MASTER.SO: a model for the analysis of sustainable energy roadmaps. Static optimisation version

Abstract

This paper describes in detail MASTER.SO, a sustainable energy policymaking model, developed in the BP Chair on Energy and Sustainability at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid. It is a bottom-up partial equilibrium static model of energy systems that has been conceived for sustainable energy policy analysis. It strikes a balance between technical accuracy on one side and simplicity and compactness (being easily computable and simple to understand by the user) on the other. For this last purpose, the model´s results are presented by means of Sankey diagrams, a very intuitive representation of energy sysmte.s it is a linerar programming model that satisfies demands for final energy andor energy services (input parameters) while maximising the sustainability of the system. Sustainability is represented through the objetive function, which is conceived as a comprehensive indicator of energy systainability, and includes, for instance, total cost of energy sypply (investment cost, operating costs, imports costs, subsidies, etc) as well as externalities. While supplying demand maximising sustainibility, the model respects the main technical constraints of energy systems, such as energy balances, capacity limatations, and technical reliability conditions, among others. It is programmed in GAMS language, and solved using CPLEX optimizer.