SCCER-SoE - Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research - Supply of Energy
The Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity (SCCER-SoE) relied on the expertise of several Swiss scientific institutions (universities and research centres), industrial companies, and federal agencies.
The aim of the SCCER-SoE was to carry out innovative research in the areas of geo-energy and hydropower to support the development and application of the “Energy Strategy 2050”, a long-term policy which states the Swiss future energy perspectives.
The SCCER-SoE activities were financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Commission for Technology and Innovation.
Visit the external page SCCER-SoE web site for more detailed information on the overall project.
Research topics
Our research contributed to knowledge advancement in the field of climate change impact on hydropower and on methodological approach to investigate its consequences on hydropower system operation.
In particular, we are currently focusing on two main research areas:
- development of high resolution stochastic weather generator
- integrated modelling of hydrological processes and large hydropower system operation
Integrated modelling of hydrological processes and large hydropoweer system operation
We developed an advanced modelling framework for the integrated simulation of the operation of hydropower plants, which accounts for climate-altered streamflow regimes, new demand and market conditions, as well as new boundary conditions for operation (e.g., aquaticecosystem conservation).
The modelling framework allows to answer several challenging questions on the future of Swiss hydropower:
- Are the existing reservoir operating rules suitable to cope with the increase variability and dynamic conditions or will the Swiss energy companies have to substantially revise them?
- Is the effect of the change in the energy market smaller, larger or comparable to the climate change signal?
- How much will any change cost to the Swiss hydropower companies?
Modelling approach
The model consists of two primary components:
- a physically based and spatially distributed hydrological model, which describes the relevant hydrological processes at the basin scale,
- and an optimization based decision model, which describes the behavior of hydropower operators.
This model allows to quantitatively exploring possible trajectories of future evolution of the hydropower systems under the combined effect of climate and socio-economic drivers, which have been developed by other SCCER research partners.
Outreach and publications
- D. Anghileri, A. Castelletti, and P. Burlando. Alpine hydropower in a low carbon economy: Assessing the local implication of global policies. European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 17 – 22 April 2016
- D. Anghileri, F. Giudici, A. Castelletti, and P. Burlando. Advancing reservoir operation description in physically based hydrological models. European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 17 – 22 April 2016
D. Anghileri, M. Botter, A. Castelletti, and P. Burlando. Exploring the impact of co-varying water availability and energy price on productivity and profitability of Alpine hydropower. European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 17 – 22 April 2016 (Download poster (PDF, 4.6 MB))