Energy system analysis is gaining more importance in political decisions, science, and society, thus, the basis of
interpreting the results is increasingly being questioned. Different approaches have been used in energy system
models: Scenario variations, changing base assumptions or sensitivity analyses. A direct comparison of these
approaches aims to show that the influence on the results is comparable for all and thus needs to be considered
alongside each other. Therefore, this paper uses energy system optimisation within a case study on Germany.
It confirms that all approaches greatly influence the results and are thus suitable for discussing uncertainties.
Among other things, the sole change of the reference weather year can have a comparable influence on the
emissions just like the specification of an entirely different mobility scenario (+44% and +56% respectively).
However, the target function (total costs) is significantly more influenced by scenarios. Among the evaluated
parameters, the investment costs of renewable technologies and the potential of renewable feedstock affect
the system the most. In summary, all three methods provide important insights into the optimisation model
and should therefore be used together for validation, discussion and design of energy system models.
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Energy system analysis is gaining more importance in political decisions, science, and society, thus, the basis of
interpreting the results is increasingly being questioned. Different approaches have been used in energy system
models: Scenario variations, changing base assumptions or sensitivity analyses. A direct comparison of these
approaches aims to show that the influence on the results is comparable for all and thus needs to be considered
alongside each other. Therefore, this paper uses...
»