Integration of country energy system models in a Pan European framework for supporting EU policies

This paper deals with an experience of cooperative research carried out in the context of the EU Sixth Framework Program's Integrated Project NEEDS (2004-2008), and in particular in the research stream 2a "Modelling internalisation strategies including scenario building", co-ordinated by the IMAA - CNR. The main objective of this work is to analyse scenarios with generated partial equilibrium technology rich energy models of 29 countries (EU-25 States plus Iceland, Norway, Romania, Switzerland), integrated into a Pan-European model, capable of analysing the impacts of different policies and price mechanisms, evaluating them also at a technology level both at the country level and from an EU wide perspective. All these models, characterised by a multi-period structure (base-year: 2000, last milestone year: 2050), will include the most important life-cycle emissions, materials, and costs analysed by other NEEDS research streams (LCA and ExternE). This paper describes the current status of the work carried out in the Research Stream 2a, including the basic methodological assumptions.