EMPIRE: An open-source model based on multi-horizon programming for energy transition analyses

Energy and power system models represent important insights on the technical operations of energy technologies that supply the energy consumption in time steps with hourly resolution. This paper presents the European Model for Power system Investments with Renewable Energy (EMPIRE) that combines short-term operations with the representation of long-term planning decisions including infrastructure expansion. The EMPIRE model has an unique mathematical modelling structure based on multi-horizon stochastic programming, which means investment decisions are subject to short-term uncertainty represented by different realizations of operational scenarios. The model is open source and ready to use to analyze energy transition scenarios towards 2050 and beyond. This paper outlines the building blocks of the model and its software structure. We also present an illustrative example of results from using the software.