2024.03

Heat modelling in the built environment has been thoroughly revised

The building stock is now disaggregated at a higher level of detail. Households are differentiated by combinations of housing type and construction period, including new construction. For buildings (services) existing and new buildings are distinguished. Additionally, users can set a prioritization to distribute heating technologies across the housing stock. Also, users now have insight into heat deficits per housing category, they can adjust the installed capacities of heating technologies, and have the ability to set two different representations of the thermostat profile per combination of technology and building category. Development of heat demand can also be set per building category in kWh/m2.

Explore the new heat modelling in the Households and Buildings sections.

Costs export functionality updated & expanded

The costs export functionality of the ETM has undergone a major update! The download now provides much more detailed information on a scenario's costs. Starting with total costs, total CAPEX and total OPEX, the csv file provides further details on the constituents of CAPEX and OPEX and the parameters underlying CAPEX calculations, such as the technical lifetime. In all, the costs export functionality now more truthfully mirrors the ETM's costs calculating capabilities; see the image below.

Solar PV households and buildings capacity sliders moved to Supply

The sliders for solar PV capacities on rooftops of households and buildings now allow users to directly indicate installed capacities for these technologies (in MW). The sliders have been moved to the Renewable electricity section.

Land use of solar and wind visualization available

The ETM now contains a chart displaying the land use of solar panels and wind turbines on land. The chart also allows the user to virtually distinguish large scale and small scale wind turbines without affecting the actual scenario. The accompanying table provides more detailed information on e.g. capacities and electricity production of all included technologies.

Propane added as constituent of network gas

Users of the ETM can now add propane as a constituent carrier in network gas. Addition of propane can be required to increase the energy content of network gas when mixing in other gases with a lower calorific value, such as biogas.

2024.01

Local forecasting for household batteries

You can now choose two types of forecasting for household batteries. The first is the existing system forecasting algorithm, which is available for all electricity storage technologies. The second is a new local forecasting algorithm. Instead of all the electricity demand and supply in a region, it only tries to match household electricity demand and supply. Both types of forecasting have a different impact on the electricity grid. Try it for yourself in the Flexibility section.

Input capacity for load shifting

Demand-side response in the industry has been updated. When applying load shifting in an industry sector, it is now possible to set the available capacity to increase the load seperately from the capacity to decrease the load. This makes it possible to reduce the impact of the increased load on the electricity grid. It can be found in the Flexibility section.

Transit flows

Many regions deal with energy flows that merely pass through the region and are not consumed or produced by parts of the local energy system. Users can now gain more insight in these transit flows of energy carriers within their system. In order to model transit flows in your scenario, you can set the inflexible export volumes of several energy carriers. Setting an export flow also enforces an import flow for the system to be balanced.

New charts have been added which give an overview of the transit flows in the energy system. The new features can be found in the Demand section.

It is also possible to model a transit flow for CO₂ by setting an import flow in Mton. See the Emissions section.

New hydrogen carriers

In addition 2 new hydrogen carriers have been added to the ETM:

• Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) — LOHCs are substances that can store and transport hydrogen in a liquid form.
  This form provides a higher energy density compared to gaseous hydrogen.

• Liquid hydrogen (LH2) — At extremely low temperatures, hydrogen transitions from gaseous into liquid form. In liquid form it has a much higher volumetric energy density, leading to an advantage in transporting the hydrogen.

This allows for instance to import liquid hydrogen, reform it to produce gaseous hydrogen and export the latter. See the new hydrogen production technologies in the Supply section.

Heat

There are a number of significant changes for the modelling of heat in the ETM. The following three main changes have been made.

Temperature levels of district heating

District heating networks on different temperature levels can be specified: high temperature (HT), medium temperature (MT) and low temperature (LT). Each temperature level has distinct heat sources. You can set the demand, supply, storage and transport and losses for each temperature level. The costs of district heating infrastructure have been updated, using values specific for each temperature level. Finally, a number of charts have been added to help you set demand and supply. Explore the new District heating section to find out more.

Aquathermal

Now, extra aquathermal technologies have been added to the ETM. Aquathermal refers to using water for heating and cooling. Three types of water reservoirs are taken into account: drink water, surface water and waste water.

Aquathermal technologies can be selected for invidiual residences, both for Space heating & hot water and for Cooling. This also applies to Space heating and Cooling in buildings. Additionally, aquathermal heat can be used in MT and LT district heating. A chart has been added that allows you to see the demand for aquathermal heat and compare it to the potential.

