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The project team

The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research is working on this project with its partners Consentec Gmbh, ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH, and the Chair of Energy and Resource Management at the TU Berlin. So far, more than 30 scientists have collaborated on this project.

Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research

Fraunhofer ISI is a research institution of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. Fraunhofer ISI was founded in 1972 and expands the scientific-technical spectrum of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft by working at the interface between technology, economy and society. By means of interdisciplinary research in a national and international framework, Fraunhofer ISI investigates the opportunities, risks and application obstacles in technological development at an early stage. Through technology and market analyses, technology foresight and technology assessment, program monitoring and evaluation, it helps to improve the basis for decision-making at the level of politics and industry, working in the research fields of energy, environment, information and communication, production and biotechnology (see also https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/en.html).

Two departments of Fraunhofer ISI deal with energy technology, energy economics and energy policy issues.

The Competence Center Energy Technology and Energy Systems analyzes technologies and measures to increase energy efficiency and develops strategies for companies and politics. It conducts market analyses for technologies and services, evaluates new energy carriers in transport and energy storage technologies, and prepares energy-economic system analyses. The Competence Center also develops technology-based models for demand analyses and projections and uses them for research assignments from industry and politics.

The Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets evaluates the contribution of renewable energies to climate protection, security of supply, and competitiveness, develops scenarios for future developments, and examines the design of energy policy instruments. The analysis and development of strategies for politics and companies in the electricity sector against the background of the necessary integration of growing amounts of fluctuating electricity from renewable energy sources into markets and infrastructures is another essential task. In addition, the Competence Center is concerned with the design of energy and climate policy instruments and their impact on innovations, the environment, the economy and society.

Important topics in the field of renewable energies are the design of new energy policy instruments in the field of renewable energies, ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of energy and climate policy instruments and scenarios, market and grid integration, and the modeling of electricity and heat markets. Especially for the evaluation and further development of instruments for the promotion of renewable energies and for the analysis of electricity markets and market and grid integration, intensive knowledge of the functioning of electricity markets and the marketing of electricity from renewables is indispensable.

Due to numerous international research activities, especially within the framework of EU projects, and as a long-standing member of the "European Network on Energy Economic Research" (ENER) and now also of the "European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy" (ECEEE), there are very good opportunities for a rapid international exchange of experience on new energy policy concepts and their evaluation.

Consentec GmbH

Consentec is a consultancy company specializing in engineering-scientific and economic issues in the field of energy supply. The thematic focus is on issues of electricity market design and security of supply, grid and system integration of renewable energies, grid planning and operation, and the regulation of natural monopolies in the liberalized electricity and gas supply. Clients are mainly ministries, regulatory authorities, grid operators, industry associations and IT and equipment manufacturers from Germany and other European countries.

Consentec supports its clients by consultancy, technical and economic investigations, software solutions (both individual and standardised), training, and expert reports. Consentec’s staff members can draw upon profound knowledge and long-standing professional experience in the field of system engineering and economics of power and gas supply, as well as a comprehensive international contact network to the companies and institutions involved in operation and regulation of the energy supply sector. Clients are mainly ministries, regulatory authorities, network operators, energy suppliers, industry associations, IT providers and equipment manufacturers based in European countries. On a case-by-case basis we cooperate with reputable academic institutes, consulting as well as software companies.

Consentec was founded in 1999 as spin-off of RWTH Aachen University and has a present staff of 19. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Fritz and Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Christoph Maurer are the managing directors who are each individually authorized to represent the company. The company shares are entirely privately owned by the two managing directors. There are no institutional or personal links with companies or associations in the electricity and gas industry. Consentec is completely independent of the interests of individual institutions, companies, or associations. Possible dependencies can be excluded due to the diversity of both the spectrum of clients and the range of topics. If required for an assessment of our independence, further information on clients and project experience can be provided. Further information can also be found on Consentec’s website https://www.en.consentec.de/

ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg GmbH

ifeu researches and advises on important environmental and sustainability issues worldwide for numerous international and national funding agencies and clients. With over 40 years of experience, it is one of the most important ecologically oriented, independent and non-profit research institutes in Germany. Around 80 scientists from the natural, engineering and social sciences are employed at the Heidelberg and Berlin sites. ifeu seeks answers to urgent social questions and develops them in the sense of a transdisciplinary orientation in close dialogue with actors from politics, business, science and civil society: locally, in Germany and worldwide. ifeu's topics include resource conservation and the circular economy, the sustainable and environmentally compatible design of products, material flows and processes, future-oriented mobility concepts, a successful energy transition, nutrition, biomass, biodiversity and land use. The scientific-methodological work of the institute is accompanied by the support of pilot projects, the consulting of ministries, municipalities, associations and companies and the communication of the findings to society.

For about twenty years, ifeu has been investigating policy instruments in the field of "buildings". This includes analyses of the design, enforcement and monitoring of the EnEV and GEG, the further development of building-related policy instruments, the introduction of energy and heat passports, and the qualification of those involved in construction. In recent years, ifeu has also worked intensively on the RE heating market, the market incentive program and the National Climate Protection Initiative, and has developed proposals for the renovation roadmap as an advisory and funding initiative. The GEMOD building model can be used to simulate strategies and developments in the building sector. GEMOD can also be coupled with a Germany-wide GIS-based heat atlas to map the development of heat consumption both temporally and spatially.

Internationally, ifeu works both intensively within the framework of numerous EU projects, research projects in the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) especially on the introduction of highly efficient buildings in megacities (Urumqi, Kigali), consulting projects for GIZ, World Bank and IRENA, and in connection with the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. (See also  https://www.ifeu.de/en/)

Chair of Energy and Resource Management at the TU Berlin

The Technische Universität Berlin is one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Germany. With third-party funding of approximately 171 million euros per year (data from 2017), TU Berlin is a reliable partner for research and development. TU Berlin has six different research focuses, including "Energy Systems and Sustainable Resource Management" and "Infrastructure and Mobility". Located directly on the Straße des 17. Juni, between Ernst-Reuter-Platz and Zoologischer Garten (Berlin), more than 9000 employees research and work at TU Berlin with the goal of finding solutions to societal challenges.

The department of Energy and Resource Management at TU Berlin (TUB-ER) conducts research on ways to solve future problems in the field of energy and supply markets. One focus is research on the convergence of the electricity, gas and heat sectors in order to achieve a climate and environmentally friendly energy supply by coupling or integrating the individual sectors. A special feature of the department of Energy and Resource Management is its focus on interdisciplinary approaches to solving problems. Due to the interdisciplinary education of the staff, questions are always examined from a technical as well as an economic and ecological perspective. The system concept plays a superordinate role and is always included by combining appropriate methods.

Through the takeover of the Chair of Energy and Resource Management by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Müller-Kirchenbauer (formerly ITE at TU Clausthal) in 2015, as well as the integration of additional scientific staff, the Chair was able to significantly expand its activities on both the technical and economic side. In combination with the existing knowledge of the electricity market and electricity market regulation, the chair thus has outstanding competence in the field of energy system modeling and assessment.

Other focal points of research are the development of key mathematical techniques for energy networks (gas, electricity, district heating), the harmonization and development of methods and indicators for the regional and temporal resolution of energy demands, the effects and repercussions of energy transition and climate protection on energy supply and energy supply infrastructure, and related systematic analyses of business models. In the latter, a particular interest lies in the current changes in the energy industry. The opportunities offered by digitalization, smart meters, smart grids and demand-side management on the one hand, and the analysis of the changing framework conditions for classic business models in the energy industry on the other, are of great interest for research in the department. The department TUB-ER is a member of the research network Energy System Analysis of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. (See also https://www.er.tu-berlin.de/menue/home/parameter/en/)