Challenges in top-down and bottom-up soft-linking: Lessons from linking a Swedish energy system model with a CGE model
Journal article, 2017

This paper proposes and discusses a soft-linking procedure between a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model and an energy system model with the aim to improve national energy policy decision-making. Significant positive and negative experiences are communicated. Specifically, the process of soft-linking the EMEC and TIMES-Sweden models is presented, and unlike previous work we rely on the use of multiple direction-specific connection points. Moreover, the proposed soft-linking methodology is applied in the context of a climate policy scenario for Sweden. The results display a partly new description of the Swedish economy, which when soft-linking, generates lower CO2-emissions in the reference scenario due to a decline in industrial energy demand. These findings point at the importance of linking bottom-up and top-down models when assessing national energy and climate policies.

TIMES/MARKAL

Energy system models

CGE models

Climate and energy policy

Soft-linking

Decision-support

Author

Anna Cecilia Krook Riekkola

Luleå University of Technology

Charlotte Berg

National Institute of Economic Research

Erik Ahlgren

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Energy Technology

Patrik Söderholm

Luleå University of Technology

Energy

0360-5442 (ISSN)

Vol. 141 803-817

Subject Categories

Energy Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.energy.2017.09.107

More information

Latest update

2/15/2021