The project RegEnMod, Regional Energy Modelling, has the scope to inspect the best future energy mixes and pathways to limit greenhouse gas emissions in the regional energy system. We do this by means of simulation and optimisation computer models of the energy system. We have started from open models such as EnergyPLAN (https://www.energyplan.eu/) and Oemof (https://oemof.org/) and we have built upon them to overcome the main challenges of these tools. These models are used to answer different research questions such as how to reduce emissions at the lowest costs? Which are the best flexibility options to integrate variable renewable energy sources? What will be the future cost of the energy system and its cost structure? Which are the benefits of a sector-coupling approach versus the modelling of specific sectors of the energy system? What is the role of energy efficiency of buildings in the decarbonisation process? Which are the approximations introduced in the final results by a lower resolution in the modelling process? Lowering the resolution in time, space, techno-economic detail or sector coupling is usually necessary to have acceptable computation times.

In RegEnMod we follow an Open source philosophy, publishing data, documentations and codes together with our articles and publications to enhance transparency and reproducibility. The developed models have been used for a variety of case studies at different scales. At regional level we have studied for example the following applications: South Tyrol, Niederosterreich and Salzburg region. We have applied the models also at country level, such as Italy and partially Ukraine, at European level and at insular level (e.g. Island of Favignana). ​​​​​​​