland with a suitable representation of international electricity trade, for the analysis of energy and climate policies. That is, the main focus of the project is on methodological development, although the framework will also be applied and tested by examining a small number of scenarios. The motivation for developing such a tool is to analyse energy and climate policy options for the electricity system, taking into account temporal and external (trade) influences on technology choice in Switzerland, and further accounting for interactions with economic structure and output.
Within ELECTRA, EEG is developing a detailed model of the electricity sectors in Switzerland and its four neighbours (Austria, France, Germany and Italy) with a representative hourly time resolution and long time horizon, called CROSSTEM (CROSs border Swiss TIMES Electricity Model). CROSSTEM aims to address potential uncertainties in development of electricity markets in Switzerland’s neighbours through the depiction of demand patterns, technological advancements, and energy and climate policies in each country.
A number of EU electricity models are already in use and despite their proven usefulness in providing insights on some aspect of the energy issues, there are limitations in these analytical tools to address issues specific to the Swiss electricity system. In all the European models, the representation of Switzerland is minimized or highly aggregated due to its small size. Also, some models have short time horizon with detailed intertemporal details whereas others lack in representation of detailed electric load curve. However, combining both inter-temporal details and long model horizons in a technology explicit model at EU level would be complex and extremely challenging.
The development of CROSSTEM seeks to address these issues and extends substantially EEG’s work with the Swiss TIMES Electricity Model (STEM-E), which is a single region, bottom-up, cost optimization model with long time horizon and an hourly load curve. In STEM-E, the four neighbouring electricity markets (Germany, France, Italy and Austria) have been modelled with approximations to represent the trading mechanism affecting the operational schedule of Swiss electricity system. CROSSTEM will enable analysis of the impact on the development of the electricity system in Switzerland of technical and policy decisions in neighbouring countries. At the same time, these four markets cover half of the EU electricity generation and therefore the EU-wide impacts on Switzerland could also be captured.
Regions and temporal resolution in CROSSTEM
CROSSTEM countries Temporal resolution
Presentations
Pattupara, R. (2015). Long-term evolution of the Swiss electricity system under a European electricity market: Development and application of a cluster of TIMES electricity models, 1st SimLab Educational Workshop, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Presentation
Pattupara, R., Kannan, R. (2014). Exploring uncertainties in CCS – De-carbonization of the power sector & country-wise opportunities, IAEE European Energy Conference, Rome, Italy, Presentation
Pattupara, R., R. Kannan and H. Turton (2014). Alternative low carbon electricity pathways under a European nuclear phase-out - Achievement of Climate goals, 53rd meeting of the EWGCFM, 2nd International Conference of RCEM, Chania, Greece, Presentation
Pattupara, R. (2014). Development of the Cross border Swiss TIMES electricity model – a tool for analyzing uncertainty in the evolution of the Swiss electricity system, 6th workshop of the SAEE Student Chapter, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Presentation
Pattupara, R., R. Kannan and H. Turton (2013). Influence of long term electricity sector developments in Europe on the Swiss electricity system: Risks and opportunities for electricity trading, 63rd Semi-annual ETSAP meeting, International Energy Agency, Paris, France, Presentation
Pattupara, R., Kannan, R. (2014). Exploring uncertainties in CCS – De-carbonization of the power sector & country-wise opportunities, IAEE European Energy Conference, Rome, Italy, Presentation
Pattupara, R., R. Kannan and H. Turton (2014). Alternative low carbon electricity pathways under a European nuclear phase-out - Achievement of Climate goals, 53rd meeting of the EWGCFM, 2nd International Conference of RCEM, Chania, Greece, Presentation
Pattupara, R. (2014). Development of the Cross border Swiss TIMES electricity model – a tool for analyzing uncertainty in the evolution of the Swiss electricity system, 6th workshop of the SAEE Student Chapter, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Presentation
Pattupara, R., R. Kannan and H. Turton (2013). Influence of long term electricity sector developments in Europe on the Swiss electricity system: Risks and opportunities for electricity trading, 63rd Semi-annual ETSAP meeting, International Energy Agency, Paris, France, Presentation
Relevant publications
S. Maire, R. Pattupara, R. Kannan, M. Vielle, F. Vöhringer (2015). Electricity markets and trade in Switzerland and its neighbouring countries (ELECTRA); Building a coupled techno-economic modeling framework - Schlussbericht, Final Report to Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Bern, External Link, Download