Demand-side flexibility can be incentivised to reduce the need for investment in distribution grids either implicitly or explicitly. Implicit demand-side flexibility is when prosumers react to price signals triggered by network tariffs. Explicit demand-side flexibility is when the DSO can...

This paper explores the price setting of demand-side flexibility, modelled as consumers’ voluntary load reduction, in distribution grids. It develops a long-term equilibrium optimization model with a bi-level setting for voluntary demand-side flexibility. In the Upper Level (UL), the...

If Europe is serious about climate change, it has to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, thereby effectively going to a (near-) zero carbon energy and thus, electricity system. The European Climate Foundation, Eurelectric, and the International Energy Agency have...

In the transition towards a decarbonized energy system, we need city authorities to lead by example as public actors, to govern the actions of the private urban actors as local policy makers, and to conceive and manage the implementation of an integrated approach as coordinators, which we...

The European Commission has recently launched the Smart Cities Initiative to demonstrate and disseminate how to foster a quick transition towards local sustainable energy systems. Within this initiative, the three main challenges faced by pioneering cities, are to reduce or modify the demand for...

This report was produced as part of the THINK project. Cities represent simultaneously a challenge and an opportunity for climate change policy. Chapter 1 introduces the fundamentals of energy in cities, distinguishing between cities as energy systems and energy actors. Cities are the place...