Local demand reduction by elevating behavioural change for a just energy transition

12. 09. 2023 | 11:30 - 13:00 CET | Online

This webinar will highlight the ongoing challenges as well as innovative practices that are empowering consumers, alleviating challenges in the near-term while enabling long-term decarbonisation strategies. Those interested in consumer-driven energy saving solutions and collaborative behavioural change measures from diverse backgrounds are especially encouraged to register and join this discussion!

Interested? This joint event will be organised online via ZOOM, open to all, no participation fee is applied.

Help us by providing your insight! If we understand what motivates citizens and consumers to make decisions such as changing their heating system, we can design solution that drive the renewable energy transitions faster.

Several research projects joined their forces to assess what makes someone decide on investing in renewable energy and thus become an active participant in the renewable energy transition. We would like to understand how citizens and consumers decide. We count on you who know your community best to provide us insights.

Take your time, grab a coffe and imagine....

Imagine that you are one of these citizens and click below to fill in our survey!

5-6. October 2023 | online

The annual ECEMP conference brings together Europe’s climate and energy modelling community over a three-day period in a forum for deep exchange of research and modelling practice and varied discussions. The event will feature a balanced mix of high-level panel discussions and interactive workshop sessions to enable a peer-reviewed digest of models and policy insights for the transformation of the European energy system. This year, the overarching topic is: Net Zero, intermediate targets, and sectoral decarbonization facing geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.

Skills Workshops Programme will be available soon at the

We know we need to boost energy efficiency in both our new builds and our renovations, but how do we ensure quality while doing so, going over and above minimum standards? How can municipalities best communicate with their citizens on the topic and where should priorities lie in terms of urban planning?

High quality, targeted communication and careful urban planning are key considerations for municipal players looking to retrofit old buildings and develop new areas. This workshop will allow for dynamic exchange for municipal environmental and energy policy makers to come with their experiences, questions and even their current dilemmas. Through a peer consultation process we will have the opportunity to take a deep dive into several challenges brought up by participants and work on potential solutions together!

WHY co-hosts this workshop with the outPHIT project allowing municipal energy planners and urban developers to get first hand advice from the Climate Manager of Maintal and develop potential local solutions boosting the exploitation potential of the Use Case.

WHY Toolkit Libraries

The WHY Toolkit is designed to consider the decisions of the inhabitants of the households/houses influenced by external influences such as policy changes. The Toolkit uses technical information of the building, behavioural data of the inhabitants and intervention scenarios to create load profiles for electrical and thermal consumption and water usage. This report contains a description of the WHY-Toolkit and how it is anchored in the WHY architecture, providing information on the interfaces with the other components within the architecture. Furthermore the different components of the WHY Toolkit are described  and the source code as well as the documentation are referenced. 

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The integration of the WHY Toolkit with the energy models - D5.1

This report includes the definition and the development of the five Use Cases of the WHY project, which capture a wide diversity of contexts from the local to energy community, national, European, and global level. The report provided a detailed definition for the design and development of the Use Cases, based on the soft-linkage of the WHY Toolkit with large-scale Energy System Models (ESMs). It also includes the relevant information needed for the implementation of the scenarios and policy interventions with the WHY Toolkit and the links with large-scale ESMs, focusing on the European and global Use Cases where the use of ESMs was identified as important.

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Online Reference Documentation of the WHY Toolkit - D6.2

The WHY Toolkit can consider the actual living situation, the technical devices (TV, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc.) and the reactions of the inhabitants to external interventions. In case of the WHY-project external interventions are events such as new taxes, funds or technologies or even winning a lottery. Reactions to these events could be the investment into new technologies, refurbishing the building or changing the individual behaviour of the inhabitants.Deliverable D6.2 is a reference document for the Universal Time Series Provider (UTSP). The UTSP works as a distributed job manager for time series generation tools.

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This study provides a quantitative analysis of future energy–climate developments at the global level using two well-established integrated assessment models (IAMs), PROMETHEUS and TIAM-ECN. The research aims to explore the results of these IAMs and identify avenues for improvement to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The study focuses on the effects of varying assumptions for key model drivers, including carbon prices, technology costs, and global energy prices, within the context of stringent decarbonization policies. Diagnostic scenarios are utilized to assess the behavior of the models under varying exogenous assumptions for key drivers, aiming to verify the accuracy and reliability of the models and identify areas for optimization. The findings of this research demonstrate that both PROMETHEUS and TIAM-ECN exhibit similar responses to carbon pricing, with PROMETHEUS being more sensitive to this parameter than TIAM-ECN. 

Sister Project newTRENDS developed its modelling approach and data basis to quantify the contribution of circular buildings to the industry decarbonisation

Why do we need the circular economy for a deep decarbonisation of the industry? What are the legislative actions needed at EU level and how could they be implemented? These are some of the questions this policy brief addresses.

7 projects’ final event in Brussels take place on October 24 -25.

The aim is to provide insights into understanding the future of energy demand and its policy implications through new societal trends, behavioural aspects and multiple benefits. This two-day event, organised by 7 EU-funded projects (Horizon2020) and over 100 organisations partnering in them, is a unique opportunity for many to meet, hear from the research developed in the past 3 years and openly discuss with panels of speakers from within and outside the projects. Key topics related to energy in Europe will be tackled including but not limited to: community energy, energy efficiency, multiple benefits, women-led initiatives, energy behaviour and new trends of energy consumption (digitalisation, circular economy and more).

Blog: How have habits changed amid the energy crisis? Assessing self-reported energy-saving behaviours in Flanders

Energy prices have been a preoccupation for almost everyone that pays an energy bill these past months. Last year, the imec/UGent research group investigated how Flemings adapt their consumption behaviour in times when energy prices and saving strategies are a hot topic in all news channels.  Read about the results in a short blog!

At the expert workshop, co-organised by WHY, experts discussed and explored smart solutions and collaborations among crosscutting sectors, including municipalities, grid system planners, researchers, and commercial actors, to amplify demand flexibility that benefits consumers and the greater energy system.

Experts discussed technical solutions for residential and commercial building flexibility and multilevel energy system optimisation as well as social and regulatory bottlenecks and opportunities for municipalities to alleviate barriers.

WHY is the next step in improving energy demand modelling and predicting household energy consumption. The WHY project develops innovative methodologies and a toolkit for short- and long-term household energy consumption modelling. Use cases benchmark these models ranging from local to European sized energy grids.  All views are our own. The sole responsibility for the content of this Newsletter lies with the authors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.