Open Access

Fernando Peñaherrer, Henrik Wagner, Sarah Fayed, Oliver Werth, Johannes Rolink

• The increasing digital transformation in energy supply systems allows greater control and possibilities for performance optimization and efficiency. This is accompanied by increasing complexity of the system, and thus requires the evaluation of interactions between energy and information and communication technologies (ICT) involved. One of the goals of the project “Zukunftslabor Energie” (Future Laboratory “Digitalization Energy”) is to analyze these interactions in highly integrated digitalized systems for district energy supply. For this, simulation studies must be conducted to configure flexibilities. A first step is to define appropriate analysis scenarios. Requirements for these scenarios, the related models, and one of the considered scenarios are described in this paper. This allows to discuss the system, its boundaries, its components, and their interactions. Future research requires an analysis and discussion of requirement specifications, data collection and treatment, model construction, model implementation, and model validation.