Description
Climate change is a serious topic our society has to face and is one of the main challenges of the 21st century. The energy sector is a major contributor to the emission of green house gases, which are directly related to climate change. In order to face these challenges in the energy sector it is essential to design smart policies to tackle climate change. This project has two main objectives: to establish a professional bond between project promoter, Dr. Wogrin (Comillas University) and the partner Dr. Hagspiel (NTNU); and to develop a novel cutting-edge modeling framework by combining their fields of expertise, i.e., real options and bilevel programming, and applying it to an important topic in energy markets: assessing different climate policies and their impact on transmission and generation expansion planning. This project provides the basis for the development of this mathematical framework since the close collaboration to two experts in each field is imperative for its success. This approach not only constitutes an original contribution to science, which represents a benefit to both researchers and their institutions, but also allows tackling transmission planning and climate policy design of in a more realistic way. Such a modeling tool could improve climate policy assessment for regulatory bodies which ultimately affects social welfare. The project promoter (Comillas University) and donor partner (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) have largely similar background. They share an interest in operations management and mathematical methods, with Dr Wogrin (project promoter) having expertise of application of these methods to questions about managing the electricity grid, whereas Dr Hagspiel’ expertise is more in the field of economics.
Summary of project results
The project aimed at establishing closer academic and research relations between the institutions Comillas Pontifical University (Comillas) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). And in particular, to provide the opportunity for Dr. Wogrin from Comillas and Dr. Hagspiel from NTNU to establish a common line of research. The NILS funds made it possible for Dr. Wogrin to carry out two separate research visits at NTNU, and to learn about the methodologies by Dr. Hagspiel. Dueing the project, both researchers have exchanged knowledge on their respective fields of expertise. Dr. Wogrin obtained an introduction to the topic of real options by7 Dr. Hagspiel, and likewise Dr. Wogrin’s expertise in energy markets has been passed on to Dr. Hagspiel. During the research visit at NTNU Dr. Wogrin had the opportunity to collaborate with two of Dr. Hagspiel’s students from NTNU. This collaboration resulted into an article submitted to an international scientific journal. Dr. Wogrin was given the opportunity to present her own research in a seminar at NTNU, entitled “Optimizing storage in Power System Models”, and obtaining a new modelling approach for storage in long-term models. As a result of the project, the professional relations between both researchers has been established and the ties between partner institutions have been strengthened. They plan to maintain future research meetings in order to continue with new research lines.
Summary of bilateral results
The project succeeded to establish a common line of research of Dr. Wogrin (Comillas Pontifical University) and Dr. Hagspiel (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), which shall continue and in the future shall lead to new possible publications. The partnership provided the opportunity to Dr: Wogrin to get to know the NTNU , and the research staff there, and to give more visibility to her own research and institution in Spain. Moreover, the partnership provided the opportunity for both researchers to collaborate on a research project with NTNU students, which has led to an article that is currently under revision in a scientific journal.