Project ABM4EnergyTransition

The #FFG funded project ABM4EnergyTransition is aiming at the development and demonstration of a novel simulation approach based on agent-based modeling (ABM) for the spatial analysis and assessment of pathways for the municipal heat and energy transition. The ABM methodology considers both spatial data to describe the energy system of a study area (buildings, grid-based energy infrastructure such as natural gas or district heating networks, renewable potentials, population structure) and parameters to describe the behavior of actors (agents) within this energy system (homeowners, investors, policy makers) taking into account demographic and socio - technical parameters such as income and state of education. The methodological approach represents an extension of existing energy planning approaches and helps to better assess the impact of public policies on the achievement of climate and energy goals. The tangible project result will be a prototypical web application with map representation of buildings and energy infrastructure incl. dashboard using two study areas, which allows users from administration and planning to plan possible energy policy and/or technical interventions in the ABM and to display the results (e.g.: Energy and Life Cycle Assessment as well as technology and energy carrier mix in variable spatial and temporal granularity, etc.). The results can be exported for further planning use, e.g. in energy space planning or district heating expansion planning, and in a local GIS system. In addition, simplified simulation scenarios can also be initialized and visualized by interested citizens in the web application for a playful examination of the topic of heat transition and energy system change.