On 4th & 5th February 2014, Prof Neil Strachan and wholeSEM consortium modelling colleagues from the UCL Energy Institute attended the ETSAP-UCC Workshop on “Methodologies linking energy systems models and economic models”. During the workshop, different approaches were presented on how to couple bottom-up energy system models like TIMES, which provide a technology-rich representation of the energy system, with various types of aggregate, top-down macroeconomic models, which analyse the interactions between the energy system and the rest of the economy. The main focus of the discussion was placed on the motivation, conceptual issues and the mechanics behind such a linking exercise. The various ETSAP country teams will continue to work together with the aim to develop best practice approaches on linking these two types of models. The workshop held at University College Cork was funded by the Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programme (ETSAP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and organized by UCC's Environmental Research Institute under the lead of Dr Brian Ó Gallachóir.

Further information:

• ETSAP website