Energy Resilience in High-Density Urban Systems

Developing optimisation models for energy and land-use planning for more resilient high-density urban systems

The mix and spatial allocation of infrastructure and its corresponding energy requirements can influence energy supply and power generation planning for a resilient high-density urban system at the national level.

The scientific endeavour of this research module is to develop resilience-optimisation models for planning large-scale energy system under uncertainty, taking into account the impact of land-use and infrastructural changes in the medium to long term. Currently, existing models for energy and land-use planning do not take uncertainty into account explicitly. However, uncertainty is an important consideration in medium to long-term planning for resilience. The models will provide solutions that are not only cost-effective, but also protect the system against uncertainties and potential disruptions, as well as mitigate the negative impacts.     

With state-of-the-art robust and distributionally-robust optimisation techniques, more accurate models can be derived even when information on the nature of the uncertainty is not complete. These models can be integrated with planning platforms such as MARKAL/TIMES to enhance the ability to derive more resilient solutions. Good quality solutions can be identified through cutting plane approaches, while ensuring computational tractability at the same time.