Your Job:
The concept of Local Energy Communities (LECs) — where people, businesses, and local infrastructure share and manage energy collectively — is reshaping how energy is produced and consumed. Recognized by the EU as a cornerstone of the Clean Energy Transition, LECs empower local actors to participate actively in energy markets, support renewables, and enhance system flexibility.
In this PhD project, you will help design, simulate, and optimize these next-generation communities — making clean, local, and intelligent energy systems a practical reality.
Your key responsibilities include:
1. Developing and applying simulation and optimization models to analyze energy flows, operational strategies and design decisions in a multi-energy system (power, gas, heat)
2. Investigating different community configurations (residential, commercial, mixed-use) and their interactions with distribution grids
3. Assessing how renewable integration, storage technologies, and demand flexibility affect system performance
4. Evaluating economic and environmental indicators such as cost, emissions, self-sufficiency, and flexibility under various policy scenarios
5. Analyzing interactions to regional grids (heat) within local energy communities and interfaces to higher-level grids (electricity) for stable operation and effective market participation
6. Supporting case studies with municipal and regional partners to bridge research and real-world application
7. Disseminate your findings through scientific publications, conferences, and collaborations
8. Supervise Bach