The International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Format -Basic Concepts and Implementation of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) Method Data Sets

Abstract In the context of its efforts to facilitate environmental sustainability, the European Commission is promoting and supporting the use of life cycle data and tools through its European Platform on LCA. Objectives of this project are to develop the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook as authoritative guidance on LCA, to contribute key European scope quality data sets via the European Reference Life Cycle Database (ELCD) as well as to implement the ILCD Data Network as infrastructure for LCA data, open to all data developers. Both the ELCD database and the ILCD Data Network rely on the ILCD data format as reference format and for data exchange. In the initial release of the ILCD data format, only a draft specification for LCIA method data sets had been included, which has been enhanced and finalized in the meantime, addressing feedback from an earlier public stakeholder consultation process and reflecting insights when documenting the ILCD-recommended LCIA methods. The finalized ILCD method dataset specification is now implemented in software and will enable tools to easily import and apply new LCIA methods documented in the ILCD data format. In this paper, the new LCIA method dataset specification and its corresponding software implementation are presented. The history and idea behind the data format is briefly addressed as well as how the adoption among tools and databases is progressing. The basic structure of the ILCD data format is presented, with the different data set types and their relationships to each other. Then, the structure of the LCIA method data set and its modeling capabilities are explained. Furthermore, technical considerations for tool integration are discussed. Briefly, an exemplary LCIA method instance data set of a draft recommended LCIA method for Europe, foreseen for release by the European Commission's DG JRC, is presented to illustrate the use of the finalized dataset type implementation. Finally, an outlook on future developments is given

Energy Hub Gas: A Modular Setup for the Evaluation of Local Flexibility and Renewable Energy Carriers Provision

The ambitious targets for the reduction of green-house gas (GHG) emissions force the enhanced integration and installation of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). Furthermore, the increased reliance of multiple sectors on electrical energy additionally challenges the electricity grid with high volatility from the demand side. In order to keep the transmission system operation stable and secure, the present approach adds local flexibility into the distribution system using the modular Energy Hub Gas (EHG) concept. For this concept, two different test cases are configured and evaluated. The two configured EHGs demonstrate the ability to provide flexibility and adaptability by reducing the difference between maximal and minimal load in the surrounding grid infrastructure by 30% in certain time periods. Furthermore, the average energy exchange is reduced by 8%. Therefore, by relieving the grid infrastructure in the local surrounding, the additional potential of RES is enabled and curtailment of existing ones can be reduced

Energy Hub Gas : A Multi-Domain System Modelling and Co-Simulation Approach

Coping with the complexity of future energy grids and the rising challenges of the energy transition to more renewable energy sources (RES), an Energy Hub Gas (EHG) concept appears to be a promising approach. This concept combines various technical components to a sector-coupling system network to support the electricity grid with ancillary and balancing services to cope with the fluctuating generation by RES and to provide (renewable) energy carriers. Additionally, the EHG serves as regional gateway and as a converter for large, centralized RES-feed-in and aggregation/distribution hub of local RES-feed-in. For combining several separate models from different domains to an EHG system model, a co-simulation approach is used with high regard on flexibility concerning the modelling aspects as well as high modularity to easily adapt the concept to further use cases. As main results presented in the paper, the coherence of the extended EHG system model and its usability for implementation in co-simulation can be shown in first simulations

openTA-Kalenderdienst – Eckpunkte. Stand: 17.12.2013, Version 1.0

Dieses Dokument beschreibt die Eckpunkte des Konzeptes des openTA-Kalenderdienstes. Der openTA-Kalenderdienst ist Teil des Forschungsvorhabens „Kooperativer Aufbau eines Fachportals Technikfolgenabschätzung“, gefördert durch die DFG, durchgeführt von den KIT-Instituten ITAS, IAI und der Bibliothek

Architectural Concept and Evaluation of a Framework for the Efficient Automation of Computational Scientific Workflows: An Energy Systems Analysis Example

Scientists and engineers involved in the design of complex system solutions use computational workflows for their evaluations. Along with growing system complexity, the complexity of these workflows also increases. Without integration tools, scientists and engineers are often highly concerned with how to integrate software tools and model sets, which hinders their original research or engineering aims. Therefore, a new framework for streamlining the creation and usage of automated computational workflows is introduced in the present article. It uses state-of-the-art technologies for automation (e.g., container-automation) and coordination (e.g., distributed message oriented middleware), and a microservice-based architecture for novel distributed process execution and coordination. It also supports co-simulations as part of larger workflows including additional auxiliary computational tasks, e.g., forecasting or data transformation. Using Apache NiFi, an easy-to-use web interface is provided to create, run and control workflows without the need to be concerned with the underlying computing infrastructure. Initial framework testing via the implementation of a real-world workflow underpins promising performance in the realms of parallelizability, low overheads and reliable coordination

Probabilistic forecasts of the distribution grid state using data-driven forecasts and probabilistic power flow

The uncertainty associated with renewable energies creates challenges in the operation of distribution grids. One way for Distribution System Operators to deal with this is the computation of probabilistic forecasts of the full state of the grid. Recently, probabilistic forecasts have seen increased interest for quantifying the uncertainty of renewable generation and load. However, individual probabilistic forecasts of the state defining variables do not allow the prediction of the probability of joint events, for instance, the probability of two line flows exceeding their limits simultaneously. To overcome the issue of estimating the probability of joint events, we present an approach that combines data-driven probabilistic forecasts (obtained more specifically with quantile regressions) and probabilistic power flow. Moreover, we test the presented method using data from a real-world distribution grid that is part of the Energy Lab 2.0 of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and we implement it within a state-of-the-art computational framework

3D Volume Visualization of Environmental Data in the Web

Part 7: Modelling, Visualization and Decision SupportInternational audienceThe environmental community has an increasing need for visualizations because of the rapidly growing amount of data gathered from various sources e.g. sensors, users and apps. This paper presents a complex visualization for the Web that can be used to get insight into 3D volume data. Volumes like air, lakes and seas are often visualized using 2D slices or one dimensional diagrams that display measured values in a specific point of the volume. To get new insight the 3D volume has to be visualized in 3D. A technique called ray marching, which is known in the computer graphics field in combination with modern web technologies, can be used to create such visualizations for the Web. In addition to the new visualization, this paper also presents the usage of such complex software in a visualization framework created in the same research team. This framework hides the complexity behind user friendly web interfaces that allows one to configure the 3D volume visualization without any programming skills