The energy transition requires a deep transformation of our today’s energy systems. However,
such change cannot take place without a meaningful engagement of all stakeholders that are
affected by this transformation: policy- and decision-makers, energy companies and grid
operators, civil society, academia, and others interested and affected actors.
Energy models can serve as useful tools to inform energy policy- and decision-making. The
EC-funded H2020 project Sustainable Energy Transitions Laboratory (SENTINEL) aims to
develop a new energy system modelling framework, which is based on user needs and openly
available to different users of models and model results.
Work Package 1 of the project is specifically dedicated to the identification and prioritisation of
user needs for energy models. For this, the SENTINEL team conducted a literature review,
interviews, a European online-survey and a user need stakeholder workshop.
This synthesis report presents the results of the workshop “Models for the European Energy
Transition: Your Questions, Your Needs!”, held on the 1st of October 2020. The insights of the
workshop will contribute to the development of new and improvements of existing energy
system models of SENTINEL. Additionally, the findings will support the development of the
SENTINEL platform that will allow a wide range of decision-makers to address their critical
energy system design challenges better.