Duration: 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2013
Contact persons: A. Nieße, Thole Klingenberg, J. Knies, U. Vogel

The project addressed the design and prototype implementation of software tools that link municipal planning decision-making processes with a system analysis of the energy supply and simulate their effects. This made it possible to examine the effects of planning decisions and municipal requirements on the energy supply and created the conditions for optimisation. The focus of this project was on the power supply.

To achieve the project goals, municipal planning requirements and objectives were determined and modelled using the example of a defined area. In a further step, the potential for renewable energies was determined with the help of a geographic information system (GIS) and fed into a set of rules. In the next step, this formalised set of rules was coupled with a simulative assessment of the energy supply in order to be able to evaluate the effects of specific decisions (reactive component). This created the basis for being able to make proposals for the organisation of the energy supply in a district, e.g. for the designation of areas for wind energy or biogas plants, in a further expansion stage based on the recorded set of rules.

Building on this work, a methodology will be developed in the longer term with which the energy policy targets at European and national level can be implemented and their effectiveness evaluated in terms of the action and decision-making options available to local authorities.