Socio-Technical Modeling in Energy Transition: Coupling of Industrial Energy Management and Energy Technology Development Models

To achieve carbon neutrality, the energy transition is crucial. However, research often focuses on isolated aspects of the energy system, neglecting its complex and interdisciplinary nature. This paper addresses this gap by proposing the coupling of socio-technical models. Specifically, an industrial prosumer energy management model, utilizing model predictive optimization, is connected to an energy technology development model. The coupling model facilitates investment decisions for preferred technologies based on various development scenarios. The proposed model offers a joint solution for investment decision making and energy management operation. It addresses challenges such as different temporal resolutions and different number of agents between social and technical models. The coupling model overcomes these challenges and enables comprehensive purchase decisions as well as facilitates the study of co-evolution processes and battery storage adoption behavior.