Residual heat

It is now possible to specify exactly the amount of residual heat you want to use in your scenario. You can then compare the demand for residual heat with an estimate of the potential in a new chart. The estimate of the potential depends on the respective size of the industry sectors.

2023.06

Adjustable specifications of electricity storage technologies

Two specifications of electricity storage technologies can now be customized in the model. The first is the roundtrip efficiency. You can adjust this in Costs & efficiencies → Flexibility → Electricity storage.

You can also change the relative storage volume of each technology in Flexibility → Electricity storage. The relative storage volume specifies how many hours a technology needs to charge at full capacity to go from 0% to 100% charged. Effectively it allows you to change the total installed storage volume for a given installed capacity.

In the table "Electricity storage technologies specifications" you can quickly compare the specifications across technologies

2023.03

Local vs. Global tool is discontinued

The Local vs. Global tool is discontinued indefinitely. The tool allowed you to select multiple scenarios and see their combined results on a number of indicators. Though the functionality the tool offered is valuable, the limited scope of its implementation made it no longer worth the effort required to maintain it.

Our ambition is to further build on the Transition Paths tool instead. This tool has recently seen much development and offers a lot of flexibility for users who want to visualise and change multiple scenarios within a single interface. The functionality that the Local vs. Global tool offered may be incorporated in the Transition Paths tool in the future.

If you have any questions about the Local vs. Global tool, or would like to discuss suggestions for the improvement of the Transition Paths tool, please contact Quintel.

2023.02

New feature for electricity storage technologies

In the Flexibility → Electricity storage section, you can decide for each storage technology whether you want to enable a forecasting algorithm to determine its behaviour.

The technologies for which this forecasting algorithm algorithm is enabled, will consecutively try to flatten the electricity residual load curve. You can now set the order in which these technologies are applied yourself. Go to the Flexibility → Electricity storage → Merit order section to see how.

For more information, go to our documentation.

2023.01.1

CHPs for local agriculture heat demand

It is now possible to install combined heat and power (CHP) units, that supply heat to meet local demand from agriculture. You can set the share of heat demand that is supplied by these local CHPs in the Demand → Agriculture → Heat section. The capacities of different types of CHPs can then be set in the Demand → Agriculture → Heat from local CHPs section.

Two charts have been added, one that shows you the total local heat supply and demand per year. The other chart (see below) also shows you the electricity flows that are produced by the CHPs.

Electricity storage in electric buses, vans and trucks

As the number of electric vehicles increases, it is becoming increasingly interesting to utilize the batteries that are present in those vehicles during hours when they are not used for transportation. It was already possible to use batteries in electric cars to provide storage services to the electricity grid, and now this is also possible for electric buses, vans and trucks.

Go to the Flexibility → Electricity storage → Batteries in electric vehicles section, to see how you can put these batteries to use. The total available battery storage volume does depend on the number of electric vehicles in your scenario, which you can determine in the Demand → Transport section.

Chart sets

In the 'See more charts' pop-up, you can now choose to load multiple charts at once. With a single click on "System overview" you will open a predetermined selection of charts and tables that provide you with a full overview of your energy system.

If you would like to add another set of charts, please contact Quintel.

2023.01

Single sign-on

The Energy Transition Model has a new system for signing in. Aside from a new look to the login and account pages, the ETM should work much as it always has.

The new system allows us to associate your scenarios with your account, ensuring that only you can make changes to them. As before, they will default to being public, allowing other visitors to view and copy your scenarios, but not edit them. If you prefer to keep your scenarios private, you can change the privacy setting in your account settings. Private scenarios can only be viewed by their owner: you.

Alternatively, it is possible to change the privacy setting of individual saved scenarios. To do this, head to your saved scenarios page, click on the scenario you'd like to change, and then on the "Public/Private" dropdown on the right side of the page.

API

Users of our API can also benefit from the added security provided by authentication by using personal access tokens. You can now list all of your scenarios, delete scenarios, as well as work with saved scenarios and transition paths.

A detailed list of changes is available on our documentation website.

2022.11

First Asian country is now available: Singapore

Singapore has been added to the ETM as the first city-state and the first Asian country. This also means it is now easier to add countries outside of the EU to the ETM. Select Singapore as a region when starting a new scenario to start exploring its energy system!

