Methodological significance of temporal granularity in energy–economic models—insights from the MARKAL/TIMES framework

Abstract

One of the key attributes that distinguishes bottom-up energy modelling frameworks is the temporal depiction. In any given bottom-up model, the depiction across two dimensions—viz. model time horizon and intra-annual time resolution—has an implicit meaning for the framework and research questions to be answered. There are also tradeoffs between these two temporal dimensions in model design driven by computational resources, solver algorithm capabilities, data availability and methodological limitations. In the TIMES framework, the option to apply a higher intra-annual time resolution offers the potential to generate additional powerful insights into the electricity sector where fluctuations in supply and demand are significant, even though this feature alone is still less suitable for analyzing fully the dynamics of the sector. Nonetheless, the TIMES integrated system approaches offer additional capabilities which are not available in single-sector modeling approaches. This chapter provides a broad overview of temporal features in the MARKAL/TIMES energy modelling framework. The significance in terms of higher time resolution, along with trade-offs and benefits of an integrated system approach are discussed with a set of scenarios from the Swiss TIMES electricity and energy system models.