A graph-based formulation for modeling macro-energy systems

Averting the impending harms of climate change requires to replace fossil fuels with renewables as a primary source of energy. Non-electric renewable potential being limited, this implies extending the use of electricity generated from wind and solar beyond the power sector, either by direct electrification or synthetic fuels. Modeling the transformation towards such an energy system is challenging, because it imposes to consider fluctuations of wind and solar and the manifold ways the demand side could adjust to these fluctuations. This paper introduces a graph-based method to formulate energy system models to address these challenges. By organizing sets in rooted trees, two features to facilitate modeling high shares of renewables and sector integration are enabled. First, the method allows the level of temporal and spatial detail to be varied by energy carrier. This enables modeling with a high level of detail and a large scope, while keeping models computationally tractable. Second, the degree to which energy carriers are substitutable when converted, stored, transported, or consumed can be modeled to achieve a detailed but flexible representation of sector integration. An application of the formulation demonstrates that the variation of temporal detail achieves an average reduction in computation time of 70%. •A graph-based formulation for modeling renewable energy-systems is introduced.•The method allows the level of temporal and spatial detail to vary by energy carrier.•The degree to which energy carriers are substitutable can be modeled.