Modelling & validation partner for PED Topic 3: planned vs realised multi-carrier flexibility (SNU, eligible for direct funding from KAIA)

WHO WE ARE

Energy-systems modelling group at Seoul National University (Department of Civil, Urban and Environmental Engineering), eligible for funding from KAIA, the Korean funding agency in DUT Call 2026. Background: energy-systems optimisation and storage/sector-coupling models (MIT Energy Initiative, GenX), reliability and resilience of engineered systems (UT Austin), and scientific machine learning with rigorous uncertainty quantification.

THE GAP WE ADDRESS

PED plans assume large flexibility from storage, heat pumps, EV charging and district heating, but delivered flexibility rarely matches the design. Our storage work shows that simplified operational constraints systematically overstate deliverable flexibility (arXiv 2411.07805) - one root cause of this planned-versus-realised gap. PED Topic 3 explicitly asks for "evidence-based comparison of planned versus realised flexibility potential" and for "evidence that local flexibility can ease grid congestion and support local and regional grid operation". That is the slot we want to fill.

WHAT WE OFFER A CONSORTIUM

- Multi-carrier flexibility design: district-scale optimisation that co-designs and schedules electricity, heat/cooling and storage assets under realistic non-linear operating constraints at hourly resolution over a full year (method: Heo, Mallapragada & Macdonald, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 2025).

- Model-fidelity analysis: how much of the flexibility gap is caused by model simplification, physical limits, data access, institutional or user factors.

- Uncertainty-aware validation against measured data: probabilistic spatio-temporal learning for sparse, heterogeneous sensor data with calibrated uncertainty (Bayesian Neural Fields, Applied Ocean Research 2026) - gap-filling of metering data, propagation of weather- and occupancy-driven uncertainty, confidence bounds on the flexibility a district can actually offer.

- Resilience and congestion-relief indicators for PED flexibility, with SNU colleagues in system reliability, linking district results to regional/national balancing (nested with our Korean macro-energy-system model in PyPSA/MacroEnergy, in development).

- A Korean validation district: high-rise collective housing, large summer cooling loads, extensive district heating and binding distribution-grid connection limits in a single-buyer market now being opened by the Distributed Energy Act and the Jeju real-time market pilot - a contrasting context for transferability.

- Interoperability by design: model inputs/outputs follow CityGML Energy ADE 2.0 / OGC conventions so they plug into the coordinator's digital twin.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

A consortium (coordinator with a city or living-lab partner already in place) preparing a PED Topic 3 pre-proposal, where a bounded modelling-and-validation task or work-package segment is open. We do not seek to coordinate or to lead the digital platform, city engagement or demonstrations.

PRACTICALITIES

SNU is eligible for direct funding from KAIA; Korean funding period 24 months (Sept 2027 - Aug 2029), which we reflect in task planning. PIC, PI CV, budget table and partner text available on short notice. Two-page concept note attached

CONTACT

Prof. Taemin Heo, Seoul National University - taeminheo@snu.ac.kr (or via b2match messaging)