Addition of ammonia

Shipping of liquified green ammonia (and then reforming it to hydrogen) is seen as a more practical option for importing large amounts of green hydrogen than transporting the hydrogen directly. The possibility to import ammonia and convert it to hydrogen using a reformer has therefore been added to the model.

In addition to that, it is possible to use ammonia directly in the fertilizer industry, or as a transport fuel in domestic or international navigation.

Addition of Autothermal reforming

A new hydrogen production technology has been added to the model: Autothermal reforming (ATR). This is a proven technology that uses natural gas to produce hydrogen. You can set its installed capacity in Supply → Hydrogen → Hydrogen production.

The main benefit of ATR compared to the common hydrogen production technology Steam methane reforming (SMR), is that it allows for the capture of a higher share of CO₂ emissions. You can add carbon capture for the ATR in Emissions → CCUS → Capture of CO₂.

New CO2 intensity of hydrogen chart

A new chart that allows you to compare the CO₂ intensity of different hydrogen production routes have been added to the model. You can select the chart from the chart selection or go to Supply → Hydrogen → CO₂ emissions of imported hydrogen.

New electricity mix for power-to-gas chart

Another useful chart has been added. This chart shows you the electricity mix used to produce hydrogen through electrolysis, also known as power-to-gas. You can select the chart from the chart selection or go to Flexibility → Electricity conversion → Conversion to hydrogen.

Analysis of the need for flexibility

For the gaseous carriers hydrogen and network gas, hourly balancing of supply and demand is performed by storage. There are however technical and economical limitations to the extent to which storage volume can be realized in an area. This is especially relevant when different types of large-scale underground storage are required. Some storage may be required to handle short-term variations in supply and demand, while additional storage volume may be necessary to deal with long-term seasonal variations.

A new section and table have been added that can help you assess the different storage needs. You can find them in Flexibility → Overview → The need for flexibility: timescales.

2022.10

New transport technologies for ships and planes

For domestic navigation, also known as inland shipping, it is now possible to switch to electric ships. You can determine the share of electric ships in the total transportation by domestic navigation in Demand → Transport → Freight transport → Domestic navigation technology.

For domestic aviation technology, or more simply put, plane transport, two new technologies have been added to the model. In addition to kerosene, gasoline and bio-ethanol, you can switch to either electricity or hydrogen. Go to Demand → Transport → Passenger transport → Domestic aviation technology to check it out.

New heating technologies in agriculture

In the agriculture sector, you can now choose to install a water heat pump. This is an electric water-water heat pump that uses a water reservoir as its heat source. Only a small amount of electricity is then still required to bring the water to the desired temperature, making it much more efficient than a simple electric boiler. You can find the heat pump in Demand → Agriculture → Heat.

In the same section, you can now also install power-to-heat capacity for agriculture. This is an electric boiler that is fitted to existing natural gas or hydrogen heaters, making them hybrid heaters. The hybrid heater uses electricity when the electricity price is below the maximum willingness to pay. If the electricity price exceeds the willingness to pay, the heater switches to its original fuel source (either gas or hydrogen). You can set this willingness to pay in Flexibility → Electricity conversion → Conversion to heat for agriculture.

2022.09

Update of the transition path charts tool

The transition path charts tool has had a significant update. With this tool, you can open one of your scenarios and explore what happens between the start and end year. You can easily make changes to the slider settings for various intermediate years and thereby shape the transition path towards the future.

The update includes an improved interface, various new charts that now allow you to toggle between area and bar charts, a table view underneath the charts and the possibility to easily export data as CSV files. Check out the updated tool here!

Addition of small modular nuclear reactors

A new type of nuclear power plants has been added to the model: small modular reactors. This novel technology is now available next to the existing large reactor 2nd and 3rd generation nuclear power plants. Go to Supply → Electricity → Nuclear plants to add them to your scenario.

Load shifting in the central ICT sector

Load shifting is a form of demand side response where electricity consumers can choose to delay their electricity demand. In hours where the electricity price is deemed too high, these consumers will reduce their demand. When the price drops again, they will then compensate for the accumulated deficit by increasing their demand.

This form of demand-side response was already available for the metal, chemical, and other industry. It is now also available for the central ICT sector, which covers data centers, telecom, and other information and communication services. You can add load shifting for the central ICT under Flexibility → Net load → Demand response - load shifting in industry.