The TANDEM project is a European initiative funded under the EURATOM program. The project started on September 2022 and has a duration of 36 months. TANDEM stands for Small Modular ReacTor for a European sAfe aNd Decarbonized Energy Mix.Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) can be hybridized with other energy sources, storage systems and energy conversion applications to provide electricity, heat and hydrogen. Hybrid energy systems have the potential to strongly contribute to the energy decarbonization targeting carbon-neutrality in Europe by 2050. However, the integration of nuclear reactors, particularly SMRs, in hybrid energy systems, is a new R&D topic to be investigated. In this context, the TANDEM project aims to develop assessments and tools to facilitate the safe and efficient integration of SMRs into low-carbon hybrid energy systems. An open-source “TANDEM” model library of hybrid system components will be developed in Modelica language which, by coupling, will extend the capabilities of existing tools implemented in the project. The project proposes to specifically address the safety issues of SMRs related to their integration into hybrid energy systems, involving specific interactions between SMRs and the rest of the hybrid systems; new initiating events may have to be considered in the safety approach.TANDEM will study two hybrid systems covering the main trends of the European energy policy and market evolution at 2035's horizon: a district heating network and power supply in a large urban area, and an energy hub serving energy conversion systems, including hydrogen production; the energy hub is inspired from a harbor-like infrastructure. TANDEM will provide assessments on SMR safety, hybrid system operationality and techno-economics. Societal considerations will also be encased by analyzing European citizen engagement in SMR technology safety.The work will result in technical, economic and societal recommendations and policy briefs on the safety of SMRs and their integration into hybrid energy systems for industry, R&D teams, Technical Safety Organizations, regulators, Non-Governmental Organizations and policy makers. The TANDEM consortium will involve 17 partners from 8 European countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ukraine).The TANDEM project has the ambition to become a pioneer initiative in Europe in gathering efforts and expertise around development of SMRs integration into hybrid energy systems. The dissemination and the exploitation of the project outcomes as well as the proposed Education & Training activities shall serve as a basis for a number of new R&D and innovation projects addressing the safety issues of SMRs and their integration into hybrid energy systems.

Many techno-economic studies for the pre-design of local energy systems rely on mathematical programming. This comes with several modelling choices including simplified technological and economical models, temporal and spatial resolutions, or perfect foresight assumptions. On the basis of a single case study with complex decision making due to interdependent time scales, this paper shows the importance of evaluating and comparing the (cross-)impacts of the different modelling choices. The modelling choices tested are the inclusion of flexibility costs and constraints, the use of representative periods, the use of different methods to optimise operational decisions (including various rolling horizon methods), and the consideration of forecasts errors or not. The results illustrate the impact that flexibility costs and constraints can have and how they determine alternative modelling choices. They show under which condition representative periods can be used without introducing strong biases on the results. Finally, different rolling horizon strategies are compared, concluding on the validity of the perfect foresight assumption on the case. Results are discussed in terms of performance, validity, and computation times.

For the optimization of renewable energy systems, uncertainties associated to technical and economic parameters are scarcely taken into account, which may lead to a weak confidence in results. In this paper, we propose and investigate a 4-steps methodology for uncertainty sensitivity assessment, with the objective to improve confidence in the assessment results and to support decision-making process following techno-economic optimization of the design and the operation of an autonomous power system. The methodology is applied to off-grid system including photovoltaic production, battery and hydrogen components (electrolyser, pressure storage and fuel cell). This energy system is modelled and optimized with Odyssey-a simulation software developed by CEA-LITEN since 2010. We focus on static parametrical uncertainties, linked to the energy system parameters.