A Professional Platform for Cooperation in Energy Planning

Panel: Panel 1: Policy and Programmes - Who can deliver DSM?

Author:
Klaus Illum, Aalborg University, Denmark

Abstract

We are faced with the challenge of design and implementation of sustainable energy systems as integral parts of sustainable ecosystems dominated by the activities of human beings and the many products and processes created by them. Within a limited span of time we have to carry out the transition to efficient energy systems, structurally very different from those which have, so far, been developed by the energy-market forces.

The common search for appropriate ways and means of accomplishing this transition should be based on a general energy systems concept which captures all essential physical properties of present and prospective future energy systems m operation in the different European communities. The adoption of a common, general systems concepts is a precondition for the establishing of a common energy planning methodology and the development of the databases and computer programs needed for practical applications in local and regional communities.

The Sustainable Energy Systems Analysis Model: SESAM, presented in this paper, has been designed to provide a general method and a practical tool for the comprehensive description and computational analysis of energy systems belonging to regional and local communities. In each particular case, a SESAM model consists of a database containmg the description of the present state as well as possible future states of the energy system. The database contains technical, structural, operational, and economic data for the energy system as a whole. The SESAM programs attached to the database provides computational facilities for the analysis and documentation of a multitude of scenarios, which may cover a wide space of possible transition strategies.